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Funny thing about censorship...I have heard some of today’s “artists” talk about what they sing and how they have to tone it down (self-censor) once they’ve become a mom or a dad (”I’ve got a child to raise.”). I see more than a little bit of hypocrisy in this, as some entertainers come to realize the potentially deleterious effect of what they do on their own children, but don’t mind getting paid for adversely affecting yours.

Self-censoring used to be the practice of the day. We used to be able to count on adults not mentioning things “when the children are around,” not curse openly, etc. In a word, society used to conduct itself with more responsibility when it came to exercising their freedom to speak. Now, all filters have been removed. All speech is equal, “if you don’t like it, switch the channel, don’t buy the music, you don’t have to listen.” All the “responsibility” for your speech has fallen on me; I can’t count on you to be responsible any longer.

But it has ALWAYS been that way. Each older generation sees the newer generation as being the evil corrupter of youth. In the 1600s it was Thomas Morton's "sundry rhymes and rhythms, tending to lasciviousness." It the 1700s it was the jailing of Zenger for criticizing the Governor of NY. In the 1800s it was the suppression of abolitionist phamplets in the South. In the 1900s it ranged from parents not wanting schools to put on productions of Sweeney Tood to white parents in the 50s who didn't want their kids listening to black music. There has always been some form or art or music or or literature or whatever, that offends someone else. This generation doesn't hold a monopoly on being offensive.

Self-censoring has always been involved, with varying degrees of success. How many of us had that elderly relative who'd say the most ghastly things about this group or that group at Thanksgiving? And I'm not talking about race - it could be religion, nationality, or whatever. And yet, we'd gather together every year in November to ask the Lord's blessings, and on the drive home we had a chance to explain why Aunt Gertrude thinks all goombahs are mobbed-up.

I believe it is on that drive home, on those instances where people select out of self-censorship, where true learning and growth and understanding (and, dare I say, parenting) blossom - "the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."

I totally get your point...Cardi B isn't Lady Gaga who isn't Madonna who isn't Donna Summer who isn't Tina Turner who isn't etc. WAP isn't Relax which isn't Feel Like Making Love which isn't Satisfaction which isn't etc. But I never trusted society to raise my kids or help them or self-censor to protect their tender ears.

Quite the contrary, that is MY job, and increasingly parents have come to realize that the only difference between protecting kids from bad content today vs yesterday is that, the mask is off today...there was always an agenda with Disney movies - now it's out in the open. In a twisted sort of way society's lack of self-censorship and flagrant and hidden attempts to take over the job of parents and turn kids into statist snowflakes, has undoubtedly resulted in more Deplorable children being raised. And because these kids have better discernment skills since they weren't shielded, they often use the same tools of the oppressor to turn the hunted into hunter. Alinsky, all your tactics are belong to us.