I <3 YouTube.

Moral dilemma or just good business sense.

Today I tried to get into an intelligent debate with members of a blog I frequent. The subject was simple; YouTube was hosting a video of an insurgent sniping a U.S Military Serviceman. Clearly the video was propaganda for the terrorists and their cause. The video was graphic in nature and disturbing to watch, not only as an American but as a human being. The loss of life is always something that makes me a little queasy in the stomach.

The members of this blog took it upon themselves to make it their own personal “jihad” and did everything in their little internet powers to get this video removed, not because of the graphic nature of the video mind you, because it was one of “our guys” that took one in the dome that was being depicted in this video.

Now I did a brief search on YouTube for “insurgents killed” and there was a query of over 100 videos depicting everything from enemy combatants killed by sniper fire, missiles, bombs and other various accoutrements of war. Equally disturbing, yes, very much so, but it was the “bad guys” getting it and it was clearly a victory for “our side” so the members of this particular blog general feelings were these videos MUST stay. I guess to show the enemy we mean business and we will not tolerate the posting of videos of “our” men getting killed in combat.

So now, as a Republican, I support our military personnel one trillion percent, they are noble men and women doing good work to bring stability to an unstable region and securing not only the safety of people in the middle east, but securing the safety of American living here and abroad.

With that said I am against censorship in its various forms, whether it been the banning of movies, music, books, videos or anything that someone might deem inappropriate. What’s one person’s distain is another’s wild Brazilian tranny fetish, to each their own.

Comments were made regarding Google’s. “moral” responsibility, I guess being that they are a U.S. based company, clearly only videos of U.S military victory’s should be posted.

First, Google DOES NOT have a moral responsibility to anyone, Google is a business, and the function of this business is to make money. No where in Google’s SEC filings does it mention that YouTube is designed to be a depot for “morally acceptable” video’s only, there are strict guidelines on the nature of the videos and Google reserves the right to remove any video that depicts graphic violence, such as the killing of another human being is clearly in violation of YouTube’s terms of service.

Second, there are alternatives, you do not like the videos posted on YouTube, you can visit various other sites that feature light hearted fare, and more socially acceptable videos, you do not like YouTube’s business model then do not frequent the site, you are not a big fan of Google’s politics then use another company for your web searches and email programs and don’t use the copout that, “But that’s my company email”, you want to feign fake distain then have the balls to say, “fuck it” it’s a minor inconvenience, but I will stick to my fundamental beliefs and dump my Gmail account.

Third, you have the power, YouTube and Google are ad generated business, let the corporations know that you will not purchase products, or services from business that advertise on YouTube, me personally I installed “Ad-Block” I do not need to be inundated with advertisements for products I do not need, or want.

Fourth, be intelligent, if you have strong feelings regarding a particular issue, speak your piece in a coherent intelligent manner, “Die in a fire” gets you nowhere and it makes you come off like a inbred moron that lacks the social skills to even be allowed to use the internet.

And Finally, not everyone has the same beliefs as yourself, understand that and accept that, what if one day the corporate heads at Google decide, because they are atheists, there will no longer be videos depicting religious symbolisms or ceremony’s of any faith, because Google has a “moral” responsibility to the board members that do not believe in God, by doing that Google gave up their business model for moral beliefs, and in a country where 40 percent of the people believe in an invisible entity this business model would no longer be as profitable.

Like someone once said to me, “Don’t sweat the petty stuff, pet the sweaty stuff”, ha that was a vagina joke, see what I did there.

Now let me go eat my Kashi cereal, and drink some Starbucks coffee so I can fund terrorism.