This pic, while holiday themed, accurately describes my state of being right now. The implied caption will, we hope, become apparent by the end of this blog post.
Today's socialized media makes it very tough to be a centrist kind of person, as being a centrist often makes people assume that your personal beliefs are toxic. This viewpoint is often badly magnified when the cyberspace that you dabble in often espouses beliefs that you have serious issues with.
As the majority of you undoubtedly know, I keep my personal views tightly concealed from those that I do not know. Because of this, I often have to censor what I say in certain public forums, like socialized media. That's a fact of my life.
Digital self-censorship is often a triple edged sword for me. I've been blogging for over 16 years, and at first, I had no problem voicing my opinion on numerous hot button topics and I was of the mindset of, "no one is forcing you to read me, so you can leave if you want to."
But now, in 2025, I don't have the readership that I used to {blogging really isn't the be all to end all anymore}, and since I post my blog links on one of the other two socialized media platforms I partake in with regularity, I now have to be very careful on what I opine on in my blog because someone could take hysterical hostile offense on my viewpoint, which would be detrimental to my digital well being.
That doesn't mean that I will not opine on issues that I care about, but I keep those opinions strictly to commercial oriented forums {e.g. news, pop culture and sports} where I can get into (mostly) sane debates about topics. It also doesn't mean that I will simply ignore what other people might have an overly strong opinion about. I have, very recently, culled/lessened my interaction with certain individuals because their opinions about certain things have...drifted, for lack of a better word.
As I stated previously, nobody is forcing me to read/listen to anything that anyone else says that I disagree with. I simply ignore and continue with my day. Especially at my age {60} where I have more than average understanding of the world around me.
Now I'm pretty sure at this point, you're wondering why I'm talking about self-censorship yet again. In order for you, dear reader, to have a better understanding of this post and the picture up above, a short info dump is required. I live in one of six deep turquoise blue states that make up New England. In fact, my home state of Connecticut is battling with Massachusetts on who should become California 2.0.
With all what you know about Blue States, your educated guess about what topic I might want to opine about would be true. If I was to write about a certain topic, one definite outcome and two probable outcomes are likely.
1} I would not be able to post the blog link to my local writer's group, as I'm the direct cause of a rule change instituted in 2021. Thus, those random eyes would not be able to easily visit my blog post.
2} I'm trying to build some interactions with my author's page on FB. Posting it there might generate some unwarranted backlash because, to be fair, those who write tend to lean 180 degrees left on social issues, and aren't that open minded about opposing viewpoints. At all.
3} My own personal page, while centrist by nature, tends to stay in my very narrow bicycle lane and only ramble on topics that slices of life and/or topics I have personal working knowledge of {e.g. public sector employment/unions}. If I were to post a link to a hot-button blog post, I could very well get some unwanted static, and I really don't need that in my life anymore.
Ultimately, this is why you're getting a post about self-censorship instead of the topic I most dearly want to write about. Like I stated in an earlier post, sometimes we have to do things that we personally do not like, in order to keep and incrementally build on what we currently have.
And with that being said, please enjoy this best of SpongeBob's "I'm Ready!" manifesto.
You like in a deep blue state? My condolences.
ReplyDeleteI stay away from certain topics on my blog since it's about all I have.
Sad but true. In fact, my state was deep blue before it became popular to call states "Deep Blue". So, yeah...
DeleteNowadays, I only touch on certain topics if they affect me directly, otherwise It's been a no-go for me. Like I previously stated, I post links elsewhere to get readership so I now have a tendency to watch what I write about on the blog.