Lovely. I finally decide to come back to LJ after a rather prolonged personal crisis and this is what happens. So many people with very strong opinions over the suspensions. I'm of two minds.

On the one hand, obviously people are upset that the suspensions were so heavy-handed. I agree it wasn't handled well, it certainly had some political pressure that strikes me as hinky, and they did delete people who had legitimate reasons for certain LJ interests. I would personally hope they could be reinstated, but I'm not counting on it. And I don't agree that things should be censored, or controlled by a rabid faction with distinctly disturbing interests in creating a heteronormative world.

But as other people have pointed out, LJ is a business. It's not some free utopia. So if they feel business/outside pressure to do things, guess what? They'll do it. And they have every right, too, according to their TOS. Sure it sucks if you're one of the people suspended, and if it happened to me, I certainly wouldn't be happy about it. But you know, I also know they have every right to do that. The Bill of Rights only applies to U.S. citizens in public space. This is private space we signed on to - in the end, it doesn't really belong to you.

And about going over to Greatestjournal, as many people seem to be planning. Sure, they don't have the political pressure nor do they have the mass of people that would draw the attention of political groups (for now, unless a whole influx of LJ people came over and you can bet that GJ would be next on the list for those groups). But they have similar things in their TOS, as does Journalfen - namely, the right to modify the TOS anytime they feel like it and the right to kick you out.

You want to believe that any community you belong to is noble and ideal and you can feel free to express your personal views without fear of reprisal or censorship. But it's not, especially not in these days of increasing encroachment by business interests on the internet to control it. And if you think that by going anywhere else, it'll be safe, you're only gaining a short-lived reprieve. Because I fear you're deluding yourself if you think people won't sell out in the end, given the choice of economic stability. If the last six years have taught me anything, it's that you never know what will force people to make the sad, but sometimes unavoidable decision to take safety over idealism. I hope that people last in acting on their beliefs, but I certainly didn't and I know that today's protesters are tomorrow's politicians.

So I don't know. I think seven years ago, I would have been one of the people drawing up the petitions, making the comments, or at the very least, crying "First Amendment." But things change and in the end, I suppose I've never really thought that this was a safe haven. A fun place to be, yes, and a place to share ideas, works, and concerns. But it's not my home, it's not my utopia, and in the end, it's not mine, truly. As I've said in my library classes, ideas on the internet are ephemeral. They come and go as they please, often leaving little to no trace of how they used to be. Just look at all the dead comms, sites, and journals, and you'll see that things that don't change on the internet are perhaps only slightly less rare than an idealistic corporation.

The fact that LJ surprised people by doing all of this surprises me. It makes me think people have far more faith in humanity than I ever could. Because for me, I was only surprised it took them this long.