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Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

bbc.com

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Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#71

Post by icelancer »

standardUser wrote: post #27
bitcharmer wrote: post #5

It's really sad that in the age of unrestricted access to information public discourse is self-restricting to avoid wrong-think and dissenting opinions. If you look at the history of intellectual progress, much of it was exactly due to unpopular opinions. Now by having one you're risking your entire career and sometimes more. This is truly the dark age of the information era.

There is no era of Western history where unpopular opinions were more acceptable than today. In the past, dissenting opinions voiced loudly were often punished by blacklisting or excommunication or prison or death. Now, you get yelled at on Twitter and some companies won't work with you.

Two decades ago it was a lot safer, so, yeah.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#72

Post by [deleted] »

_-david-_ wrote: post #36
A12-B wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really think no one is allowed to say anything controversial anymore. Plenty of national newspapers are willing to give people front-page editorials to say things that are not mainstream. That's hardly a dark age.

>Plenty of national newspapers are willing to give people front-page editorials to say things that are not mainstream. Do you have some examples?

[deleted]

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#73

Post by jpxw »

silicon2401 wrote: post #29
bitcharmer wrote: post #5

It's really sad that in the age of unrestricted access to information public discourse is self-restricting to avoid wrong-think and dissenting opinions. If you look at the history of intellectual progress, much of it was exactly due to unpopular opinions. Now by having one you're risking your entire career and sometimes more. This is truly the dark age of the information era.

Everything rises and falls. Even in the west we've had the inquisition, the Stasi in the DDR, McCarthyism in the US. Hopefully the modern trend towards censorship and rightthink will encourage the future generations to appreciate freedom of speech and ideas

The worrying thing, to me, is that it’s the young who are pushing this. Previously it was old conservatives, who were on the way out anyway. It’s different now.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#74

Post by heterodoxxed »

bitcharmer wrote: post #5

It's really sad that in the age of unrestricted access to information public discourse is self-restricting to avoid wrong-think and dissenting opinions. If you look at the history of intellectual progress, much of it was exactly due to unpopular opinions. Now by having one you're risking your entire career and sometimes more. This is truly the dark age of the information era.

| This is truly the dark age of the information era.

This is nonsense. Losing your audience has always been a concern for authors and it is easier to get an audience now than it has ever been.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#75

Post by missedthecue »

techer wrote: post #43
modzu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

until the NYT outs you, see for example what happened with the slate star codex: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/statement-on-new-york-...

He was known before

It took effort to find him, and it was possible. But he wasn't public about his identity prior to this, and in fact was making a deliberate effort to mask it.

just because someone with a lot of time on their hands could technically have found his real name does not conflict with the parent's point.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#76

Post by tstrimple »

c06n wrote: post #55
standardUser wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no era of Western history where unpopular opinions were more acceptable than today. In the past, dissenting opinions voiced loudly were often punished by blacklisting or excommunication or prison or death. Now, you get yelled at on Twitter and some companies won't work with you.

And fired from your job. And yelled at on the street. And prevented from working in your field ever again. And death threats. So, blacklisting: check. Excommunication: check. I'd rather not wait till it goes down further.

Who (apart from Colin Kaepernick) has been prevented from working in their field ever again?

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#77

Post by throw10123213 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #14

I genuinely wonder what cancel culture is going to look like in the next 5-10 years and beyond. Just about everyone I speak to about the subject agrees that cancel culture is bad but very few people seem willing to confront it. I sense that people hope the rest of society will come to its senses and we all stop being so judgemental. But as much as I loathe cancel culture and it's chilling effects on the free exchange…

Communism was also like this. People has the public persona, the party tasks, things they had to do and say.

Then they went home and listened to Radio Free Europe and talked with select people what they really had on their mind or used coded language to transmit messages.

What I hope this achieves is a parallel society and when it's big enough there will be some public battles.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#78

Post by Animats »

We're approaching Orwell's "Newspeak".

- Idiot -> retarded -> special needs

- Negro -> colored -> Black

- Queer -> gay -> LGBTQ

- Indian -> Amerind -> native american

- Illegal immigrant -> undocumented worker

- fat -> plus size

- He/she -> they (singular)

- bum -> homeless

Using the words in the left column can get you and your writing attacked.

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#79

Post by [deleted] »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #54
_-david-_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Plenty of national newspapers are willing to give people front-page editorials to say things that are not mainstream. Do you have some examples?

I have a counter example, just look at the debacle when the New York Times published an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton and the editorial page editor had to resign because of the outrage about its content: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/07/nyt-opinion-bennet-...

[deleted]

Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'

#80

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

Can you really blame authors? Anything that is even mildly controversial can easily result in effectively being banned from participating on various platforms. More recent example of this weird feedback loop is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Sexually_Identify_as_an_Atta...

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