Become Your Own Censor: Coming to an App Near You

With dating apps and, soon, Substack bringing us self-censorship tools, we should all be nervous about what's coming next.

I have been single for the vast majority of my life. And not by choice. I would love to find love. I’ve put in a lot of time and effort trying to find it, too.

But I’m a difficult person to get to know, I’m fiercely independent, I have high standards, and I’ve never been satisfied with the traditional path to courtship and “love” that society has laid out for us. Even as a kid, I never dreamed of having a wedding, popping out babies, or living in a house with a white picket fence.

So, here I am, still in search of “the one” and using god awful dating apps one last time to see if he’s looking for me, too.

There are obviously a ton of problems with using technology to find love or some semblance of it. One of the biggest ones is that dating apps are designed to keep you single and swiping. The FTC has sued Match Group (which owns all the major apps) for deceptive practices.

Like intentionally filling the apps with scammers and bots (which they estimate could be as high as 30% of the user base). Then using those super attractive profiles in advertising to lure users into the app and persuade them to pay a subscription to get access to those users. And when those subscribers get fed up with the deception and generally awful experience, they try to cancel, only to find it’s extremely difficult to do so.

It seems like none of the technology that promises to bring people closer together and to meet like-minded folks has been designed with good intentions. And it’s only getting worse.

These technologies — and it’s not just dating apps — are giving us more and more tools to digitally enslave ourselves. And, of course, it all starts by encouraging fear and trepidation when interacting with others.

Censorship to the Rescue

This is the first type of censorship I encountered:

I had matched with Mark who, turns out, doesn’t live here in Jacksonville. That’s of course not what his profile said, but, you know, honesty is a hard thing.

So, once he admitted that he was just in town for a short while and wanted to meet me, I typed out the following:

“I’m afraid I can’t help. But I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding a date and some booty while you’re here.”

I bet you’re all clutching your pearls right now. I mean, how dare I suggest something so offensive as getting laid?

I’m guessing that’s why Hinge threw up the “Are you sure you want to send this?” warning to me as well. And, boy, am I glad they did because I certainly didn’t want to offend a man who was there for that express purpose.

This isn’t the only form of censorship that Hinge encourages. Here was the second instance of it I encountered:

“Hide words you don’t want to see”

Like what? Fuck? Cock? Dick?

Or how about COVID? Biden? Trumptard?

I mean, what need would people have for muting words? Are words really that painful and such an obstacle to dating that you need them to be blurred out from view? It’s not like you won’t understand what’s hiding behind the blur based on the context.

So, instead of forcing an app to hide words that hurt your feelings, why don’t you just man up and unmatch from someone whose way of speaking or approach to dating doesn’t align with yours? Wouldn’t that be the most logical and mature course of action?

I thought this was a dating app-specific thing. But then I encountered this thread while looking at Substack Notes yesterday:

“Will there ever be an opportunity for people on this platform to mute words or topics that they have no interest in viewing? I ask because this is an important part of maintaining good mental health not only for myself, but for other users as well.”

And what did Hamish McKenzie, the co-founder of Substack, say? Of course! Yes! We’re going to give you all the tools you need to censor the dark, scary world of the internet.

You know what’s good for your health, Preston? Being a grown ass man who doesn’t let certain words trigger anxiety or depression or whatever mental health issue you’re afflicted with.

I don’t want to come off as insensitive, but this right here is one of the reasons why our world is so fucked. Think about it. Grown men and women can’t deal with hearing or reading certain words. Words. Clearly, people have lost sight of what real hardship is. Like being abused for years on end, getting caught in a warzone, going bankrupt, losing a child or partner, living on the streets, any number of scenarios that really and truly fucking hurt.

Do people realize this is exactly what they want?

If we actively embrace the ability to censor the words of others, we’re essentially giving the powers-that-be the thumbs-up to do the same to us. We’ll also have no grounds to stand on when we demand to know what’s hiding behind heavily redacted documents.

Plus, these guys won’t stop with blurring out our words they deem offensive or deboosting our posts in a search algorithm. They’ll wipe us out of the system entirely, making it impossible to access our money, dine at restaurants, travel to certain states or regions, among other things.

That is, until we agree to play nice and learn to self-censor and follow their rules.

Final Thoughts

Anyone remember that Black Mirror episode “Arkangel”?

The premise revolves around a chip placed inside the heads of children. It gives parents the ability to monitor everything the kid sees, hears, and does, to know at all times where they go. It also allows them to blur out offensive actions or things from their view. For instance, the girl we meet in this episode can’t see the scary barking dog she passes on her way to school every day or the blood coming out of her finger.

Is this the world we’re heading towards? And why do people seem so eager to usher it in? What in the world made so many people afraid of existing in the raw state of the world? Do they really believe that sheltering themselves from bad words or personally offensive ideas will keep them safe?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, bad things are coming for us. And when they do, these same people are primed to hide away in their homes and wait for their overlords to let them know when it’s safe to reemerge. We saw this with COVID. We’ll see it again in the near future, mark my words.

And not a single one of these wilting flowers will care because they feel safe in their smart homes, relish their insulated lives in their 15-minute cities, and love their ability to blur and mute the big bad words of others.

What scares me most, though, are the critical thinkers and freedom lovers who didn’t buy into the COVID scam, but who are celebrating the incoming presidency of Trump — overseen by technocrats like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and is brought to you by sponsors like McDonald’s.

They won’t be the ones to adopt these silly self-censorship tools online. They’ll even probably shake their heads alongside me as they read this post. But I bet you anything they’ll be extra excited to line up for the X “Everything App”, to give Musk and Co. all their biometric data, and get whatever device or chip he plans to put in people before 2030.

They’ll see it as a way to enhance themselves and become more powerful. When, in reality, it’ll just be another tool to enslave and censor them and their humanity.