Following the mysterious and as of yet unexplained removal/disappearance of some benign commentary on my blog, which followed closely on the heels of someone else's post about posts being categorically deleted, I have grown concerned over whether ProgressiveU's censorship in the name of non-offensive, non-progressive content really lives up to its name.
I could be totally mistaken-- that perhaps the comments were accidentally deleted, or because it's a private organization ProgressiveU can delete whoever/whatever it wants-- but what happened to free speech on a progressive website?
Bloggers here write things that sometimes I don't want to read, that I find offensive and/or ignorant, but the fact that those comments or posts exist shows that we have a long way to go before we can call ourselves progressive. Simply deleting these posts eliminates the possibility of learning from that poster's mistake, and that isn't very progressive at all. Maybe those individuals who write offensive posts will eventually understand that they're being offensive because their posts or comments keep getting deleted, but sweeping those people under the rug doesn't stop others from proliferating offensive commentary, because they'll never see the errors of other people's ways. It's like erasing history or reinventing the wheel.
There are probably greater issues at stake here that I'm not privy to, and I'm sure there are copyright or intellectual property issues (is blogging intellectual property? Should it be?) involved in how and why people must be censored, but at the point where those issues override the progressive intent of this website, some things should probably be reconsidered.
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