#silencing

manifestations of my familiar or knotty nicked muddle

Where's the line? Well, for me, it's here, right now. Which is why tonight will be my last show. I'm not naive. In this industry, you always have to make certain sacrifices, because this is a business. And I get that. And there's good people on the business side who are trying to navigate the difficult intersection of art and commerce. But thanks to Wall Street and big tech disrupting our industry, it's gone too far. It's not enough to be number one anymore, or to make a profit, or to even make you laugh. I might be a capitalist pig myself, but first and foremost, I'm a comedian. I care more about making this show the right way than I do about making shareholders happy. So yes, this is goodbye.”

*the crowd intercedes*

“We love you!”

“Thank you. That's very sweet. I loved going to bed with you every night. Sorry I'm finishing too quickly. This was my dream. And I'm so happy I got it. But the dream changed. And so did I. So don't feel sorry for me. Don't feel sorry for my staff. I'll be paying their contracts out. But I have a message for Bob Lipka and this company's board. You can try to silence me, but you-“

*the feed cuts to an ad-break*

Now that’s love and loyalty. Well done, Deborah. 👏

It’s true. Censorship and silencing is ruining the art/entertainment industry. Censorship has always been a problem. But it’s an even bigger one at this moment because the people in power are the only villains here.

And if we can’t stand up for each other in this very difficult time, then we’re all doomed. We’ll all lose.

Thank the gods there are TV shows delivering this message as best as they can because it’s relevant.

It will unfortunately always be relevant to talk about. Which means we really cannot stop talking about it.

Censorship doesn’t help or protect anyone if those who are being silenced are and always will be targeted by it.

The only people it can possibly help or protect are the ones that never have to worry about being punished for their own crimes against humanity because they know they can always buy and blackmail their way out of jail.

Which is why we can’t stop. It’s why we shouldn’t stop!

Because it’s a really slippery slope. Where is the line?

—African American Gothic