Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

  Suppressive Speech Toward a Theory of Linguistic Pressure, Communicative Domination, and the Liberation of Human Voice Abstract We normally think about the suppression of speech as something done to speech from the outside . A government bans a book. A platform removes a message. An employer prohibits discussion of a subject. A censor prevents words from being published or transmitted. But there is another possibility. Speech itself can suppress speech. A person can use language, tone, repetition, interruption, ridicule, intimidation, conversational occupation, status, framing, accusation, or sheer vocal pressure in ways that diminish another person's ability to speak, think, testify, object, question, organize, resist, or even formulate an alternative interpretation of reality. This phenomenon can be called Suppressive Speech . Suppressive Speech is not merely offensive language. It is not identical to hate speech, propaganda, censorship, deception, coercion, persuasion,...

  🌌🕊️ The Liberatory Imagination The Imagination as an Instrument of Liberation, Resilience, Antifragility, and the Fostering of the Path to the End of Suffering Whatever suffering tries to make unimaginable—freedom, healing, dignity, reconciliation, strength, meaning, or a future—the Liberatory Imagination must learn to imagine again, and then help bring into being. 🌠 Introduction: The Imagination Is More Than Fantasy The imagination is often treated as though it were merely a private theater of dreams—a place of fantasy, entertainment, wishful thinking, and escape. It is spoken of as something childish, impractical, irrational, or detached from reality. But the imagination can be far more than this. The imagination can become an instrument of liberation . It can become a mechanism of mental and spiritual recovery. It can become a refuge during adversity, a forge of resilience, a laboratory of meaning, a generator of strategies, an architect of identities, and a cre...