In this thread the moderator treats as mere “opinion” that police in the US killings and beatings of black are not fact, but rather commentary. This unlawful state of affairs is fact. We have videos to prove it. It was fact when it was in General Questions and it is fact when it is in Great Debates. The Straight Dope Message Board needs to stop treating common murders, beatings and genocides as matters of opinion. They are fact. Treating them as debatable opinion, rather than fact is intellectually dishonest to the point of being propaganda. The SDMB is an offshoot of an alternative newspaper, a form of journalism. For journalists to treat reader comments on the facts as scurrilous opinion is an embarrassment to journalism.
It’s time the SDMB pulled its head out of its ass and let the facts be discussed as the facts with the appropriate adjectives and stopped providing cover for genocidal racism. At some point, orderliness rejecting reality mistakes the facts of the world for a formal dinner party, and our liberty suffers.
As Colibri pointed out, it was a for inflammatory political commentary in GQ that got you warned, not anything else.
In point of fact, you stated that South Carolina summarily executes black men for having busted taillights. I see no way to NOT consider that both inflammatory and a matter of opinion and not fact.
I was pointing out a fact. The fact is that black men in the US are killed by police for trivial matters. The fact that this occurred in South Carolina is not a political jab, it is a fact that must be dealt with by every man with black skin in the state of South Carolina (and every other state in the US). You consider pointing out Mr. Scott’s murder a political jab. I consider it a fact resulting from his skin color.
As may be the case, your statement about summary execution is opinion and not fact. You’re implying a direct and specific action on the part of the state of South Carolina. There may be patterns, there may be inferences, but there is no evidence at all that there’s a specific policy by the police departments in South Carolina to execute anyone extrajudicially.
That is inflammatory and it IS inherently political.
If it’s a fact that the state executed him, why didn’t the state get arrested for murder? Because that’s not what happened. One guy screwed up, one guy got arrested.
I disagree. We don’t have the state-sanctioned executions, which you seem to allude to. What I infer from your post in the other thread is that you think that the state of South Carolina endorses this behavior from their policemen. So far as I can tell, this is not the case.
I think the warning was justified. You were out-of-bounds in the GQ thread.
ETA: These responses weren’t present when I typed this. I disagree with the OP.
So then Mr. Scott is alive? No. Mr. Scott is dead. Was Mr. Scott rendered dead by an act of the state? Yes, the police officer acted on behalf of the state. He was in uniform, wearing a badge, allegedly pulling the man over for a broken tail light, and shot the man in the back eight times. All facts. Not opinions. The only thing different about this incident was it was caught on video and audio. I see no way to consider these things to be matters of opinion in any fashion, and not as matters of fact. That these matters of fact are confused by editors (moderators) is tragic. That they are considered as inflammatory (dangerous) opinion and not treated as the awful fact of a racist system perpetuated by police is still not an opinion, it’s a fact.
That it is a regular practice of the SDMB to construe the racism of white people against non-white people (their murder and oppression) as a matter of opinion and not fact is ignorant and racist.
People with non-white skin are also entitled to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, property, due process and equal protection. It isn’t a matter of privilege, it is a matter of right. A right that is not subject to being taken away, a right that is inalienable.
It is regrettable that racism and injustice against non-white people is regularly dismissed by the moderators at SDMB as merely opinion. When people do not stand up for the rights of differently colored people to be treated, as a matter of fact, as having the same rights as people of the “correctly” colored skin, they risk waking up, very soon, to discovering that only governments, wealthy and powerful corporations have any real rights. That morrow has been dawning for the better part of two decades, in my opinion. As a matter of fact, black people have faced this state of facts since they were forcibly brought to the US.
Because it was on video. Compare the number of police officers charged with murdering black men with the number of police officers shooting black men, and you will get this one instance of a murder charge. Had it not been videoed, nothing would have happened.
Does Colibri moderate with a heavy hand? Yes.
Was he wrong in this instance? No.
Spoken as one who has had his own run-ins with the Mod in question. Colibri was correct in calling you on the comment and correct in issuing a warning.
Also: The OP seems to be trying to reopen the debate here.
And the mod slander* where he says “It is regrettable that racism and injustice against non-white people is regularly dismissed by the moderators at SDMB as merely opinion” A) is incorrect, and B) seems to be wildly inappropriate for this forum (or…maybe any).
One part I’m not getting though is why is it ok to say something like this in GD but not in GQ? To me it’s inflammatory bordering on trolling to say it twice in the same thread after being warned, and whether it’s in GQ or GD shouldn’t matter. I guess it does, however.
I won’t speak for Colibri or any other GQ mods but I felt it was acceptable in GD.
Heated discussion, provided it remains civil and obeys the rules, is fine in GD. If TSS wants to make that statement of fact in GD he may. He’s welcome to defend it against all comers as well. That’s what debate is about after all.
What the hell makes you think moderators are journalists? This is not a newspaper. It is a message board. We are here to moderate discussions and keep them from being derailed. One of those ways that has developed over the years is to keep debate and political jabs out of GQ. We don’t stifle those discussions we just make sure they are in the proper forum so that those who want to debate can do so freely. You have been here long enough to know that.
Gimme a hit off whatever you are smoking. That is some seriously strong shit. This place practically invented screaming “Racist!” as the all-purpose way to shut down and discredit an opponent in any discussion involving race in even the most peripheral way.
Well, ya all are welcome to your opinions, but that is no comfort to Mr. Scott’s family or any black man in public in America, and it is a fact that your opinions are no comfort to the violent racism. Although it has oft been said that one is entitled to one’s own opinions, but not one’s own facts, the denial that has raged through the US for several centuries over racism and cops hating on black people (and killing them at will) should have been put to rest yesterday. But not a single one of the people posting in this thread will have their opinion changed by the facts.