Talk:Charles Pike/@comment-27790122-20160221192232/@comment-31.53.152.249-20160228154450

I get your good intentions, but there are many problems with execution.

1. First of all, I have a problem with regulating any art whatsoever, for numerous reasons. If America was built on ideas of freedom in general (including freedom of speech), it would be ridicolous and hypocritical, if the US government was assessing what kind of art and entertainment should be released or not. Given the fact that the US "fought" Cold War against USSR, which did EXACTLY something like this. I come from post-communist country, my parents remember the times when they themselves were investigated for publishing activity, and if you were doing for example music, first you had to perform in front of some commission in order to have your lyrics assessed whether they are in line with the regime and ideology. Now we have people (maybe like you) asking for governments to force this antiracist and antihomophobic agenda. I do not say being antiracist or antihomophobic is bad since I am not homophobic neither racist myself, but it is fueled by ideology (that word does not always refer to "bad" ideologies like nazism or communism). Many works of art we appreciate today and pay fortune to even see them were frowned upon in their era, even banned by churches, states or any other authorities, books were burned (actually not so long ago, nazis did it too), let's not make the same mistake again. Maybe you do not see it this way, but any regulation on art or even on opinion is a huge spit in the face of people all over Europe (or even US) whose parents risked their lives or even died fighting against oppressive regimes that apart from other terrible things controlled and regulated art, media, public opinion and everything they could. And even if you do not like it, racism is basically an opinion, and people should have right to form and express their opinions even if they are stupid or dangerous.

2. Even if you do not care about anything described in previous part, execution of any regulations on this would be a huge problem. We cannot agree on whether Pike or Jaha are villians or not, people in charge of assessing this have their own opinions too, do you think it would be different? Unless it is intentional and direct "racism", it is very hard to say. Many people hate Pike just because at the moment they feel for Grounders more, I cannot imagine how any commission would come to more or less unanimous decision about the portrayal. Also, imagine how much money this would cost, if only 20 people had to watch all of the episodes to come up with some kind of decision, even if you pay them a minimum wage, it is lots of money, also it would create new lobby. And you might propose that moviemakers should pay for "acreditation" themselves, it is still a huge loss in the system, money paid for nothing, to people that do not create any value in the society. The government can better spend this money to fix the sector of education, where there are probably lots of backwardsthinking racist or homophobic people. The difference is that no one forces you to watch a racist movie, so if you are watching it and are stupid enough to be more racist just thanks to some movie, it is your own fault. On the other hand, school attendance is compulsory, you do not get to choose to be or not to be there, that is the place where regulation should be placed (at least if they are public schools).

3. One more great example - rap music, which is in my opinion very misogynic, racist to some extent (whether to white people or black community itself indirectly - I do not know any other type of entertainment where African-American community is stereotypised as drug dealers so often), and at least until recently, it was quite homophobic too (in country where I come from, rappers still use slang word for homosexual as a common insult). I get why some of the songs can't go on air unless they are censored and there is nothing bad about it, but I can't imagine rap music purged of homophobia, misogyny, stereotypes, or racism, it would not be the same anymore, and the world of music would lost lots of good music that maybe even you enjoy at some old school parties.