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| Mercury @ the Bargello |
The trigger for this blog post was an opinion piece titled Porn, power and the other p-word in conservative America by Julie Szego, a journalist who lost her job because she wrote about trans censorship in Australia. Being attuned to this issue from personal experience, she's unafraid to get real about the censorship coming from both the Left and the Right in our contemporary world.
When she mentioned Michelangelo's David, which I'd been awed by in April, I felt a need to underscore the challenges we face today with regard to free speech and free thought, a recurring theme of mine here on a blog that has itself be "cancelled" on Facebook and Instagram.
The starting point for her article is an incident in which a Florida principal was sacked because "a parent complained students were exposed to “pornography” – in the form of Michelangelo’s statue of David." If you go to Florence, or study art history, you'll see more than your share of nude human bodies. You'll also see nude bodies in high school gym class (unless they don't take showers any more) and at the Y, I believe.
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| Purchase your own personal David in the gift shop. at the Accademe. |
That being said, she continued in this vein.
Two of the irate parents complained to the board of Tallahassee Classical School that they weren’t warned their children would encounter an image of Michelangelo’s iconic artwork. Another described the 5.17-metre statue of an entirely naked David, the biblical giant slayer, as pornographic. Shocking that three angry parents can force a principal’s resignation. Not at all shocking that for some Americans the bare representation of the human body is tantamount to pornography.
It is hardly news that lust drives so much of male endeavour, be it with sword or marble, or Sigmund Freud never did exist. That doesn’t make Michelangelo’s masterpiece porn, but I’m not sure we can claim his inspiration sprang entirely from the celestial without any contribution from the carnal.
There are two sides to every story. In America’s blue states – only slightly less nutty than their red counterparts – you can reportedly find schools where teachers not only say “gay”, they give kids how-to manuals. And while folks in those parts won’t usually see pornography in art, some might bend over backwards to see art in pornography lest they be accused of … conservatism.
I may not agree with everything people think or say, but I admire the courage of people like Camille Paglia, Julie Szego or Scott Adams who aren't afraid to put it out there and accept the consequences.
Other Risky Topics Too Hot To Handle
Critical of Zionism
Stanford Palestinian Student Forced to Resign for Facebook Post Critical of Zionism
Wrote about Trans Censorship
I was sacked for writing about trans censorship
Doctor fired for criticizing COVID policies
https://www.foxnews.com/media/law-group-stanford-fired-doctor-criticizing-covid-policies-engaged-employment-discrimination
Andrew Tate Canceled for being Mysogynist
(Old videos were taken out of context)
RFK Jr being cancelled for this
Robert Kennedy Jr. challenged Tony Fauci to produce one NIH study on the safety of Vaccines.
"None of the mandated Vaccines have ever been tested against a placebo-controlled trial before licensing."
Fauci stonewalled for a year and then admitted they didn't have it.
https://twitter.com/AaronSiriSG/status/1665687256533745668
Used the word Niggardly
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm
While looking for examples of things people have been cancelled for, I came across this piece.
Trilateral Commission Members Driving Censorship Campaigns (This is the organisation with a member called Keir Starmer)
Whatever happened to "I may not agree with you but I defend your right to say it." Isn't that what Free Speech is about?
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