Politics and moderation

[JWeinCom]

JuliusHackebeil said:

I am not engaged enough to be able to fully judge the bans and moderations as fair or unfair. And I never read the rules. Just as a disclaimer. Here is what I think anyways.

It is always wrong to censor people on an anonymous forum. Sure, you cannot scream fire in a theatre or incite violence. But on here? I cannot think of an example where I would be for censoring anybody, even if the content of the post hurts somebodys feelings. That is actually a huge part of how we grow as people, to have our feelings hurt and still be able to function. A cushy bubble for your brain is the antithesis of resilience.

Also, someone posted these as forum rules: "Racist, sexist, hateful, toxic, or otherwise demeaning comments will not be tolerated." What if (just as an example) someone is for abortion and comments that, but another person thinks this is "hateful, toxic and demeaning" (to unborn children and anybody who regrets having had an abortion)? What exactly counts as "toxic" and "demeaning"?
-These rules are completely vague and their application seems arbitrary.

But those rules are not exactly applied on a personal whim, their application is not completely arbitrary, because they are applied in a certain socio-political climate. Every get-together of a number of people develops this. This website has one too and as other commenters have alluded to, that climate is not exactly a hallmark of diversity and individuality when it comes to hot button issues people love to dissagree about. Such a climate assures that vague rules are interpreted in a particular way and not in another. I am glad that many people can see how bent towards one narrow path the climate around moderation on this website is and that a thread like this exists. Let's see for how long.

I'll close with this thought: People demanding tolerance and inclusivity are seldom tolerant and inclusive themselves. "Like, why cant you just not be hateful, oh my god? It is not that difficult, just shut up if you know your opinion is not to our liking."

Saying I support abortion can not be said to be hateful, toxic, or demeaning to anyone who might be reading that post. If you are an unborn person I am pretty sure you're going to be completely unbothered. If you were a person who had an abortion that regrets it, it may stir up emotions, but someone supporting abortion is not demeaning you in any way or saying anything negative about you. If that's your best example, yikes. 

That said, if whoever owns this site (if such a person exists) wanted to make a rule that you can't talk about abortion, that's fine by me. If they want to make a site where only anti-abortion stances are promoted, also go for it. 

Point is that the idea of a forum is to make it a place where people willingly want to spend their time. If whoever runs the site thinks people want to go to a site where they have the privilege of getting their feelings hurt regularly to make themselves stronger or whatever... uhhhhh... well they could make that site. And if someone wants to make a place where certain things are not said, also their option. And you have the option of finding the place that is right for you, or even creating your own.

As for me, I'll say this. The reason I post much less frequently than I used to is largely because at a point I realized that a disturbing amount of people on this site are people that I genuinely believe are bad people. And I just kind of started thinking why to I want to shoot the shit about videogames with people I genuinely find repugnant. That's the tradeoff. Either way you do it, you're going to lose some portion of the audience. Up to whoever runs the site to decide which part they want.

As for the tired "so much for the tolerant left" bit, tolerance applies to things that are not harming others.