Censorship, Injustice, And Cowardice

Injustice and cowardice - which often work hand in hand, are two of my biggest peeves, in fact, they are about my only peeves - well, I guess I'll add lying to that - I very much hate liars.

I should know better than to try to participate in internet discussion forums.  I've participated in two of them, and also YouTube, and the results have always been the same - where people will not discuss with me, instead, using every cowardly tactic imaginable to shut me down. I don't use vulgarity, I don't threaten, but I have been called every filthy name in the universe, and have been threatened many, many times.  The contentiousness and aggression I've seen directed at me is enough to choke a dinosaur.  I have had my life threatened, also my wife's, and my son's.  I've pretty much retired from anything social or political, but I thought it would be fun to post at the site I'd been posting at for the past little while, but...

Over the past few weeks, I had been posting in the "Banjo Hangout".  I took part so I could both learn and help.  I'd learned a few valuable bits of information, and offered my experiences to some new and aspiring players.  There were, of course, those who did not like my ideas and beliefs.  The "thread" I'll be talking about started with a novice banjo player who was having a hard time with a certain chord shape, said she was avoiding playing it because it was too difficult, and was asking if there were any "tricks" to use.  A few said, "Practice, practice, practice", and a few said, "Leave this finger off, leave that finger off...".  I said, "Don't be lazy, don't take shortcuts, doing so will never do you any good...".  Well, as always, a couple of them started sniping at me - making it obvious that they, themselves, were the lazy types I was referring to, and were going to defend their laziness to the death.  Apparently, and as always, at least one of them had a personal connection with one or more of the moderators, and as a result, my last post became the target for their magic delete button.  My post was funny, it was an imaginary conversation between me and Mr. Spock.  There was no contentious tone, no vulgarity, no threats of any kind, and no personal attacks, but, as with so many of my posts on the couple of forums I'd been on, it disappeared within a couple of hours, while the other, contentious, personal posts from my detractors remained untouched.  The Banjo forum is a site that has 30,000+ registered members, while only 30 or 40 post there regularly at this time.  It has been posted there that at one time or another, some of the nationally known and respected banjo players posted on the board, but quit soon after because of the smartasses, the contentiousness, the disrespect.  Anyway, when I do post something at a forum of any kind, and the person or persons in charge delete my posts, I will not participate, or even read at that place again - not because I think that will punish any of them, but because I won't post where any person uses their power of the magic delete button to silence me - it's useless and maddening, and I don't need the aggravation.

I do believe that many of the posts on the internet that get deleted are because of legitimate reasons - vulgarity, threats, belligerent postings, and other such behavior, but in this case, I'm speaking of being deleted and banned because of envy, buddyism, favortism, and just plain cowardice.

I have seen with my own eyes, many, many examples of people using cowardly tactics to take down and/or silence another.  I've seen Bill O'Reilly shout over any guest that has a strongly opposing view from his own - he especially has an obvious hatred for anyone who questions 9/11 - folks who are labelled, "Truthers".  I have never heard him allow more than one sentence from any Truther - O'Reilly's barrage beginning with, "You're NUTS, you're a LOON, that is RIDICULOUS...", then off to commercial, after which he will either have dismissed the guest, or will glaringly change the subject.  I watched Scott Roberts get one YouTube account after another - shut down because many people, including the ownership and management of YouTube, did not like his ideas and beliefs.  He has also had many of his own websites shut down - by people threatening the webhosting company.  He has had his and his family's lives threatened endlessly.  While I don't agree with his disdain for Jewish people simply because they are Jewish, I've never heard him threaten anyone, never heard him say that all Jews should be killed (or that ANY Jew should be killed), he simply writes about his own personal experiences with Jewish people.  He should be allowed to do that if he chooses.  I, myself, have been on the receiving end of such cowardice since I was a little kid - from step mom - who did everything she could to discourage me and punish me for doing anything that required any amount of self motivation.  I got it in Little League baseball - my first year being great, the skinny little pitcher with the goofy grin and the rifle arm - second year having to play for a different team - where two of the coaches had their no talent kids on the team, keeping me on the bench the whole time - to make sure nobody would see my arm in action, and then have to answer to people questioning why the coach's son, who was throwing arc balls at the plate was playing every game, while a guy who could actually throw was on the bench.  I had the basketball referees in high school ball - most of whom had a burning hatred for my dad - take out that hatred on me - Mr. Jones' 17 year old son - doing everything they could to punish me.  I had the sports editor of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Jim Hackleman, who also had a burning hatred for my dad (another case of envy because my dad has his own sports magazine), who, in order to get revenge on Mr. Jones, yanked me (the 17 year old kid who earned his spot on the team) off of the All Star Team at the last minute - because Mr. Jones did something that Mr. Hackleman didn't like.  I got it from an evil, mean spirited booking agent - another case of envy - doing everything possible to shut me down.  I got it from countless musicians, thankfully, most of whom did not have the clout to have any real effect, except for a couple of them who did actually cause me great damage and loss.  The ones who didn't succeed, though, certainly did try.  Then there's my own mother, who, the first time I (supposedly) said something she didn't like, disowned me without hesitation, and without even caring to hear what I had to say about it.  This is the same mother who disowned two of her other kids when they were teenagers.

These are just a tiny handful of cowardly acts perpetrated by cowardly people.  I see it everywhere I go - in both my virtual and non virtual life.  In my lifetime, I don't remember any person ever taking me on fairly and/or with any amount of class - they have always resorted to some sneaky, underhanded way of trying to destroy me.  I can hear the conservative thinking smartasses and Pop Psych parrots snickering and cackling right about now, desperately wanting me to believe that all of this is somehow my own fault - or that dirty is fair. First, you conservative and Pop Psych numbskulls - go screw yourselves, and second, yeah, I brought this on since I was 8 years old.

Well, I'm getting ready to make a major geograhical move, I'm very much looking forward to it.  I look forward to cleaner air, a more healthy music scene, less angry people, and hopefully no stalkers.  And Fid, would ya please stay off of internet discussion forums and blogs - they are not worth the trouble :D .