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The Big [Censored] Theory

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Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#131

Post by autoexec »

goto11 wrote: post #80
jrm4 wrote: post #3

I find that it's always interesting to THEN consider, okay -- while there's no centralized board or anything -- what does e.g. American censorship go after?

The American way is voluntary self-censorship for commercial purposes. This makes it much harder to say what exactly is allowed and not, because it is easy to see what scenes have been cut from a show but it is impossible to say what scenes was never written or produced. Even blatant censorship like the Hayes Code or the Comics Code was never enforced by the government and therefore never in conflict with the 5th ame…

> The American way is voluntary self-censorship for commercial purposes.

The US government hasn't been able to resist censorship entirely. Comedians have been arrested for "obscenity". The FCC will happily go after certain violations in TV and radio. The US government has also censored news broadcasts and journalists.

Bush in particular was very aggressive in censoring the news coverage of his war. Most notably, the flag-draped coffins of dead American soldiers were banned from TV news. During the Regan administration the Justice Department also briefly banned the Canadian film "If You Love This Planet" for being "foreign political propaganda".

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#132

Post by briantakita »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

It's really interesting that such a bland, un-subversive show whose only mentions of sensitive topics are in bad throwaway jokes is so heavily censored. I guess a more interesting show would just not get aired at all.

China has a policy against feminizing men...so it's possible that the government sees the show as being a bad influence. The Chinese government probably also wants Chinese, not western, women to be seen as sexy.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#133

Post by joshstrange »

didgetmaster wrote: post #64
chabons wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That percentage will depend heavily on the show. The Big Bang Theory is fairly innocuous. Imagine trying to censor dramas like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, or House of Cards to remove all of the depictions of sex, drugs, or political commentary.

I remember watching a standup comedy show by either Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor a long time ago that was heavily censored. There were so many bleeps in the program that you could barely follow it. It was similar to the recent heavily-redacted FBI affidavit that was released and where every other sentence seems to be blacked out.

You do realize those are in no way whatsoever related and are due to 2 completely different sets of circumstances?

One is a private company (either first or third-party) offering a censored version of a piece of media and the other is the government redacting things from a document that would normally not be released at all (at this stage) and the redactions were specifically done to prevent witnesses tampering or similar tactics by the accused.

To call those "similar" is just absurd.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#135

Post by politician »

paxys wrote: post #121
politician wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the scale of the demographic collapse in China -- the over-reporting of girls by 100M, the situation where 20M men have no chance of the possibility of having a stable heterosexual relationship due to the lack of women, the rapidly aging population (highest in the world) that is post child bearing age -- doesn't it begin to seem reasonable the steps that the government is taking to curtail and shape public opin…

The Communist Party is the reason China is in this mess in the first place, and further control and oppression by them isn't going to magically fix it.

That's a fair observation. I'm curious though, do you have any ideas to improve the situation? What would you do if you were responsible for 1.5B people and were facing a situation where the labor force participation drops by half over the next ten years and continues to drop every year since? Will you be able to arrange for the population to be able to be fed, clothed, housed, and given medical care?

It's not possible to "magically" create several hundred million young people, communism or no, to "fix it". So what do you do?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#138

Post by briantakita »

function_seven wrote: post #115
commandlinefan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> such a bland, un-subversive show ... is so heavily censored American censorship is honestly no better, it's just that the show was written with the specifics of American censorship in mind.

Bullshit. Sorry, this "we're the same" retort is exhausting. The United States government does not employ censors to remove portions of shows before allowing them to air (or stream, whatever). The closest thing I can think of is DoD not giving access to a movie unless it paints Navy pilots in a certain light. Okay, fine. Not nearly the same as what this site is showing us. Yes, we have cultural taboos, like any cultu…

Not Bullshit. If the Government & Corporations care so much about others censoring, they should lead by example. Lectures by hypocrites will otherwise be ignored...even if the censorship that you may like is categorized as being justified by you. If you don't like China's censorship policies, then appeal to China's sensibilities as their censorship is categorized as justified by them. Otherwise, the Chinese government will simply point out that lectures from hypocrites have no bearing.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#139

Post by joshstrange »

ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

That was my first thought as well. Those skips would drive me crazy and would send me searching for the "raw" episodes. Wanting to know what was said would only be a part of the issue, the other would be how jarring it is and how you never know if it was a censored clip or if the media "skipped".

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#140

Post by jrm4 »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #101
jrm4 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your second sentence is absolutely correct, the others are not. Easy example: compare the Marvel "Civil War" comics to the movies. The former was critical of the military in a way that could not happen in any big blockbuster movie.

What? Plenty of movies are super critical of the military and the 3 letter agencies in tons of ways, heck there is a whole genre out there about Government military agent realizes he's doing bad things and goes rogue to correct those misdeeds. Then you've got things like Full Metal Jacket, which I don't think is getting anyone to sign up for the forces. Like Top Gun did well recently, but is one of the only movies I…

I don't think so. I think it's in tons of ways except those that would really call into question the whole thing. Which is to say -- I think that to the extent that "the Military" controls its image, it's smart enough to include just enough problematic stuff.

So the ones that seem "anti-Military" are really "anti-traitors-in-the-Military," and/or the healthy kind of self-criticism.

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