Commentary
Remember the story from Aesop’s Fables about the boy who cried wolf?
Over and over again, the young shepherd would fool villagers into thinking that his flock was being hunted by a vicious wolf. One day, when the beast finally attacked and the boy cried out for help, no one answered. The villagers were desensitized to the false alarms. After so many times, they just didn’t believe it anymore.
Worst of all, the sheep were the ones who suffered for it.
Reddit’s recent decision to ban the term “groomer” from its discussion board will be lamented by free speech absolutists as just one more development in the downward spiral of online censorship. Simultaneously, those who believe in “hate speech” bans and regulation of discourse will celebrate it as a step in the right direction to promoting a more “inclusive and accepting” online environment. Proponents of such speech codes support the elimination of viewpoints that can be interpreted as subjectively harmful to certain individuals….