A couple keywords to keep in mind while you read:
Tangible property: Property that you can own and hold and see and touch.
Intangible property: Property you own and can’t see, hold or touch. The right to use your tangible property. Like being able to drive your car whenever you’d like.
Do you know what it’s like to be silenced? Silenced until you compromise yourself and your beliefs to fit into what people think is politically correct or the “right way”?
Being politically correct is apparently more important than life itself. Somehow our intangible property right has shifted from certain words to other words without our knowledge or consent.
I had the exclusive intangible property right to a book blog. Sometime into it I started looking for a co-blogger to help me with upkeep and posting. When I decided on a blogger I specifically told said blogger in an e-mail that I don’t read or blog about the LGBT+ genre and community and if they agreed not to write about this subject among others on my blog I would gladly share my online space to write with me.
On their first post this blogger wrote a bit in their post about their sexual orientation. When I asked for them to remove it before publishing; this blogger questioned my exclusive intangible property rights to my blog.
The subject matter was personal information about this blogger I didn’t want on my blog. This blogger kept pushing and pushing for this topic to be put on my blog.
I stood my ground and said no. That was my blog and my space and they had their own blog to write about whatever they’d like. This blogger ended up quitting and proceeded to spread rumors about me because I wouldn’t give into their attempt to shift and control my intangible property rights to my blog. This blogger baited and switched me in an effort to control the direction of my intangible property to other political beliefs and agree to bend the terms and conditions that this blogger already agreed to prior to accepting the position as co-writer.
This blogger attempted to take away exclusive intangible property to my blog by attempting to control my intangible property right to specific words which formed beliefs that were not within the parameters of my own conscience.
I had a friend who was very angry at the world.
This friend would pick a fight with anyone who said the smallest thing -intentionally or not- that didn’t match with this friends political beliefs. This friend would get angry when someone wouldn’t automatically apologize for saying the wrong thing. This friend would become angry for asking why they were mad, as if someone should already know. They’d get angry when someone asked why you had to apologize for sharing an opinion. This friend would get angry when you wouldn’t use certain terms.
A while back I exercised my exclusive right to language and unintentionally said something that went against this friends political beliefs and when they called me out on it I asked them to explain why I was “wrong”. When they explained, I realized I didn’t agree with what they were saying and I stood by what I said. This friend spent days trying to tell me I was “wrong” and that I should apologize for what I said.
This friend took away my exclusive intangible property right to language itself by telling me my opinion was wrong and that their way was the only way.
I cut these people from my life without a second thought. These kind of people are draining and manipulative and if they couldn’t respect me and my voice I wouldn’t have them in my life.
I will not be silenced. I have a voice and it will be heard.