Posting opinions and self-censorship

I have thinking about posting opinions publicly on Facebook or wherever a lot lately. The fact that I keep returning to this idea means that it is something that bothers me. A bit of background about myself. I was very shy as a kid and a teenager. So much so that I remember having a hard time ordering food at a fast food restaurant because I would get anxious to talk to the cashier. What if I didn’t know the answer to the question they asked, what if I order the food wrong and they get upset? It seems silly now to think about that but those questions actually went through my mind. As I grew older and was forced to talk to people for my job at Target or to get the things I wanted I became more and more comfortable with myself. I spent a lot of time reading books on how to talk to girls (as a young man that was pretty much on my mind all the time) and experience doing interviews at Target I learned a few things.

One that most people are just as self-absorbed as I was, meaning that the minor interaction that I built up in my mind as a huge deal, would not be remembered 5 minutes after the interaction happened. Two that people were just as worried about how other people saw them as I was. Three, life goes on, even if you make a fool of yourself, you learn from your mistakes and become better (so what if a girl shoots you down, there are 5 more girls right over there, every no is just one step closer to a yes. I am now married to the most amazing woman ever so it really does work).

So how does this tie in with posting or saying opinions publicly? The same anxiousness I felt as a teenager ordering food from a cashier is the same anxiousness I feel when posting things on Facebook. What if my friends don’t like my point of view and laugh at me about it? What if they retort what I am saying and I don’t have an answer for them and I look foolish? Very real concerns in our current social and political climate.

Listening to Professor Jordan Peterson, he said something to the effect of (talking about how to combat social justice/political correctness in the college classroom) you can either stand up and say what you think is true or stay silent and let it corrupt your soul (read soul as consciousness). He also followed it up with you better have your arguments in order and believe what you are saying and stand behind what you say, because that is how you will educate yourself (not an exact quote but here is a link to the video I was watching https://youtu.be/pa8po_9anHU). It is okay to stand up and say what you believe is true, someone will come along and tell you that you are wrong and if you are wrong or can’t think of an argument to refute them go and think about it. Maybe you are wrong, or maybe you just don’t know enough yet.

My opinion on posting publicly has changed a little bit since the last time I wrote about it. I think that not saying your opinion when you want to is a form of self-censorship. It is easier to go along to get along and to keep your mouth shut. Yet self-censorship is just as bad as external censorship. Both force you to keep something bottled up inside until it comes out in a different way (violence, passive aggression, addiction or any number of ways). Why should we be afraid to say what we think just because people will call us names and socially shame us (or at least attempt to)? Biologically we have a drive to not upset the group because in our past being exiled from the group would mean less chance for survival. You can even see a modern parallel to that today with people being fired because they think differently from the group or post something on Twitter that someone finds offensive. I can understand the reason for wanting to keep the calm and live a life in peace. Yet I keep thinking, at some point I will be in the crosshairs and want someone to stand up for me but if I don’t stand up for others there will be no one left to stand with me.

I am not saying you need to post nothing but political stuff on Facebook. In fact that can get a bit annoying at times. Instead I am saying you should feel free to express your point of view, who knows, your point of view may be right. You’ll never know though until you express it and have to stand behind that point of view. Instead, what I am saying is don’t be afraid to say what you are thinking. If someone posts something and you disagree or think they are wrong and want to say something, than say something. Don’t be afraid of your freedom of speech, censorship is what social justice warriors want, they don’t care if it is self-imposed or they have to physically impose it (and they have and will). So get your ideas in order, learn to express them intelligently, and be ready to stand behind them.