My last blog went out on the 12th of January. It has been exactly a month now, as I start writing this blog.
I was travelling to the US towards the end of January and did not want to post anything fresh that would result in my deportation. At the time, the hottest thing in the news was the ICE raids in Minneapolis.
The other piece I had written was about the most anti-semite nation in the world - Israel.
I chose to keep my mouth shut.
My choice was not irrational either. I knew an American citizen, who just happened to be brown, who was stopped at immigration and had their phones and laptops checked by the officials.
Censor ~ officially examine (writing, artistic work, etc.) and suppress or remove any parts that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security
Censor is a word derived from the Latin word Cēnsēre, which means to appraise or to judge. But when that appraisal is done in the context of political acceptability, one is already on a slippery slope.
During the Nuremberg Trials, the reasoning offered by the Nazis for their actions was - it was the right thing to do at the time. Joseph Goebbels ran propaganda for Hitler the way he did because otherwise, he would have been fired.
It was the “politically acceptable” thing to do.
Pam Bondi is defending the people named in the Epstein files the way she does because otherwise, she might be fired.
Across the world, the state reserves the monopoly on violence. They inflict that violence through the police. The system that controls that violence determines behaviour. When that control slips into the hands of one all objectivity is lost. Polical acceptance becomes a proxy for self-preservation.
Not every German was a Nazi, every German did what was politically acceptable.
Doing the politically acceptable thing results in self-censorship. That kind of censorship enables the few at the top.
Always liked the way frame a sentence. I would pick one every time. This time, it's about the monopoly of the state and violence.