Apparently there is a new group here on Facebook that has people in a rather amusing (in my opinion) uproar. It is called “Kim Kardashian Is a Filthy Pig Whore” and can be found at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=264742769803&ref=nf

Needless to say, many are upset with the bluntly racist point of the page’s existence and want to see it removed from Facebook. There are many groups like this one here, on MySpace, and anywhere else for that matter. Herein lies an inevitable issue with Social networking sites. EVERYONE has an opinion and *GASP* is actually EXPRESSING that opinion.

I think it’s very amusing that a country that so arrogantly and blindly waves the Constitution around hasn’t taken the time to actually READ the damn thing. Yes, we are guaranteed the right to express our opinion, but YOU have the right not to listen. Tommy Smothers once said, “The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.” So guess what? If you don’t like what someone has to say then LEAVE the page, turn the TV channel, walk out of the room, or better yet, have an intellectual DISCUSSION with the person by expressing your opinion in rebuttal of theirs. That’s what freedom means.

When I was in high school I used to walk passed the military recruiting tables in the school cafeteria with a Soviet flag over my books. Kids used to bash and harass me all the time for it. Then one day a Marine stopped these kids and yelled at THEM. He said my display of political opinion was exactly WHY he and his fellow Marines put their lives on the line- so that I, and others, would continue to have that right.

Whatever the issue, whatever side we stand on, it seems more and more each day that the only people that have a ‘right’ to their ‘opinion’ are those who are in the majority. “Sure,” they say, “you can believe anything you want. Express FREELY anything you want. Just make DAMN sure it’s what everyone else thinks otherwise we’re going to shut you up.” And so the TV shows, the books, and the media outlets for these “subversive and perverse” opinions are censored and removed- sometimes quietly, sometimes with great fanfare.

John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth-century spokesmen for liberalism, penned On Liberty in 1859. In it he stated that “We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.”

Bluntly speaking, an expressed opinion may be morally wrong, ethically wrong, and its accused falsehood deemed evil by a people, but the true crime is to censor that thought. You can’t sweep an idea under the rug and expect it to be forgotten to time.

So I think it funny when every day I see people trying to ‘ban’ groups on Facebook. I get invitations to join groups every day. Some I join, some I don’t. You see, I have a free will and intellect. I will follow the link to a group’s page and if I like what they have to say, I’ll add them. If I don’t agree then I ignore the request and continue on with my day. And for the record I am NOT saying that I would turn a blind eye to an injustice. That would be ignorance on my part and arrogance on yours. WORDS don’t harm people; information doesn’t destroy societies. What a person chooses to DO with that information could either be used for positive or negative. I have a self confidence and the willingness to choose for MYSELF how I will react. No one can coerce me or pressure me into following THEIR way unless I make the CHOICE to follow them.

So people are getting all ‘Fahrenheit 451’ on Facebook for allowing its users to do EXACTLY what Facebook was created to do- allow people to express themselves and network with like-minded individuals.

So just leave the hate mongers alone, ignore their requests, and let them be. Wouldn’t you rather be wasting your time on Facebook playing Farmville like everyone else anyway??

I’ll leave you with the immortal words of Dennis Miller, “That’s just MY opinion. I could be wrong.”

© 2010 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions