Censorship in the Prog/Lib Echo Chamber.

So I periodically comment on on-line version of the local fishwrapper.  Being the flagship fishwrapper of the PDRS (Peoples Democratic Republic of Seattle), they of COURSE have STRICT POLICIES as to what is considered civil discourse.

After attempting to point out the inconsistency of the author's points I get the following message when I tried to post:"Your post contains one or more words that are not allowed."

Lets see that again: "Your post contains one or more words that are not allowed." 

Indeed, so first thing I did was to re-read the post to see if I inadvertently used something that violated the rather lengthy list of sins, including but not limited to:

"Disparaging an entire identity or ideology, or any other behavior that embodies or emboldens bigotry. This includes, but is not limited to: racism, misogyny, ableism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia. Causing, inciting, threatening or advocating for violence or harm. Obscenities, profanities and slurs; and Promoting, encouraging or making light of illegal activity."

Nope, none of the above. (or anything else apparent in the Commenting Code of Conduct.) 

So I pasted the comment back in and by trial and error determined that the words illegal and alien used the same sentence or in close proximity seemed to be the offending words.  I then wrote a NEW post that instead of using the phrase "illegal alien" i noted the factual and LEGAL definition of one who entered a sovereign country in contravention of the laws of said country, made note that the ST was shaping the conversation by banning direct or indirect legal and factual descriptions of a condition resulting from the violation of immigration laws of the subject country.  

That post as well as the one that I altered to not use THOSE WORDS was deleted.

It seems that if one wants to shape the conversation and to present a DISTORTED view of the purported "views" of the readership of the fishwrapper, then all one has to do is to employ moderators of the "correct" political leaning who will pounce on "incorrect views" and make them vanish.

Its pretty bad when they stoop towards deleting dictionary and legal definitions in an effort to shape the conversation...

As in many other venues, in Legal proceedings, Laws and the enforcement of same, Words have meanings. 
To Whit: Precision in the law is a vital principle, since the exact words used in statutes, regulations, contracts, guidance documents, and policy statements can significantly affect how they are applied and interpreted.

Illegal Alien: An illegal alien is any foreign national inside a country where he or she has no legal right to be.

Federal immigration law uses the term “illegal alien.” For example, 8 U.S.C. §1365 is a provision that deals with a reimbursement program the federal government has for states that are incarcerating illegal aliens. Its very title refers to “illegal aliens,” and that term is used in the statute itself, which defines an illegal alien as anyone “who is in the United States unlawfully.”
“Alien”—rather than “immigrant”—is the correct legal term, since “alien” is defined in 8 U.S.C. §1101 (a)(3) as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”

An essay from Hans A. von Spakovsky,  "Undocumented Immigrant" Is a Made-Up Term That Ignores the Law  deals with this in detail, from which the above definitions and USC are excerpted.