And so the debate continues over at Enough with the CI Blogs?, with a commentary of huff, puffs, woof woof’s, and a bearing of fangs thrown in for good measure.

One thing I should make clear, is that I do not advocate, under any terms, violence or physical abuse [and that includes verbal] towards people who make choices different to our own. I’ve had criticism because I would not pander to the victim mentality beloved of some Deaf people. That’s OK, as long as it doesn’t cross the threshold into my physical space. The heated verbal exchange that occurs in cyberspace, is different in that I can choose to ignore, embrace or challenge it. However, an email containing a threat directed at me, yes, I would consider as crossing the line into my physical space. Just let’s be clear about that.

When I write, as Mephisto, All The Young Dudes or which ever character I adopt at any given time, I write with the full knowledge that I am aiming at a particularly arrogant attitude, challenging an idea or imparting some well deserved criticism. Sure, I can be close to the bone, but in the realm of free expression, all comers have to take it on the chin as much as I am obliged to do so. More to the point, I am filling in a need that is all too sadly absent from the Deaf blogosphere, where extreme sensitivity, or should I say hypersensitivity, reigns, and nice words are equated with community and fellowship.

I have my detractors, and I have my supporters. My writing style, is not everyone’s cup of tea. Especially those who don’t like to be challenged too much. But that’s OK. I’m not going to tone down my style, in order to appease some misplaced notion of sensitivity. I would expect other bloggers to do the same. But then again, I am an Australia, and Australians have finely honed bullshit detectors. We are, finely honed bullshit detectors. That’s my trouble I guess, people don’t like being caught out!

Yes,

“Diversity, tolerance and respect demand that we try our best to allow each other room for expression.”

but it also demands that we allow criticism, and the right to express the opinion, that the monotonous drone of CI stories is just that, a monotonous drone. I find it rather amusing, that rather simply defending the right to express, and even defending the right to say otherwise and continue along their merry way, the CI adherents, in particular, are a rather sensitive lot, when it comes to defending the CI and their chosen lifestyle.

“Does anyone really have the right to say that since they no longer want to read or discuss something, that nobody else should blog about it?”

Yes, we do have the right to EXPRESS [say, write, sign, however] that we find such and such topic BORING, and that nobody else should blog about it. What we don’t have the right to do, is STOP that someone else from blogging about that boring subject matter. There is a distinct difference between SAYING and STOPPING! Besides, neither I, or Dianrez, were advocating that bloggers stop writing about boring subjects, like th CI. We were EXPRESSING the opinion that we WISH they would write about more interesting things, like, well, the latest mapping exercise which placed Australia in the northern hemisphere, and how Rachel flew down unda to find nothing but water where Australia used to be, and that the Cochlear Implant Laboratories has been moved to the Iceberg Titanic, somewhere down in Antarctica. But she didn’t bring her winter clothes, much to everyone’s disappointment.

Sure, as KL, of The ASL-Cochlear Implant Community, says:

I believe that diversity is absolutely necessary, required and designed into us by God. We NEED to be unique. We NEED to have different opinions and ideas.

But the problem in critiquing blog content, is whether the blogs are being critiqued individually or as a whole. Individually, each blogger has their own voice, that’s true. But when taken as a whole, as a collective voice, then the charges of monotonous droning becomes quite apparent. I will go as far as saying that, this monotonous droning has spoiled DeafRead and failed to enhance deaf village.

And to add to KL’s comments, that right also includes the right to write and not think! Just because I can, doesn’t mean everyone else can. Think that is! Furthermore, you can’t stop me forming the opinion that I do. The incessant chatter about the CI, mapping, et al, does not encourage any other view point other than shouts of “Hosanna!”

Jeannette Johnson, of A deaf Pundit fame, said it best [in her comment to Enough with the CI Blogs?]:

I think the problem is, there’s such an emphasis on diversity, but the notion of the CI itself is about blending within the larger society.

So for people to tell us, accept diversity, then turn around and tell us, but children need Cis, because their lives will be easier due to less intolerance and discrimination…

It’s quite of a dichotomy, and I think that rubs some people the wrong way.

Reading:

Boring As It Gets!

Enough With Blog About CI Surgery.

If I’m Part of a Majority, Then What is Our Identity?

Is There A Hard OF Hearing Culture