# Aspidistra has been suspended for 30 days **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Tags:** suspension-banning\ **Created:** [March 15, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623 "2025-03-15T18:37:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/21 "2025-03-16T13:29:49Z")
Isn’t that also the episode where it turned out the rudeness wasn’t really a symptom after all, and the kid really was just rude as a matter of personality? Or was that a different episode? I’ve only seen the first five seasons. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/22 "2025-03-16T13:55:24Z")
> **A bit OT, but here's the answer** > > HOUSE: [waving it off] They’re idiots. It’s not amyloidosis. It’s iron. He’s got hemochromatosis. > > [While House speaks, the camera moves off Nate’s sour face and zooms towards his chest.] > > HOUSE: The body absorbs iron from food, but can’t process it. > > [CGI: Through the blood vessels. Large quantities of iron deposit along the walls as red blood cells flow overhead. > > HOUSE: Can’t get rid of it. And idle iron is the devil’s playground. It builds up in the organs and joints, whacking them in the process. > > [Camera focuses on House.] > > HOUSE: Caused all of the symptoms. Including something that wasn’t a symptom. > > [He limps to the surgical cabinet.] > > HOUSE: Those body aches, they were not from the fighting. > > ENID: [hopeful] His personality issues? > > HOUSE: [taking a scalpel] Sorry. The iron’s innocent on that count. Your kid’s a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/23 "2025-03-16T13:56:02Z")
Show you exactly where the line is drawn, thus enabling you and other rules lawyers to dance upon it gleefully? Right. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/24 "2025-03-16T14:43:07Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Personally, I’ve always struggled to judge whether something will be offensive or not in general - the result of autism - and still more when I am accustomed to extremely different standards in other spaces. As I have said before, it seems certain that I am on the spectrum but the various medical professionals who diagnosed me as a kid missed it among all my other issues. When those issues have been really severe, it shows up on this board. While I was out of two medications and unable to get more, I got my first thread ban in twenty five years of posting. A few other fun things happened after I finally got my prescriptions filled but before they built up to the usual levels in my body. If autism was really the problem I would be sympathetic, post in **Aspidistra** ’s defense and ask the mods for leniency. Autism is **not** the problem. The problem is transphobia. Transphobia, along with many other forms of bigotry, is against the rules here. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/25 "2025-03-16T17:00:59Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > > [@DemonTree](#): > > > > For future reference, please could the mods tell us how she should have written those comments to express the same meaning, but be within the rules? > > I’m not a Mod but if I were there is no way that I’d give any assistance to anyone who might want to rules lawyer. All one has to do is not be a bigoted asshole. Nearly all of us are able to manage that without assistance. Cheering from up here in the stands. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/26 "2025-03-16T17:25:57Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I want to understand if the issue is the wording, or whether some ideas are simply not allowed to be expressed in any form. Operationally, some ideas are simply not allowed to be expressed in any form without sanction on this message board, IMHO. You can express them elsewhere. Personally, I believe that I have the skills to circumvent such rules, but I have no inclination to line-dance. Happily the board has ways of dealing with people continually operating in bad faith, though the process typically lasts decades. For those who need help following the rules here, the bright line rule is, “Obey the instructions of the volunteer mods.” If you don’t like those instructions, take it to ATMB. You are not allowed to insult the volunteer mods in ATMB though: you must be polite. So in practice there is a ban on flaming moderator decisions. Oh the humanity! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/27 "2025-03-16T17:42:25Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Operationally, some ideas are simply not allowed to be expressed in any form without sanction on this message board, IMHO. You can express them elsewhere. > > Personally, I believe that I have the skills to circumvent such rules, but I have no inclination to line-dance. Happily the board has ways of dealing with people continually operating in bad faith, though the process typically lasts decades. The part I’m curious about, though, is: what happens if you simply, y’know, _ask_ a poster who seems to believe that whether they believe it? So, no room to, uh, _dance_ — just a point-blank, yes-or-no, put-em-on-the-spot question — would that take decades? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/28 "2025-03-16T17:46:00Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The part I’m curious about, though, is: what happens if you simply, y’know, _ask_ a poster who seems to believe that whether they believe it? So, no room to, uh, _dance_ — just a point-blank, yes-or-no, put-em-on-the-spot question — would that take decades? I don’t think there are rules against bigots posting on this message board. There are rules against expressing bigotry. Off board behavior has never been formally sanctioned here to my knowledge, even jerkish off-board behavior. I am not a mod. Also, I’d like to correct myself. While the process _can_ last for decades, it’s more typical for it to last years. Also, committed bigots don’t line dance particularly well – so they usually don’t stick around for long. They lack the mental discipline. Most line-dancers aren’t bigots, merely trolls to various extents. ETA for followup below. DocCathode handled the worthwhile question. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/29 "2025-03-16T17:50:04Z")
That has happened before. A few posters have simply replied ‘I cannot answer that without violating the rules of the SDMB’. This is an admission of bigotry. It is also an admission that they understand the rules just fine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/30 "2025-03-16T17:51:41Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I don’t think there are rules against bigots posting on this message board. There are rules against expressing bigotry. No, my question was: if you suspect someone is a bigot — if, say, they’re offering up arguments that only seem to make sense if they happen to be a bigot — and you simply ask them whether they hold the bigoted belief in question, then, what? They express bigotry? They explain that they can’t answer the question without expressing bigotry, because Express Bigotry Here? Warning to follow? Suspension to follow? Banning to follow? [Edited to add: I see a reply ninja’d in while I was posting] ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/31 "2025-03-16T17:54:28Z")
The posters who have made that reply are not breaking any rules by posting it. They would need to post their bigotry somehow. For example- by misgendering, by saying that trans women are not women, etc. Just saying ‘I cannot answer because it would violate board rules’ is fine. ETA Nevermind. I saw your edit only after I posted. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/32 "2025-03-16T18:49:05Z")
Since bigoted expression is under sanction here, I’d recommend that defenders of discrimination targets present the biological facts, even when not asked explicitly to. Specifically, biologically speaking there are not just 2 sexes among mammals. (Sure, most are XX or XY. But there are XXY, and a wider set of genes that determine sex, some of which occassionally flipped in opposing directions. Then there’s androgen insensitivity syndrome…) You’ve done that? Great! But repetition is a large component of shifting lurking normie perception. The point is that when expression is curbed, you need to adapt to it. Shouting things down will only get you so far. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/33 "2025-03-16T18:51:32Z")
If you (and that’s a general “you,” though on this topic, and in this thread, it applies to Aspidistra and, apparently, DemonTree) find that there is a particular topic area which keeps landing you in hot water with the moderators and other posters, and on which you can’t figure out how to express your opinions and viewpoints without managing to run afoul of board rules and offending others, then you should maybe consider that this message board isn’t the place where you should be engaging on that topic. If you appreciate being a member of the board community, and enjoy being a participant in other topics, then it may be that you should just avoid that topic area entirely. If you can’t help yourself, can’t resist weighing in on that topic (because it’s very dear to you), or just are trying to push the line on it, sooner or later, it’ll be a problem which will solve itself, because you’ll find yourself being banned. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/34 "2025-03-16T19:02:53Z")
Standard practice is to close posts like this immediately since the poster in question can’t respond. Since I neglected to do that earlier, I’m doing it now. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623/35 "2025-03-16T19:03:09Z")
Closed on March 16, 2025, 7:03pm UTC [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspidistra-has-been-suspended-for-30-days/1015623.md?page=1)