{"id":10613,"date":"2006-12-11T09:59:05","date_gmt":"2006-12-11T16:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/12\/11\/honesty-is-the-best-policy.html"},"modified":"2006-12-11T09:59:05","modified_gmt":"2006-12-11T16:59:05","slug":"honesty_is_the_best_polic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/11\/honesty_is_the_best_polic.html","title":{"rendered":"Honesty is the best policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, really. One may come up with legitimate, compelling reasons for particular instances where being less than honest, even being deceitful, is better, in at least the short run. But those are exceptions. The default should be honesty, and any variance from that should be examined, pondered, even agonized over.<\/p>\n

So … some pro-feminist, anti-pr0n folks have come up with, to them, a clever way to subvert the pr0n culture, to wit, Google-bomb the Net so that folks searching for the currently infamous Brittany Spears pictures will instead find themselves redirected to feminist\/anti-pr0n sites instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, on the one hand, this seems kind of clever. But it is, fundamentally, deception. It is dishonest. It is forcing people away from what they are looking for and tricking them into going some place they don’t want. It is de facto<\/em> censorship by trickery.<\/p>\n

It’s a bad idea, and a wrong one.<\/p>\n

First off, it’s not likely to be effective. If commercial web filtering companies cannot keep people effectively from pr0n, it seems unlikely that a Google-bombing effort will do so.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, what’s the point? It’s not going to change hearts and minds. “Wow, I wanted to see a racy picture, but instead, now that I’ve viewed the home page for the National Organization of Women, my mind and soul and philosophy have done a full 180 — I am so ashamed of what I was …” Indeed, it seems only likely to make new or more bitter enemies. “Damned femi-nazis trying to keep me from my nekkid pictures!”<\/p>\n

And, finally, legitimating such a tactic for political purposes is a pretty dangerous thing. I mean, spam sites (and e-mail) have already caused problems with looking up legitimate subjects. Do we need to muddy the waters still more? Worse, it raises the ante for everyone else with an ideological axe to grind. A virulent racist? Why not Google-bomb the Net so that folks trying to go to Jewish heritage sites are sent off to the Klan’s web pages? Homophobes could certainly figure
\nout ways to route people away from gay rights sites to something less savory. Republicans could route folks from opponents’ sites to their own, and the Dems could do the same. Fundamentalist churches could redirect folks away from feminist pages and to their own. <\/p>\n

The ends rarely justify the means, and in this case they certainly don’t. Regardless of how one feels — aesthetically or philosophically — about online nekkid pictures, “dirty tricks” doesn’t seem to be the right way to combat it, or any other “wrong thinking.” <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Terry<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, really. One may come up with legitimate, compelling reasons for particular instances where being less than honest, even being deceitful, is better, in at least the short run. 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If you're Canadian, join the Customs and Revenue Agency, and sign up...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4844,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/22\/tricksy_little.html","url_meta":{"origin":10613,"position":4},"title":"Tricksy little devils","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Dec-03 10:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"My old Thursday Thumb-Twiddler meme blog is being left up as something of a honey-pot for comment bloggers. 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