Censorship is seemingly a political issue we overcame in the 194o’s ; when wives received letters from their husbands covered in large blocks of marker in order to conceal their filthy secrets. When the war was so glorified that young teenage boys, eager to join the excitement and earn world-acknowledged respect, never lived to see those days of glory. Yet sadly our sources feed us the same amount of lies in modern media. Similarly to everything else, media has developed with quicker, slyer, more subtle methods of sourcing. Bias judgements are being shoved down our throats around every corner. It is vital we all stay informed on political matters to avoid consequences of censorship – taking Brexit as an example.
Though this being a pressing issue, my repetitively offensive Instagram feed is what brought this matter into my attention. One particular morning I noticed a recurring theme of false rape accusation posts on my media. Soon enough I found myself in a digital debate with a victim of such propaganda, which convinced him to believe that this is an issue caused by the feminist movement. Despite false accusations being a serious crime, it is vastly low-scale compared to the genuine assaults that happen to one in every three women. It is not a coincidence that media only cover false accusation stories where men unrightfully get consequence regardless of their innocence. Only 0.05% of rapists are convicted, and then only 5-10% of those convictions are false accusations, so how come the remaining 95.5% of abusers don’t have repercussions for the damage they have caused or at least have exposition on the media?
Another instance of media keeping us in ignorance is at any mention of Islam. The term ‘Jihad’ is used in an uneducated in every article regarding extremism. Lesser Jihad is simply being a part of Islam and a personal journey of the five pillars. Greater Jihad, an excuse extremists make for violence, is also highly misused. This is simply permission for self-defence after all peaceful methods have been exhausted. Media using the general term ‘jihad’ to instil fear is nothing other than uninformed racism in order to wreak havoc and create a social divide.
Censorship is having a terrifying global impact. According to CBS news over 50% of women don’t identify as feminists. Over half of all women don’t believe in equal rights… suspicious, isn’t it? If it was taught that women are discriminated, objectified and abused on a large scale instead of the “femenazi”, “we hate men” depiction the media give us, more than the current 7% of British citizens would identify as feminists. Feminism tackles men’s issues such as fragile masculinity and public display of emotion, however a very limited amount of the population is aware of the entire equality movement. We must stay informed to reduce this impact.
How can we avoid ignorance? For individuals I’d suggest research on global topics from several sources and points of view, Later project this knowledge, inform as many people as possible and we will progressively overcome the censorship in our media.
nadia's miscellaneous rant 