Nobody has ever left an irrelevant political comment at any of my images, but that's probably because virtually none of them have obvious political connotations. However, if someone left a comment at one of my images that I totally disagreed with, I wouldn't be offended and wouldn't complain, as long as they weren't being abusive. In my opinion bias-based censorship violates the spirit of the best aspects of creative communities. There needs to be room for all manner of expression (within site TOS blah blah blah.) People who pretend to have the be-all, end-all definition of what art really is tend to be, well, wrong. Aesthetics are philosophy of perceptions, not a system of objective absolutes.

In fact there is some repression of political expression at this site, but in fairness that's mostly because of across-the-board restrictions on types of content, at least as regards the galleries. For example, if I wanted to post an image in protest of abuses at Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib, I wouldn't be allowed by Renderosity TOS to do the type of image I'd be inclined to do, even if everything were bloodless, in silhouette, or devoid of any overt "message," because depictions of torture per se are forbidden. I have no problem with the exception made for depictions of the crucified Christ, although this exception does carry a certain implicit bias that would not be granted to those of other sorts of convictions. That sort of thing is a tough call for the gallery moderators, and in recognition of that, I think we members should cut them some slack when tough calls are made.

What I very strongly disagree with is the notion that some members promulgate, that there's no place for political expression in the arts. It's a historically ignorant and inherently censorial attitude. If it's the site TOS, that's one thing: It's Rendo's right to determine their own TOS. It's the surprisingly small-minded ideas about art that some members maintain that consistently surprise, disappoint, and frustrate me, but to each their own. Live and let live. If you don't like it, don't dwell on it. Move on and find images you can appreciate. Inappropriate commentary can be removed by a moderator, if it's a problem for the artist.

Message edited on: 07/01/2005 15:02