Technology has progressed to a point so vast that most people have the entire world at their fingertips. Collective knowledge of nearly everything that has existed is compiled online; the Library of Alexandria has nothing on Wikipedia. We learn and teach cross-culturally, politically educate, decolonize minds, and critique oppressive regimes with the equipped weight of both being able to expose and be exposed to the past-present-future realities of people all over the world. In the midst of this revolutionary era of the infosphere where collectives advocate for fair and just societies, there are still people hesitating to join in on progress because of online censorship deteriorating meaningful language.
Orwell got one thing right: despite advancements that are offered, most refuse—or are strictly deterred—to engage with technology in a meaningful way for fear of retaliation from the watchful eyes of Big Brotherly algorithms. People are preemptively censoring themselves, effectively beating the real censors to the punch. Words that hold immense power—political power to restructure the way someone thinks, breathes, and lives—are replaced by a watered-down, easy-to-digest version of themselves. The result is a bizarrely mellow and stomachable online platform where conversations surrounding interpersonal relations, life-threatening issues, and devastating histories are nothing beyond an episode of “Paw Patrol.”
The examples I could give are abundant, but most would be redundant. It appears that most have taken to calling these censored versions of words “algospeak,” a combination of “algorithm” and “speak.” Rape being called “grape,” killing being called “unaliving,” sex called “seggs,” and genocide called “mass unaliving,”—these are all ways media users have developed to duck under the watchful eyes of the system that threatens to shut down such conversations, mostly political ones that go against the status quo and advocate for systemic change.
Even beyond algospeak, the simplification of complex concepts in order to prevent deep introspection from happening is everywhere, another result of social media’s will to follow trends and encourage people to avoid individual thinking and join in on the fun. Intricate and complicated topics and interpersonal relationships are completely binary. People will call an idiosyncrasy of someone they like an “ick” if it goes against what they want to see. A conflict arising in a relationship will be defined by “red flags” or “green flags.” Difficult situations are black-and-white with no room for negotiation (genuinely read any advice post on Reddit: it’s all either “leave them,” “divorce them,” “go no-contact,” etc.). A non-frequent texter or caller has an “avoidant attachment style.” Labels must be matter-of-fact. All is dichotomous; you have to be this or that, this situation is either bad or good.
The thing is, most of the fault in such suppression of speech comes from the wealthy and powerful putting an iron grip on policy on these platforms, trying their best to keep critical thinking and political sway at a minimum. People afraid of change and criticism but too cowardly to face their hypocrisy censor such conversations from happening and attempt to dilute their essence. Orwell’s whole thing about newspeak—the elaborate simplification of words and concepts to “diminish the range of thought,” like the word “plusgood” replacing “better” or “great”—is effectively at play in modern media: language is simplified to prevent deeper thinking, and the requirement to adhere to such language in order to remain on a platform that many have is subconsciously affecting the way people are thinking.
See, that’s the especially scary thing: even in classrooms, and especially outside of them, I’m seeing people using that watered-down, safe, and simple language to refer to every facet of their lives.
This results in a collective that’s easy to manipulate. Important news is covered up with some kind of entertainment gossip that’s so much more fun to talk about. Capitalism is bad until someone’s favorite brand has a new drop. Ethical consumption isn’t possible under capitalism because “nothing’s ethical, anyway—and I really want that shirt.” Institutional injustices are real and need to be talked about until you’re lazy and don’t want to think about it—then it’s suddenly not that serious; “womp-womp,” “hot take: it’s all made up.” Socioeconomic disparity is crippling until someone you don’t like is wearing something “trashy,” and “not to be mean, but why are you wearing that?” Empathy is necessary to humanity until you’re “a hater at heart” and think “it’s never that serious.” Murder isn’t murder; that’s too strong of a word, no, someone was unalived! You’re way too serious about this. You’re kind of ruining my happy place. Me when I think I’m so smart. It insists upon itself. Bro thinks he’s a philosophy major!
The thing is, when censorship is utilized in the way it is now, the way you think and process the world is censored along with it. Critical thinking isn’t particularly difficult; it’s being able to look at something and ask, “Why is that?” or “How is that?” By making everything so easy to digest and understand, by insisting upon the funnier, sillier way of looking at things, by going with the trend and using recycled words and TikTok-speak that means nothing, you are washing away the power words and complexity hold.
Censorship isn’t just banning profane words or unpopular opinions. It isn’t suspending an account because they told someone to die or wished ill upon another. It’s putting a thin sheet of paper over the reality and ascribing easier terminology and simplified summaries to deter deeper thought. Colonization starts and is perpetuated with censorship; the way language is used and spoken is first to be monitored during colonization, because language holds history and power.
The dilution of language—of terminology that bears tangible weight and connotation—the simplification of it and the refusal of engagement with it, is all something that begins the process of erasing history and erasing progress. It’s what shallows your life, making you wade only where your feet can touch and live a life where introspection and deep evaluation of life is something thought to be as “cringe.” Comfort of the now is above all—above fruitful relationships, thought-provoking conversations, activism, and life. The rich and powerful remain rich and powerful, and they oppress without needing to try too hard. People disengage with hard conversations before they’re even encouraged to do so because it’s “disturbing my peace.”
This reality should be very, very important to all who advocate and consider themselves an activist. Because discomfort is the core of activism. Disruption of what you’ve deemed digestible and easy to accept is the center of education. Education starts with learning through specific words that are able to portray both the gravity of the situation and the weight of history and reality they hold. The scrubbing of provocative and, yes, violent language is yet another way colonizers cower behind the wall of professionality and dignity. The way oppressors remain comfortably in power while the oppressed scramble to try and rouse others who refuse to wake up in the bliss of funny, in-the-moment validation.
The censorship of language is the censorship of the mind and the censorship of everything that has come before you. If you value intellect, if you value critical thinking, if you value change and the advocacy for it, if you wish to keep your head up in this rapidly fluctuating world of information and oppression, you have to start thinking about the words you’re using in conversations and how you’re approaching the topics. Apply your beliefs into your words. Words are how our internal worlds are turned into something tangible—they’re a channel unlike anything else humanity has to offer. In this time of turmoil, don’t let the oppressors continue to oppress—don’t let yourself censor yourself on the behest of them. Don’t become Orwell’s main character who falls to conformity. Live life, help others, and grow and shift in the complicated way humans do.
I often think of Kenyan author and academic Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’O’s words in “Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature.” It’s a great quote to leave this on:
“Values are the basis of a people’s identity, their sense of particularity as members of the human race. All this is carried by language. Language as culture is the collective memory bank of a people’s experience in history.”
