Sex and the iWorld

Almost fifteen years ago now my friend Dale Kuehne, a poli-sci professor at St Anselm College published a book Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship Beyond an Age of Individualism. I mentioned it at the time and have linked to it occasionally since. It includes points that would likely not be regarded as trans-friendly, I recall, and indeed it is a central point that never before have individuals had such a radical ability to define their sexuality without reference to some larger community:* Family, village, neighborhood, church, or less concrete ideas like culture or tradition or reason. 

This morning I was notified that an old post from 2010, part of my series describing the adoption of the boys from Romania, start to finish, had been flagged and removed, with the explanation given that it violated policies about malware and viruses. I looked at the comments - no spam.  I looked at my own HTML and saw nothing that could lead one to dangerous sites. I did see the footnote referring to Dale, who was on one of my wife's Romania trips, and his book. I wondered it that was the real problem and removed the reference and submitted it.  It was instantly reinstated.

I didn't run the experiment properly.  I might have been able to be reinstated anyway, perhaps by changing a letter "to show that I had addressed the problem." I doubt I will know now. But it is suggestive, isn't it.  The two main things that seem to be flagged are trans/queer issues (less often gay or lesbian, or maybe even not at all), and posts or groups that are speaking directly against the power and legitimacy of the various federal governments, rather than radical or forbidden ideas about any specific policies or government actions. Nor do those seem to be thoroughgoing, scorched-earth eliminations of such things.  Just one more inconvenience for a small blogger from NH.

So perhaps this is how it will be. It's easier just to leave it that way and move on. But fast-forward ten years, and is Dale made that much more invisible on a long quiet road? His book is still available, after all.  He hasn't been fired. This may be more of that ninja censorship I just read about and linked to. Or maybe I'm just being crazy and overreactive, making myself paranoid for no reason. That could also be a ninja strategy, though, making me question my own reasoning and asking myself if the problem is mine. "Live Not By Lies" is important, but what if the lies are my own?

So I decided to double-down and feature the book again. Next I'll go back and link to the book again in the original post. We'll see.