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Showing posts from October, 2022

The Outer Hebrides

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A draft post I wrote ten years ago that I thought i would publish... I have never been to the Outer Hebrides but somehow have still managed to feel a (very) mild affiliation to them on account of the following.   When I was about eleven our dad returned from work one day with the weighty speculation that we might move to Benbecular so that my dad could run the airport there. Apparently the airport traffic amounted to about one aeroplane a day. The move was carefully and seriously considered over the following few weeks. I remember feeling extremely unsettled by this idea and the more I learned about the Outer Hebrides, the more resistance I felt. Aside from being told most island children go to boarding schools on mainland Scotland for their education and that its young residents usually do very well academically because there's nothing to do but study (this really scared me) my main fear was centred around the fact that devout religion on the islands meant people were not allowed

I am anti-censorship

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  For so many reasons: Who exactly gets to decide which ideas are allowed one the table? If people don't get the discuss their views, how will they be able to take in new information? Censorship increases polarisation. Polarisation seems to make people less able to discuss ideas outside of their own. 'Toleration' of views other than your own, can help develop understanding.