Preemptive censorship Conclusion

As we can see from the first part of this story, to be comprehensive in the description of the variety of ways people can choose to be wrong in their assessment of what is true and reasonable is really difficult.

In this case, what started as a study of real life quasi-belief in a historical pseudo-science is very strong. The adherents feel no necessity for consistency. In the same breath, they can contradict themselves and defend the value of the contradictions.

The absolute totality of their illogic is lost even on otherwise normally intelligent people, representative of three or four major industrial cultures, in which "formal" education is widespread. This is certainly an indictment of the educational processes of the UK, the USA, and Canada. What is most shocking is how tenaciously this group clung to their notions in the face of logic and reason.

One could easily argue that I too am a product of this industrial institutional education, but that is not really a valid observation. The truth is, since I began leaving home with considerable regularity, beginning at the age of twelve, my exposure to the classrooms was quite abbreviated. I do not mean to suggest that I was unaffected by the pervasive propaganda of mid century America, but I had a much greater opportunity to examine what was happening without the unremitting guidance of a not very astute teacher population and the troubling national educational system which governs them.

The conversation in the thread ultimately got off astrology, going seamlessly to the relative merits of religious factions. I did my best to turn to an important subject, ongoing present day genocide. The owner of the forum decided to padlock the conversation.

One of the members asked where is my holiday joy. It is apparently not appropriate to speak of ongoing genocides during this celebration of the birth of a man who advocated love and mercy. I really think this played a part in the action of the forum owner in locking the thread. I can't call it a decision because that implies deep consideration of the issues. I have not seen any evidence of that. I believe it was more of a knee-jerk reaction.

In a couple of years of following this forum pretty closely, I frankly cannot summon to mind a single thing that he has said that seemed to stand out with importance. He seems to be an administrator, nothing more. I once dropped him a note saying that I was interested in discussing cancer from a different perspective, but that I had no wish to start any brush fires with any extremists. I was soliciting his input. He never answered.

I believe he did a good thing in starting the forum. I believe the forum would be considerably better without the chilling and arbitrary preemptive censorship. I have not lost hope for the group, but it is very, very difficult for me to continue my active participation.

In terms of numbers of people on at the same time, the forum substantially broke their previous record in viewership. By substantially, I mean they got a jump of a couple hundred more that their previous numbers. The record was broken by about thirty percent at a point in time when I was posting at a high volume.

One of the moderators, for whom I have respect and friendly feelings, dropped me a note saying she had previously also said some cautionary things about drinking colloidal silver "health food" liquids. I had previously been unaware of it. I am glad I was not the only one to attack the use of colloidal silver in the diet. I have no way of knowing exactly what she said without reviewing thousands of her posts. I doubt she was as vigorous about it as I was.

I have recommended this forum to a great many people. While my enthusiasm has been damped for the above mentioned reasons, I still believe they serve an important function. I wish them well and will continue to support their positive efforts to help people with skin problems to help themselves collectively, even as I oppose arbitrary censorship when it appears. While I doubt very much that I will be adding my own input to the mix with any frequency in the future, I will still be reading and responding to my mail, and those who have found my comments to be of interest there may still find my comments here.