Unsurprisingly several arguments took place in this thread regarding whether or not there should have been a moment of silence at the opening Olympic ceremony at the 2012 Olympics.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=659948
During the argument, Really Not All That Bright rather unwisely declared in post 77 “It’s not an Israeli/Palestinian thing” which was obviously silly since as everyone admits had the murdered athletes been anything but Israelis and the killers been anything but Palestinians we wouldn’t be having such a discussion.
I pointed to a comment by Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee and then RNATB rather noxiously said.
I know that quite a few people have accused me of being an apologist for the Israelis but I most certainly am not and I called RNATB’s comment what it was, “racist”.
I don’t see how the comment about Mr. Rajoub, “A Palestinian says it’s an Israeli/Palestinian thing. No shit. Mr. Rajoub probably thinks the sun rises in the east to make a political statement about Palestine” would be fundamentally any different than someone referring to Henry Louis Gates with the comment “A** black man** thinks it’s a race issue. Mr. Gates probably thinks the sun rises in the east because the sun is racist” or if someone making a comment about a Jewish poster said, “Of course you believe that was anti-Semitic. You’re Jewish. You probably think the sun rises in the East is proof of anti-Semitism.”
It’s worth noting that I was hardly alone in viewing RNATB’s comments as racist.
I mean no insult to him, but no one would ever classify FinnAgain as an apologist for the Palestinians or a fan of Palestinian nationalists but in post #108 he made it clear that he saw claiming that someone was unable to “perceive events properly simply because he’s Palestinian”(which is what RNATB did) was racist.
Anyway, in response to my post #88 in which I said “Please don’t make racist assertions” RNATB decided to respond rather insultingly with this comment in post 106.
I understandably found that comment rather insulting and decided to report it.
Marley23 decided that what RNATB did was only “somewhat inappropriate” and did not feel the need to chastise him but to chastise me moderating my post(#111) but not RNATB’s. declaring:
Now, for starters, his claim that my accusation of RNATB’s post being “racist” was “inappropriate and seemingly groundless” is utterly silly particularly when Marley says “It was an allegation of bias, but not racial”.
Well, yes, it was an allegation of bias but the allegation was rather explicitly racially based(or for those who prefer ethnically based). RNATB said that Jibril Rajoub’s judgement couldn’t be trusted simply because he was “a Palestinian”.
Saying someone’s judgement or perception of events can’t be trusted due to their race/nationality/ethnicity is by definition racist.
Now, perhaps had RNATB said something different like, “It’s the job of the head of the Palestinian Olympic committee to say something like that” things would be different, but that’s not what he said.
What RNATB said was no different then proclaiming that one couldn’t trust FinnAgain’s perception of events because he’s Jewish, MrDibble’s because he’s black, or mine because I’m Iranian.
However, Marley felt the need to moderate my post calling his assertion racist but not RNATB’s accusing me of posting while drunk.
Marley may have a difficult time believing this, but I actually like him(at least as much as it’s possible to like someone on the internet you’ve never met and who’s name you don’t even know) and respect him, but that was a really awful moderator decision, particularly since he and the other mods have made it clear it’s perfectly permissible in GD to call other posters argument “racist” or “sexist” and even, on rare occasions when doing so can be seen as something other than insulting, call another poster “racist” or “sexist” in GD.
Beyond that, if Marley and the other mods are going to decide not to moderate posts such as:
then what else is not going to be moderated,
Or other questions when they are phrased in a way that is meant to be insulting as RNATB’s question was clearly designed to be.
Furthermore, mods have previously declared that it’s okay to accuse posts or arguments of being “racist” but Marley seems now to be saying that we can’t call other posters arguments “racist” even when such arguments are rather obviously “racist”.
Now, I’ll end this by saying that yes, obviously many are going to argue that RNATB’s claim that Jibral Rajoub’s perception of events can’t be trusted because Jibril is Palestinian just as many argue that the arguments put forward by the “race realists” that “blacks” are less intelligent than “whites” aren’t racist and that RNATB’s claim that “Jews control US foreign policy” isn’t anti-Semitic but to suggest that claiming his assertions are “baseless” is demonstrably false.
I’d also ask that someone moderate RNATB’s post accusing me of posting while drunk, which was a direct personal insult and to rescind the moderation of my post calling his racist assertion a “racist assertion”.