Censorship

Whilst in a relatively introspective mood I thought I would mention my thoughts on censorship and presentation of this blog. Best way is to indicate my reactions to the last couple of days.

Made what I thought was a fairly uncontroversial post re my feelings re US election result

A few hours later was quite shocked to read the first 20 posts or so.

Considered (momentarily) withdrawing comments
Rejected - I may be many things but I am not a hypocrite

Considered (for slightly longer) barring further posts
Rejected - I am all for free speech (Voltaire and all that)

Monitored the storm and noticed that other people were now coming to comment who had different views - it began to look more balanced even though it was clear that some people were still commenting in a highly emotive manner.

Noted Tim Ireland's comment about some piece of software that could delete "the shouty heads". Tempted... boy was I tempted. Ultimately, though, I would be uneasy doing this as censorship is not the name of the game. I am going to leave it for now but hope that I am not tempted down this route.

Noted Blogwatcher's comment. Now blogwatcher is clearly not a fan so the paranoia section of the brain kicks in and I set to wondering whether there was an ulterior motive in a political opponent encouraging me not to censor. Clearly my opponents would like any ammunition they can get hold of but ultimately I returned to my original premise that I was not happy to censor.

So - that's the way I feel about it at the moment. I am not the sort of person who cuts and runs at the first hurdle and hope that this can continue in the spirit in which it was intended.