How Self-Censored are You?

tarazkp(86)

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I haven't run a Poll for a very long time, but I thought I would do one to kick off Friday and as the question,

How Censored are You?

There are a lot of discussions around censorship, especially on Hive in terms of downvotes But in a general sense, I believe that most of us censor ourselves quite heavily. Some people will of course say they never self-censor, to which I call bullshit - but to "each their own" fantasy. We censor when we fear the repercussions of saying what we think, or saying what we think and making a mess of it. We bite our tongue when we think we might hurt someone or, feel that we will face consequences we don't want to face. We censor when we feel we will lose and we will censor when we want to maintain someone's expectations of us, but what we will say undermines it.

We are very self-censored.

Most of the time though, I think it is self-centred reasons that cause us to censor, where we are trying to protect ourselves from perceived harms. Some of them might be realistic concerns, but many might by more ego based, where what would get harmed is our perception of ourselves. And in a way, self-censorship is a lie, isn't it? Like a parent not telling a child about their own young experiences, because they don't want their child to do the same, or they don't want their child to know that their parent didn't always act well either.

In general, I censor the way I speak also, but I don't censor what I speak about. In my opinion, there are no taboo topics and I think that we should especially spend time talking about the things that cause the most challenge to us as individuals, as well as a society. The rule of no talk about sex, money, religion, politics etc - what a fucking load of crap that is. Talk about the things we struggle with and get as much information and clarity as possible, so that we can make decisions from a stronger position.

Talk, talk, talk.

But, I also think that many of us these days don't have many people or anyone to talk to about much at all. Even people in strong relationships likely don't feel they can talk to their partner about everything. And there are people who are so censored on some topics that they won't even do an internet search to build clarity. Kind of silly, right?

So let's see. Below there is a Poll, but perhaps in the comments section we can have some discussions about the kinds of topics people want to talk about, but don't.

Note:

You can vote twice, one for how often, and one for who with.