Stunslinger.com Blog

So, for some reason (mainly because I’m laid up with some unknown stomach illness) I’m watching “My Coolest Years: Dirty Hippies” on VH1.  Ok, so I find it highly ironic that a show about coolness would include dirty hippies.  I’m no elitist jock, but hippies?  They smell like patchouli and dirt, and one time a dirty hippy “tipped” me when I worked at a gas station by playing me a song on his banjo.  Seriously.  Thanks, I’ll take the memory of that song with me as I go buy lunch with the tips of other out-of-state people who know what “tip” means.  (By the way, for those traveling through Oregon, it is not indeed customary to tip your gas attendant.)

So anyway, here’s this show with random “celebrities” talking about their life in high school as a hippy.  The typical discussions abound: how horrible they smelled, the atrocious personal hygeine, how retarded jocks are, how wonderful the Grateful Dead, Phish, and other bands who can’t figure out how to write a concise song are.  Then along comes Ann Coulter talking about how many Dead shows she went to.  Excuse me, did I write that correctly?  Ann Coulter, mouthpiece of radical conservativism and the woman who wrote in a book and then went on TV saying that the 9/11 widows are “witches” who are “enjoying their husband’s deaths”, talking about being a hippy and into the Grateful Dead?!?  Something does not compute.

As much as I like to detest dirty hippies, I would never insult them by lumping Ann Coulter in with them.  Although, knowing some hippies, they would probably welcome her into a drum circle as long as she didn’t harsh their buzz.

I need to go listen to August 8th by NOFX…

As someone who has morals, values, and opinions (yes, I know…so unique!) I struggle when some of these values seem to conflict. As a psychologist-in-training I place a high value on promoting mental health. Time and again, I see situations where people who are in a vulnerable place are taken advantage of, and are driven deeper into illness… like any human being (especially one dedicated to helping people) I am greatly troubled by this.

Now, I also am someone who values human rights (again, who doesn’t?). I have long maintained that it is important to protect freedoms for people who I disagree with, because disagreeing with me does not limit your fundamental rights–just as my disagreeing with you does not limit my rights. Specifically, I believe in freedom of expression. I believe that hateful, “evil” speech should be countered not with censorship, but with more speech. To use a famous poem that said it far better than I ever could:

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

So, you may be asking, how exactly do these values (mental health and free speech) conflict? Well, I recently was listening to a presentation about eating disorders, and the subject was brought up of Pro-Ana websites that encourage people to push themselves deeper into an eating disorder. Somebody commented that it was good that these sites are being blocked by many of the popular search engines, and a number of the webhosts deleted the sites from their servers. It was at this point that I paused.

Do I grieve that these sites exist, and that they encourage young people (usually young and usually girls, although more and more boys are becoming anorexic/bulimic) to damage their bodies through destructive eating habits? Absolutely. Do I wish that people struggling with this disorder would get encouragement towards health rather than towards an eating disorder? Of course! Do I think we should censor these sites to prevent people from viewing them? Um, well…you see….no?

I think this is one of those times where I have to decide whether freedom of expression is important enough to allow content that disturbs me to be out in the public eye. I am not happy that I make this decision, because I have seen the power of misinformation and the horrible encouragement these sites provide. I have seen families torn apart and people kill themselves because of eating disorders. To quote a supporter of the Anti-Ana movement:

I’m anti-ana because I want it out of my body. I’m anti-ana because I wouldn’t wish this hell upon my worst enemy, and it’s scary as anything to see how these uninformed girls embrace the disease.
– falls2climb on livejournal

This is an example of what should be happening, speech to counter speech. This is a discussion, this is preserving the rights of all while still taking a stand for what I believe in.