The mods are absolutely in the right, meaning correct, here.
I’m concerned about the direction of posters who want to quell any and all dissent. The OP in that thread was not spouting any sort of Nazi propaganda, and if one believes that he/she was, then you can take it to the Pit, or respond in a civil way.
I’m gobsmacked that so many people just want to ban things on this board that they don’t like. Just stop reading the thread and move on to many others that might suit you. This advice might well be taken for those who think certain comments are disrespectful to women.
If my problem was with the anti-semite I’d be posting in the pit. I’m complaining about the moderation.
Let me try again:
In your first note (Link for people with weird browser settings:)) you tell Emiliana that they shouldn’t accuse the OP of being an anti-semite. She never does, in no way you can logically infer that is what she ment.** Unless you agree the OP is anti-semitic**. Your post only make sense that way. Emiliana was just rephrasing the OP (assignment for extra credit: rephrase it more succinctly). If you get “You anti-semite” from “Oddly enough, I am not surprised.” You need to have some prior knowledge. It could also mean they think the OP’s an idiot or any other interpretation, Yet you and Emiliana agree immediately that “anti-semite” is the correct interpretation (of course it is). In my eyes you are now defending the OP’s anti-semite bullshit from people calling it what it is. (and you agreeing as a matter off course that it is just that).
In the second Note you seem to think that answering a post that starts “I had a thought the other day.” with “I wouldn’t dignify it as a “thought”” is somehow a personal attack: He is calling the OP(ost) not the poster an inane brainfart. (that is my reading, you can fill in your adjective of choice: Still not attacking the Poster)
So what’s with the Knee-jerk defense of anti-semite drivel?
I’ve already responded to your points. If you are going to characterize my moderation as “knee-jerk defense of anti-semite [sic] drivel” I don’t think there’s any point in further response.
Accusing Jews of helping to perpetuate the Holocaust is a very old anti-semitic refrain among a number of people. If you are young enough, you may be excused for not knowing that, but it would be a good idea to learn that fact.
Further, the OP has a history of irritating other posters with questions or remarks that appeared racist, anti-feminist, religiously bigoted, etc. Whether or not those posters are correct, the Mod’s instruction was intended to head off any pursuit of those feelings in this thread. (Based on previous posts, I would not be surprised that the OP was submitted with a certain combination of ignorance and naiveté that was not based in outright racism, so the Mod’s call avoided imputing a specific and deliberate bias to that poster–a perception of bias that you and the Mod-noted poster appear to share.)
Dear Diary: TIL that antisemitism and Nazism and misogyny are just “things on this board that I don’t like” and I should just ignore all of that and move on…
No. This is an amoral way of looking at the issue, and leaving out the moral component leads to an inaccurate estimation of what occurred.
The actual issue is that these posters all understand that antisemitism is morally wrong. So they fight back against it. The issue with the moderator note is that it goes out of its way to protect the poster who did something morally wrong. It chooses to try and halt saying antisemitism is wrong, rather than the actual antisemitism.
nightshadea is entirely correct about what would have happened in the past. If such a view would be considered so hateful it would be moved to the Pit. Even if the OP was only innocently asking (a dubious assertion if they have the history you describe), they would soon learn through the fire of the Pit why such a question is so horrible. If the mods were gracious, they might close the thread instead.
Unfortunately, what a lot of us have noticed is a trend towards protecting those who make bigoted claims. (A trend, not an inviolate rule.) And this is exactly the sort of thing many of us are upset about and wish would change. There is no reason this couldn’t be treated the same as the stuff about making the board more women-friendly, and moderated accordingly.
If you look at the bigger picture, what we have is a thread pushing Nazi ideology as a thread on the front page of our educational forum, where any admonishment for such is declared out of line by the mods. Regardless of what reasons you can come up with to justify this, this overall fact remains true.
And it continues to make this board look bad, and make it a place I can’t recommend. The only people who would follow me are the Nazis and bigots who think that, as long as they word their question correctly, they’d be allowed to push their ideology.
Maybe somehow the OP just happened to stumble upon the same ideas as bigots and Nazis, and has just happened to do this repeatedly. But what you allow one poster, it would be unfair not to allow others.
NOTE: After I submitted post #32 I saw that the mods had closed that particular thread, so any comments I might post from here on out are strictly for discussion.
ITD, it makes you feel disgusted to try to explain something to someone who is genuinely naive and ignorant? How do you deal with it in real life? Or do you believe the SDMB should be a safe space where the genuinely naive and ignorant shouldn’t ask questions that disgust you?
Yeah, well tomndebb would simply “not be surprised” if this wasn’t an intentional race baiting thread. I think what people are saying here is that many of us would be quite surprised.
No one has presented any evidence that the OP of During the holocaust . . .? is an actual racist rather than an extremely ignorant (rather than stupid) human with a poor grasp of logic.
As soon as various mind reading posters who appear to be always pushing to ban everyone they do not like lay out their evidence for the intellectual and moral beliefs of those they choose to purge, we can begin sweeping up the chaff. Until then, it would behoove the lynch mob to provide simple evidence for the correct (accurate) positions rather than getting frustrated that we will not let them hurl verbal stones at other posters while we begin the bannings.
A number of posters who argue for name-calling and banishment really are not paying attention to what they are asking and its repercussions.
If we declared open season on everyone who expressed a racist idea, a number of those posters would soon be the targets of anti-sexist name-calling and calls for banning. Once we agree to punishing poorly expressed ideas regarding race and sex, we can move on to sexual orientation or gender, eliminating a few more posters. Then what? Alternative (or any) religious beliefs? Poor economic policies?
We have at least one poster who is in the stone throwing camp who has expressed racist ideas while condemning racism–I would guess to provide bona fides of being an independent thinker.
There have been a couple of posters in this thread who have noted that we just know that the OP of the other thread was a race-baiting troll. It would be interesting to see what evidence they have that that poster is not simply ignorant on a number of topics and is using poor examples and language that they acquired from elsewhere to try to ask their questions or make their point.
There is The BBQ Pit forum provided to hurl stones. All we are asking is that the stones not be hurled in a discussion forum and that we use those fora to actually discuss facts and ideas. If one is unable to rebut errors of fact or logic with accurate facts and logic, perhaps the discussion fora are not where one should post.
The latest thread closing would be my cite. Guy clearly had a point to make and kept coming up with new analogies to make it… that’s not ignorance, that’s agenda.
And were not in court. We don’t have to prove anything.
There is a huge middle you are ignoring.
Maybe move the fucking thing out of GQ?
Send the OP a request to rephrase his question, without the “” and other little dog whistles?
I not asking for a banning or carte blanche to hurl stones. I’m asking the mods err on the right side when moderating responses to a clearly “irritating and ignorant” post.
I would add that the guy has been here over two years drawing moderators’ attention. Even if one is dead set on ignorant naivete being a possibility at this point, surely there’s a point where enough is enough?