Your self-censorship is not fooling the algorithm

There is nothing wrong with common words like "shoot" and "kill." Stop censoring yourself.

Social media was supposed to bring about an era of unbridled free speech, and allowed the people to speak truth to power in a way that was unprecedented in human history. Sure, we had the blogosphere before that, but most people were never going to set up a blog. Social media brought free speech to the masses in a way blogs never could. This, of course, is why politicians hate social media. That hatred is much stronger with the legacy news media, which has lost advertising dollars to social media giants.

With this being the case, why are so many people self-censoring their own posts? People will not write "died" or "killed." Instead they write "unalived" or "k*lled." People will not write the word "rape" in relation to a news story about that crime, but will write "r*pe" or "grape." "Sh*ot" has replaced "shoot" and "s*x" has replaced "sex" even when referring to the biological difference between males and females.

Folks, this is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with common words like "shoot" and "kill." Censoring them in your posts makes you look weak and pathetic. You are not "protecting" anyone from being "triggered," because humans are smart enough to know what you mean. If your concern is triggering people, why are you writing about sensitive topics at all on social media?

"We're avoiding the algorithm!" No, you are not. If you think advanced computer algorithms are programmed so poorly that they do not understand "unalived" or "k*lled" means "killed," you are very naïve. In addition, you are not hiding your posts from "the feds" who are allegedly persecuting you. If you were truly that worried about "the feds" keeping tabs on what you say and using it against you, then you would not be posting on social media at all. Neither search algorithms written by feds or federal agents themselves are going to be fooled by you writing the word "m*rder*d."

Furthermore, serious topics require serious language. We should not tiptoe around serious topics with weasel words and censorship. Yes, obviously there are appropriate tones for appropriate audiences, but that is a far cry from censoring everything you say out of fear. We cannot address serious issues unless we use serious language.

Stop being a snowflake. Stop censoring common words because you are squeamish or because you fear "offending" people. Speak plainly, and speak as an adult. Discuss serious topics with serious, plain language. Stop surrendering to the "woke" demand that every single thing be addressed as some sort of euphemism. Even the most prudish people in Victorian England would tell you to lighten up and stop censoring yourself.

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