Those of you who caught my Fuck You post very early this morning saw an additional photo that was later removed by WordPress, presumably because someone found it offensive. It was a photo of a B-2 Stealth bomber dropping a load of bombs, with the caption, “Die, Motherfuckers.” I had the photo next to the paragraph about cancer—I put it in that spot deliberately. Someone obviously didn’t like it.
I’ve read the WP Terms of Service, and it says that as WP users we agree that “the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party…”
Following this logic, what exactly is inappropriate about that photo? Is it really hate content? Surely nobody thinks that my photo is threatening or inciting readers to steal a bomber and drop a few payloads on innocent people. Yes, we are all aware of the shooting that took place in Connecticut. It’s awful and tragic. But are we so dainty that we can’t use violent or evocative images? And in a different context? There’s nothing funny about bombs or war, and I think we all understand that. Look at the photo without the caption:
Is it offensive? Some might think so. But I doubt it’s a problem on its own. But if I add the words “Die, Motherfuckers” to the photo, it’s suddenly an item to be censored. Never mind that anyone reading my post would understand the context. Never mind that anyone who’s ever read my blog—certainly anyone who has ever read one of my Fuck You rants—knows where I’m coming from.
In any case, it’s censorship. Plain and simple. Fuck censorship.
Blog readers tend to be smart people. If they don’t like something in a post, they don’t have to read it. They are also well within their rights to comment and say, “Madame Weebles, that photo was really over the top.” Is that not sufficient?
So, to the person at WordPress who removed my photo (and they don’t notify you, by the way—the photo just disappears), thanks so much for giving me another subject to rant about. I know you’ve removed photos from other blogs too. Hell, I guess I should be thankful you haven’t censored entire posts of mine, given the screeds I’m prone to writing. But perhaps you should amend the Terms of Service to say, “Do not post images or content that could be considered offensive to any person, in any way, shape or form.”
Fuck censorship, man.
Fuck censorship, but you’re da bomb, Weebs.
I knew you’d appreciate and understand, my journalist friend!
You know it!
I hate censorship too. People don’t understand that free speech is meaningless if you add even one constraint.
Yeah, but is wp a bastion of free speech?
You’re right. They’ve made no official commitment to protect free speech. But it’s a forum for expression. It’s bad form for them to censor bloggers.
Hi Bharat!! EXACTLY.
In a world where a woman can successfully sue mcdonalds for having the gall to sell her hot coffee, it’s not surprising WP has a stringent policy to protect themselves.
That being said, I kind of like the challenge of having to be creative in my anti-establishment tendencies.
Oh, I’m sure WP is protecting itself, but they even don’t mention any of these things in their policies. Their Terms of Service are so vague as to be completely useless. I accept, as a WP user, that I don’t have *complete* freedom here, but their content control is erratic and unbalanced across the board. BAH, I say.
It is inappropriate that some people do not read posts further than their Reader shows them to them (and report content). That’s my take on what happened anyway.
CONTEXT, people, CONTEXT!
You nailed it, TAE. That’s a huge part of the problem, I’m sure—people have a kneejerk response to things without investigating further.
Yeah…If 10% of your “followership” actually read our posts, it’s a lot. That’s my impression anyway.
Weebs,
It’s sad and disappointing. When I first joined WordPress, I stumbled upon a group promoting Nazi-sympathizers. There were homophobic and xenophobic comments, but as it did not promote violence, when I did denounce the group to WordPress, I got this message:
“As per our Terms of Service, this blog does not incite to violence. Everyone has the right to free speech. This could be an opportunity to blog about it”… or something like this.
This group had many anti-gay messages, extremely hurtful comments, but they were allowed to exist on WP because the blog did not promote violence. Of course, I did not blog about them as I did not want to give visibility to such a hateful group.
A site celebrating Hitler, the swastika, and homophobic content can find a place here, but a picture like yours, in an editorial piece like yours being removed is truly sad, and surprising.
Le Clown
Truly sad to say the least, my Magnificent™ friend. Obviously WP has very strange criteria for what constitutes Free Speech these days.
Fuck yeah! This isn’t f*ing facebook, it’s a site for adults.
If you’re easily offended Fuck off to the playschool website, or cbeebies, you sanctimonious, pompous, stuck-up fuck-witted, glee stealing shit-piece!!
…
I tried to keep that clean – in the interests of censorship
Fuck yeah, Panda! Preach it! Fuckin’ preach it!
Your first post made me happy. This one depresses me a little.
Go get ‘em, Weebles!
It depressed me a little too. Sigh.
Go! You got bawlz!
Thanks lady!
i SPPEELLEKJED it in non-offensive manner ….
Cheers to your rebuttal!
Most appreciated, Frank!
Agreed. That is all.
Bless you, Becca.
It IS offensive, dear Madame, not just a photo of bombs being dropped but of the actions that are recorded in that photo, actions that seem to be applauded “for the good of the country.” “Die, Motherfuckers” aimed at cancer cells seems appropriate and laudable to me. And my brain is not too lame yet to make the connection you were alluding to.
Thanks for continuing to speak up! xoxoM
Totally agree, Margarita. Bombers and bombs are designed for one purpose—to destroy people and things. And the actions “for the good of the country” are offensive as well. Is a photo of such a thing worth censoring? I think not. Thank you so much for this comment!
“blog readers tend to be smart people”… perhaps this is entirely true in your world, my dear. but if you do this long enough, you shall encounter StoopidTroll. they are everywhere…
as for the photo? um… pretty sure that anytime a military aircraft drops bombs the intent is for someone(s) to die.
That’s true, you’ve been blogging way longer than I have, you’ve probably encountered many StoopidTrolls. And absolutely, bombers and bombs are specifically meant to do one thing, and one thing only—to cause death and destruction. Totally get that. But I don’t believe a photo of a bomber with a controversial caption should be censored—in itself, or as a way of representing something else, offensive or not.
completely agree! in my mind, the words “die, motherfuckers!” is simply stating the obvious. censorship is pointless in this, and virtually every other, situation!
Geez Perhaps you should have used a picture of bows and arrows??
Hi Mary! Good to see you! And right? Would the bows and arrows have been better? Unbelievable.
It sounds like that whoever saw the pic and complained didn’t read your article to go with it. Shame. People are so fast to jump to conclusions instead of being rational. Being a cancer survivor I second your thoughts though with picture and all!
You’re absolutely right, Jackie. And here’s to you and survivorship!
Thank you!
Fuck censorship and fuck cancer.
They jumped on that fast though. I get your posts via email, and that picture was not even in the email? Is it an automated filter or something?
I love you and I love your posts. I do not, however, love censorship. Change the fucking station if you don’t like something. Geez.
I have no idea, Christy. It baffles me. And I love you right back!
Perhaps they LIKE cancer, Weebs. Some folks do, you know.
I hadn’t thought of that, Elyse. There’s a fetish for everything, so it stands to reason that there could be some sick fucks out there who like that sort of thing…
And I say FUCK THEM.
It’s been some years since I studied the language, but perhaps it was just a problem of gender agreement. Run it captioned “Das, Motherfuckers” and “Der, Motherfuckers,” and see if anyone complains.
…but on a more serious note; really? REALLY?! Gosh, someone should warn the BBC, which ran an article about “trojan horse” cells attacking cancer; that’s inciting to both violence and sneakiness.
You just don’t see a lot of good jokes about German grammar anymore, ravensmarch—it makes me sad. I mean, I thought “Die” was the plural, but obviously the WP people know the language better than I do. And to your point, I agree—REALLY?? And I know the article you’re referring to about the “trojan horse” cancer medications… oooooh, subversive, we’re encouraging people to sneak in and attack! The horror!!!
Wow, Weebs. this blows my mind! And, they just remove it and don’t tell you? That’s crap. You think they would at least have a discussion about it. I’m sorry, Weebs. I support you.
I know, it’s ridiculous! Thanks, Amy, you’re the best.
I honestly had no idea WordPress did this kind of thing. Almost everyone uses third party photos, but since we’re not making any money on it, there should be no copyright infringement. Also, I’ve seen some nasty photos on WP, so to be offended by an airplane and a caption is absurd. There will never be a headline: “A group of cancer cells were killed today after several WP readers were incited toward maniacal tendencies due to a caption.”
Maybe we’re made of tougher stuff than some other readers out there, calahan. I didn’t swoon or faint at the idea of that photo, did you? Although it sure would be nice if cancer cells could be killed that easily.
I’m guessing it was someone’s gut response to the shootings, in all honesty.
Madame Weebles,
I thought this incident merited its own special secular XMAS card.
Le Clown
Love that ^^
Magfuckingnificent, you awesome motherfucker.
So friggin stupid. I see raunchy sexual content on here all the time. That is just silly. Post like this (don’t click unless you want to see a giant penis) http://closetedteacher.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/lust/ Technically in the actual post it is a tiny photo but in the feed (tag break-up) it is a huge photo. His thing goes up to his belly button.
So your picture was redonkulous to sensor.
Dayyyyumm, that guy is a fucking tripod. It’s very odd that someone would get so freaked out by a photo, but people are, as you said, so friggin stupid.
Madame, I’m not sure if I liked your original post or this addendum better. Both are brilliant and bring to light a sad truth about our ability to express ourselves freely. You are fine as long as you fit into this little box, with latches and hinges, that only we have the key for.
I think you should be a pilot.
Thank you, that’s so kind of you to say!! Too bad my rant was misdirected, but censorship and free speech are always good food for thought!
Yum. Yum. Goes down well with eggnog, and rum.
Yum. Yes indeed!
Weebs,
Good news, I think…. Stay tuned! On Twitter:
Le Clown
Weebs,
You’ve seen the tweet! Great news, it wasn’t censorship from the WordPress peeps!!
Le Clown
Three cheers for Stephane!
Now reading the tweets—I’ve heard other people say there have been problems with graphics and certain post editing options. And I hope that’s the case here. But I also hope the programming glitches involved in this kind of thing can be fixed!
As it happens, that’s exactly what happened, JM! All that rage, down the drain.
Love it Weebles. Totally agree with you. I’m not sure what happened, or what the status of all of it is (just read LeClown’s tweet conversation) But, I think it all boils down to two things: 1.) Some people don’t have the capacity to interpret context, and 2.) Some people live in a fantasy cartoon world full of hand-holding, and constant loving embraces.
Personally, I’m tired of having to tip toe around all the time. For all the fucked up shit that happens throughout the world on a daily basis, of much greater magnitude(!), it boggles my mind that we’re concerned about censoring speech of any kind.
Much greater problems exist…many of them are not addressed properly, or are sometimes not even acknowledged…
See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.
Fuck you.
Adam,
Amen…
Le Clown
Fortunately it turned out to be some of glitch on the back end, but I absolutely agree with you, Adam. We’ve become a nation of colossal politically correct pussies. Like you said, there are way worse things happening everywhere, yet some folks choose to focus on excising “offensive” content from TV, the Internet, books, etc. It sucks.
I am relieved to see that it was just a wordpress glitch and not the terrible censorship, because that would have sent me on an epic Fuck You rant too. I mean, who likes cancer? No one. I bet cancer doesn’t even like itself.
Seriously, cancer is probably self-loathing. I would be too if I were a bunch of mutated, out-of-control cells. I too am relieved that it was just a glitch. Phew.
Madame Weebles, you stick it to the man!
Of course I was a little quick on the trigger with this one, but still! The sentiment still stands, even though the circumstances weren’t as I originally feared (fortunately).
*beep*
*beep beep beep*
*beep beep*
*beep*
LOL! That’s exactly how I felt, Sig!!!
Glad it turned out to be a computer glitch and not censorship after all, but it’s still frustrating. Bloomin’ computers…
Ain’t that the truth???
At least everything worked out, right?
It did, much to my relief and embarrassment!
I agree, mind you with hindsight I now know what happened, but in the same token why does anyone have to complain about this or that on a randomly visited Space (unless it is some sicko of course and then that is completely different) I mean if they don’t like what they read, or see then why don’t they just Fu… I mean why don’t they just move along, after all they don’t have to be on your Space now do they?
Have a wonderful Thursday Madame Weebles
xxx
Ohh, go ahead, say it, you know you want to—why don’t they just fuck off??
Yes most definitely
lol xxx