THE DIRTY ARMY: Why is America the “land of the free”? This nation prides itself on being allowed to exercise our constitutional rights as humans, allowing us freedom to practice our own religion, bear arms, vote, and best of all, FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
There are two sides to every story. I just want to say that Nik deserves to have his side too, and he has been getting attacked by almost every talk show host out there. I’m not saying that he is the ultimate opinion about how women should look, dress, talk, tattoo themselves, etc. But he should at least be allowed to maintain his website that exercises his opinions- obviously people agree or are intrigued by what he has to say. If no one agreed or didn’t care about him whatsoever, his website would be nothing, and no one would even care who he is. There is a reason why he has won multiple lawsuits against people who have tried to “shut his website down”, and like the previous person stated, there is a law that protects him, the owner, from being sued (the previous person also had made a great example that we cannot sue the owner of Facebook if someone on their posts something about us and we want it taken down).
Isn’t our rights to our own opinions the beauty of being in a free country? We get to vote and “have a say” in who runs our country, even though we are told daily about the people who run that government (apparently “loyal” to us) being caught with fraud, cheating on their spouses, etc. I believe this website has even helped in exposing some famous, well-loved people for who they truly are. We don’t have to listen to Nik’s opinion if we don’t want to. If you don’t like The Dirty, then don’t come to the website and continually bash it and Nik.
Everyone deserves their right to maintain their integrity and truth until they are proven guilty, (i.e, Casey Anthony who is apparently “innocent”). The person who posts something about you on The Dirty is entitled to have that opinion about you (who really even knows if it’s true or not? Only YOU), just like you are entitled to retaliate and say something back about them that may or may not be true. These are the consequences of living in a free democratic society with evolving technology (especially the internet). Kids are committing suicide because of Facebook posts.. Should we block Facebook then too? If we lived in China, thedirty.com would be a blocked and highly regulated website, however ,so would your Facebook and whatever else they told you wasn’t “safe”. China’s government control its people that way and we should be glad we our government does not intervene and tell us what we can and cannot do.
Why are we so upset about the Internet being “too dangerous”? Do we want the government to start controlling that too? Nik said something about this being similar to reality TV, which many found “ridiculous”. Reality TV is scripted, we should all know that by now. So are the producers then, “spreading lies”, because it’s supposed to be “real”, even though it’s scripted? The producers get to edit what they want to make something look how they want it to– So wait, shouldn’t those people sue them now for “defamation of character”??? This website is similar to watching something that you know may not be the truth, but it is good for entertainment value. His comparison to reality TV isn’t too far off. He is the “producer” in this situation, yet he is not editing the content of it to make that post sway in his favor. He is just putting it out there as it was shown to him… Something reality tv does not do.
Some people on here have expressed that they were not living their lives in a positive way, and being “called out” on the dirty made them think twice about their life. Sometimes the truth hurts! I’m not saying it’s right, but these days who knows what exactly is the appropriate way to make someone change their life from negative to positive? People today are taking advantage of every right that was given to help society as a whole, for example, Roe v. Wade. Instead of women getting abortions for the protection of their own health, they’re using it as a form of birth control, drinking while they’re pregnant, and posting pictures of themselves pregnant and partying. These people need a wake up call, and if The Dirty has helped them turn their lives around, then so be it. A college professor even wanted to use this website in his class to show the dynamics of pop culture today and the Internet.
On a different note. There is an old saying, “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”. If Sarah Jones was serious about her career as a teacher to high-school teenagers and to be a serious role model, she should reconsidered her hobby as a “college cheerleader” that involved wearing very provocative clothing (like she said, “I don’t teach elementary children, I teach high school teenagers”). Enjoying her part-time cheerleading hobby is fine, but she should refrain from posting provocative pictures of her wearing a revealing skimpy uniform that is easily accessible to her students (like she said “These kids have the Internet, they can Google me). Facebook has many features that allows you to approve something before it shows up publicly on your profile, something she should have taken into consideration. Someone who is that responsible of an adult that considers teaching teens their lifelong career, would have considered the possible consequences of having what some parents may consider “sexy” pictures on her Facebook account. If you were in high school and saw your teacher in a skin tight shirt that showed her stomach, paired with a very short skirt, posing with multiple men, what would you think? I’m not saying that she is wrong for having pictures up on her own personal Facebook account, I just think she should have thought about the “what-if’s” a little more clearly. She shouldn’t have posted possibly inappropriate pictures knowing she was a respected figure in her community. Her continuing to appear on talk shows seems as if she is almost trying to “promote” herself, like she has something to prove (which she claims she did not have sex in her classroom or has an STD, so what else does she need to prove to the world?), and from my understanding she still has her job and is happily married.
Nik did nothing more but allow these stories, false or not, to be shared on his website. He is simply the host. Yes he posts comments, but so does everyone else. Why do you all care what he has to say anyway? I’m sure there’s another pretentious asshole out there saying the exact same thing about women. If we cannot handle the negatives that come along with the increasing power of the Internet, then we don’t deserve to have it.
And let’s be honest. We would all love to look and feel beautiful, if someone offered to pay for our plastic surgery like on Extreme Makeover, who would say no?
(Side note, Extreme Makeover, another “reality” tv show that lets people who feel unattractive, feel beautiful.. now isn’t that show wrong too for allowing people to accept that they are ugly, and alter themselves and look the way they think society wants them to? )
Others were appalled that Nik said this website was similar to a library, and he is the librarian. The library is open to the public and contains a plethora of information, including a fiction section. If you went there, would the librarian help you find the correct section? Yes. Is this website open to the public, and contains lots of information, some of it fiction? Yes. Nik contains all the information on this website and has created it to help direct you to whatever information you want. People have used this website to advertise, promote, and many women have been able to platform themselves and their careers into the modeling world from being locally known on here. The Dirty isn’t “the devil”, as everyone claims it to be. It is a website that people are entitled to enjoy, or not enjoy. Welcome to the 21st century in America people. Technology has proven to be our best friend and enemy.
Thank you for your understanding. America is already headed in the wrong direction, so shutting down free speech in this country doesn’t surprise me.- nik
