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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'

#101

Post by colechristensen »

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.

It has also been hundreds of years of Western history since the intellectual class was driving this "punishment", and that was when religion and education were tightly linked.

The problem isn't that ideologues are new, it is that ideology has seeped into the highest levels of education and culture. You have people across the spectrum of disciplines and stances afraid to contradict the received knowledge of the masses (or one of usually two sects).

This hasn't been the case for a LONG TIME.

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

#103

Post by aparsons »

imwillofficial wrote: post #19

We live in an era in the western world which feels like pilgrim censorship with a new set of taboos, as opposed to an extremely tolerant love filled utopia we were promised. I want my love filled utopia dammit!

And you know what's the cherry on the sundae?

A certain sect of people who signal/preach love and equity the loudest - almost always preach it in a 'for thou, not for me' sense. I had coworkers who would live in the whitest neighborhoods, fighting against lower-income housing near their homes, voting for the tallest of fences, and then they come into work and scoff at how X is a Trumpie because of one thing they said, and Y's team isn't hiring enough diverse candidates.

I chose to separate myself from having any stake in the outcomes (I am retired, with enough of nest egg to live comfortably regardless of political zeitgeist) and this game that is being played is extremely entertaining to watch.

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

#104

Post by threwawasy1228 »

aaomidi wrote: post #30

I am quite interested that people worry cancel culture is preventing intellectual progress more than copyright. Copyright, patents, and other forms of intellectual property have an absolute legal stranglehold on whatever you're trying to do. "Cancel culture", which honestly I've never felt like has limited me, just puts peer pressure on people. Why is the outrage towards IP not as strong as it is towards cancel cultu…

One is a legal framework with rules that govern how it is applied, even if you don't like that framework you can understand it. Cancel culture on the other hand does not have a specific set of rules. It is constantly changing and unevenly enforced by random people. When things are wildly unpredictable there is fear.

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

#105

Post by DanBC »

missedthecue wrote: post #75
techer wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> But he wasn't public about his identity prior to this,

I don't understand how people make this claim when had given out most of his real name, his profession, his state, and the kind of work he did.

Finding SSC from his real name was easy, and finding his real name from SSC was easy.

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

#106

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

Animats wrote: post #78

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.

I am going to channel George Carlin and add the incoming rape victim >> unwilling sperm recipient.

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

#107

Post by fallingknife »

secondcoming wrote: post #38
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…

The easiest way to confront cancel culture is to embrace it and try to get everything cancelled for the most minor of reasons. Hopefully, people will just get fed up and ignore it. The hardest part will be to stop companies bowing to the twitter mob for fear of bad publicity. Also, twitter needs to go. Humans can't handle it.

These things go in and out of the news cycle so fast that I'm surprised companies care anymore. If they just ignored the mob, the list of "cancelled" companies would quickly grow so long that nobody could even keep track.

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

#109

Post by tziki »

I've been wondering how much cancel culture is affecting journalism right now. The way it affects won't be clear since it seems stating that you're self censoring due to cancel culture makes you a target of said culture. Also, I imagine for journalists it's not easy to admit to self censoring. Confronting cancel culture is a big risk to take.

But how would you measure the effects of it? As a (mainly) reader, I have no clue if the writer omitted something due to their fear. Hell, the writer might not realize it.

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

#110

Post by caseysoftware »

sushisource wrote: post #42
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…

Eh, I don't think it's here to stay. The political correctness pendulum swings back and forth every 10-20 years it seems to me, the last time it was on the watch-what-you-say spectrum felt like the mid-90s. That said, this feels way, way more extreme than it was then. I'm maybe less worried that it's here to stay than I am worried that the swings are getting more and more extreme

If you haven't seen it, check out the movie PCU. It's from 1994 or so but could be written today.. it couldn't be made though.
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