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Censorship on Indymedia

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  • 08-05-2008 2:51pm
    #1
    Joe Taxpayer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    A news story was published on www.indymedia.ie about the Tara Vigil Camp at Rath Luigh being Evicted http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87465 which also URGENTLY sought donations for the "vigil phone" which was low on credit.

    Some of the supporting posts - Gardai having no power to extinguish "sacred fires" and the place being a "consecrated temple" after a ceremony on Tuesday night (new moon, don't you know) - struck me as a little, well, divorced from reality.

    The following gentle little satire titled Confrontation at Tara - a one act Farce, was posted on Indymedia.
    Dramatis Personae:

    Sad_Act (Self Appointed Defender of the Ancient Citadel of Tara.) Sad_Act is a middle class student with a rather poor arts degree and a plummy Sight Doblin accent who is taking yet another gap year while being supported by an indulgent Mommy and Doddy and simultaneously claiming welfare benefits on the basis that she is "available for work."

    Joe Taxpayer. Joe lives in Navan and commutes to his job in Dublin. He looks forward to the opening of the M3 motorway which should make his daily journey shorter and safer. Last election he voted for a party that explicitly supported the building of the motorway and was pleased to note that most of his fellow constituents did likewise. Joe thinks he lives in a democracy so he can't understand why the authorities tolerate a small unrepresentative bunch of people holding up a vital project.

    Two burly but friendly Gardai.
    Act 1, Scene 1. (somewhere in cyberspace)

    Enter Sad_Act, highly agitated.

    Sad_act: Omigawd, the fascist cawps are here - they're going to desecrate the sacred site of Tawra. I need credit for the moby. Once the oppressed mosses hear about this they will revolt and, and, and......do something about it.
    (Begins typing out FRANTIC appeal on indymedia)

    Joe Taxpayer: No actually, I won't donate any credit to the vigil phone. You see I can't really afford to after I've paid my taxes.

    Sad_Act: Taxes? I don't understond.

    JT: Taxes, you know, that money the Government takes from your wages and gives some of it in benefits to self appointed "guardians of our sacred (sic!) heritage."

    Sad_Act: Roysh. Always wondered where the money came from. Shouldn't the Government have a trust fund or something? Anyway, can I have some wages please, sounds like a good idea, how do I get some?

    JT: Wages, that's money you get in return for working in a job.

    Sad_Act (puzzled): A job????

    JT: Job, you do know what a job is, don't you?

    Sad_Act(Still puzzled):No......

    JT: That explains a lot. Oh well. Enjoy your extended state-indulged adolescence while those of us in the real world get on with life and pay for it all. Oh and spare a thought for those road users who will inevitably be killed while you, oh so self-important, self-righteous folks delay the badly needed M3. You do know that motorways are statistically far safer than single carriageway roads, don't you? And you do know that dozens of people have been killed on the N3 in the last decade, don't you?

    Sad_Act: It's their own fault. They willingly embraced the planet murdering car-owning lifestyle that is disempowering communities all Oireland and is a symptom of what's wrong with the world. Our collective feels they should die for crimes against humanity.

    JT (Wearily): Some of them were pedestrians, you know.

    Sad_Act (flustered): Yeah, well.........that's all very well, but, but, but........

    Sad_Act (triumphantly): .......the M3 won't do anything for the fairies and spirits and ancient godesses of Tawra. Hah! Argue your way out of that then!!

    JT (aside): Sweet Jesus!

    Sad_Act (into moby): Help! Doddy, ring my solicitor quickleeee! The fascist pigs are coming for me! They're CULCHIES, Doddy, I can SMELL them!

    1st Garda: We can smell you too - ever heard of soap and water?

    2nd Garda: It's well worth it. Hold your nose and think of the overtime.

    Sad_Act (still into moby): Tell him to hire the best borristor in town I want a habeas corpus case in the High Court this afternoon or I'll never speak to you or Mommy again.
    Curtain falls as Gardai arrest Sad_Act.
    And duly deleted by the Indymedia police. Honestly, some people have no sense of humour. Especially libertarian lefties.


Comments

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    #2
    wes
    Registered Users Posts: 11,747 ✭✭✭✭wes


    If it violated the rules of there site, then its hardly censorship. Its there web site, they can do what they please with it.

    You can always make your own or post elsewhere.


  • Options
    #3
    Joe Taxpayer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭Joe Taxpayer


    wes wrote: »
    If it violated the rules of there site, then its hardly censorship. Its there web site, they can do what they please with it.
    Of course they can. But I'm simply exposing the contradiction between what they are and what they claim to be in their editorial guidelines.

    They claim in the editorial guidelines:
    Indymedia Ireland is built on the foundation of an open and democratic newswire. We want to see and hear real stories, news, and opinions from users of the site around the country. Anybody can post a story, or a comment on a story to Indymedia. While we struggle to maintain the newswire as a completely open forum we do monitor it and remove posts.

    In general, posts may be removed for any of the following reasons:.....

    ...11. Trolling. Comments which consist entirely of abuse towards any group, individual, or article without attempting to situate this in the context of the particular article or debate arising out of that article. So for example, a comment which simply says: "the Popular Front of Judea are w****rs" will be deleted, while a comment that says: "The fact that the PFJ have refused this offer of an alliance shows them to be hypocritical w****rs in the light of what they have said before", might remain


    It would take an ultra-censorious point of view to bring my post within their own definition of trolling. Yet that was the reason for deleting it!


  • Options
    #4
    wes
    Registered Users Posts: 11,747 ✭✭✭✭wes


    Joe Taxpayer wrote: »
    It would take an ultra-censorious point of view to bring my post within their own definition of trolling. Yet that was the reason for deleting it!

    Isn't the purpose of the site to post news stories? What you posted clearly wasn't. I can see why it was deleted. Also, it says "in general", so the definition isn't a hard and fast one.


  • Options
    #5
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,804 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    The purpose of this forum is the discussion of politics, not of other websites.


This discussion has been closed.
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