And if we are going to ban words denoting mythical half human female monsters, then Sphinx should be verboten too.
Oh and mermaids.
Here are a handful of posts by a certain poster I wont mention because its probably against the rules. Also, the posts have been shortened to only include the crazy.
The problem for me with posts like these isnt that he calls out conservatives; its that he broad brushes, dehumanizes his opponents and hints at violence. If he had said “Conservative X has called for ignoring Coronavirus restrictions because he is selfish and paranoid and obviously doesnt care if thousands of people die.” would be fair game.
Shoden trolled but never at this level or intensity.
(bolding mine)
This should be the new name for ATMB.
Not being a female person, I’m relying on what women in my life have told me about the word “cunt”. Here’s what I said in the Pit thread I’ve cited in my OP:
So, just like I pay close attention when a non-white person tells me, a white person, that they’ve experienced discrimination, I pay close attention when women in my lives give this explanation about that particular word.
And what about sirens?!? Won’t someone think of the sirens!
I agree…
…except I don’t think “Cro-Magnon” or “troglodyte” are gender specific. If we usually think of them as men, that’s our cultural conditioning at work rather than an actual specification of gender embedded in the words. (It took a mommy Cro-Magnon and a daddy Cro-Magnon who loved each other very much to make babby.)
“Cunt” is harsh but I think the larger picture is that we use sex-related terms for all kinds of insulting expressions: cunt, dick, cocksucker, prick, and so on. If we wanted to avoid hypocrisy we could ban them all!
How about a simple “Don’t insult people outside of the Pit. Regardless if they are public figures or members of this board or your own family”?
Is the pull to insult people SO strong that it absolutely needs to be allowed in fora (forums? whatever) outside of the Pit?
I can’t see that ever working, nor would I ever want to see that kind of limit on freedom of expression come to pass.
You can’t see that working? It works for members of this board. Expanding it to include everyone is such an impossible task that you can’t EVER see it working?
How about just in Great Debates? How hard would it be to refrain from insulting someone in just ONE forum? Think you can see THAT ever working?
There are no banned words. It’s all context dependent. You would have to ask Miller specifically about the Pit.
Harpy isn’t a banned word. You used it and aren’t getting a warning. I just used it. Context matters.
Maybe I don’t understand what you mean. Are you saying I can’t call another poster an idiot outside the Pit, or I can’t call a public figure we happen to be discussing an idiot outside the pit?
My suggestion was “no insults outside of the Pit” Apparently, that’s too onerous of a burden.
So, I suggested what about just in Great Debates? No insults, regardless of who you are talking about. That’s what I mean. No “Trump the moron” or “Criminal Hillary” or “Harvard Harpy” or whatever in a Great Debate thread. That’s too difficult for this board?
In my opinion, yes. And not because it can’t be done on this board. But because it shouldn’t.
That’s why I put it in context: “So can we use «harpy» in the Pit to describe a female public figure, without getting a warning or the ban-hammer?” We apparently can use “cunt”, so why not “harpy”?
And, if the argument is that there is harsh language in the Pit, so people who don’t want to see that language should avoid it, then the natural follow-up is: “Can we use the N word in the Pit to refer to a public figure? It’s harsh language, but if you’re upset by it, just avoid the Pit.”
It should be clear that my concern is that the Board managment recognises that the Board has a misogyny issue, and says that they want to take steps to address that issue. However, the management does not appear to be willing to treat it as being on the same level as a racism issue. Extreme racist language, used to describe public figures, is considered hate speech even in the Pit. Extreme misogynist language is “context specific”. Or maybe, it’s a reluctance to recognise that there even is such a thing as extreme misogynist language, akin to extreme racist language.
To quote myself from another related thread:
I would rather bear the responsibility for what I say, what words I use to say it, and in what context and what consequences it may carry, than be given an ever-expanding Index of Zero Tolerance words and phrases that will (a) encourage the more obnoxious to find ever more creative ways to dance at the edge of the line and give more ammunition to those who decry the injustice when one of them gets busted; and/or (b) burn those who may not mean ill but just momentarily lose composure in a moment of pique, and shut down any appeal in defense.
That said people with the inclination to abuse will at some point provide enough rope to hang themselves, and it may be good to make it a shorter length thereof, thus speeding up the self-corrective effect, but still leaving some margin for discretion (of course, provided the Mods are on target)
Yes, I understand why you would say that. It would prevent you from calling Melania Trump a cunt outside of the Pit :rolleyes:
We disagree on this point. I think trying an insult free Great Debates would be a worthwhile experiment. Articulating arguments, rather than slinging mud, seems a very helpful progression to me.
Northern Piper I understand what you’re saying, and I’ve struggled to come up with a response. On the one hand, the Pit is, by design, the Wild West. Overall, I like it. Good discussions are had in the Pit. It also permits posters to air grievances that don’t belong anywhere else on the Board.
On the other hand, some language are out of bounds, even there. Hate speech, for example. Some words are clearly hate speech, such as the racial ones you’ve noted above. Terms that use aspects of LBTQI as an insult are right out. Once we start looking at words like bitch, cunt, or dick, then I think it’s dependent on context. There’s casual usage versus there’s directed misogyny. In the first case, I might call someone a motherfucker and it would be an expression of irritation. In another case, I might call someone a motherfucker and expect to get a beat down for disrespecting their family. For myself, I would be fine with “cunt” directed at me in the British usage, and I would be furious over the American one. Same word, but different meanings entirely.
I don’t know how to find that line. I think this thread is a start. I also think that reporting things that are offensive can start to give the mods a sense of where the collective zeitgeist of the Board is at.
Hey, wait…mermaids are sexy.
At least until they drag you down under the waves and drown your ass.
I understand your point, but it seems to me that the mods do have a concept of an Index of Zero Tolerance words. That’s what I took from Jonathan Chance’s warning to Shodan that triggered the banning:
Sounds to me like it’s an *ipso facto *sexist word, when used to describe a female public figure. May not always trigger a banning, depending on the poster’s history, but certainly a Bad Word.
I had thought cunt was only allowed in the pit, but recent links show I am incorrect.