Great post, I thought you hit all the high points. IIRC, you are one of those law type folk, right? I’ll take back some of the dirty things I’ve said about lawyers in the past. 
I especially enjoyed the “harpy” point out.
Guilty, m’lud.
Precisely.
Would also have to abandon that “fighting ignorance” tag - using racial slurs as insults is just perpetuating stereotypes and ignorance.
Right. And not to keep piling on, but under @Atamasama 's hyper-literal method of interpretation, this isn’t a bright line rule. I mean, what if my wife created the sock and I just use it? Am I “operating” it? If I dictate to her what to type under the sock puppet, did I beat the rules? After all, the SDMB never said that it recognizes the law of agency.
Even if people “rules lawyer” about semi-legitimate or feigned confusion then it is not like it takes an act of Congress to change board rules. Rules lawyering helps to clarify what is meant by the rule so that posters know what to expect going forward. What’s the worst that can happen? That one poster one time escapes a warning? Then the rule is clearer next time.
That is fair. Those do seem like bright line rules with defined outcomes.
That sort of bends what a bright line is, but it’s clear enough. That makes sense. The definition of what it applies to is formed via consensus and that’s how it becomes solidified. That’s fair.
Feel free to completely misconstrue what I said with ridiculous examples all you want. It’s not helping anyone. @Northern_Piper has been very helpful in clarifying matters without your “contributions” here.
The concept is one of assigning collective guilt or collective properties based on so-called immutable characteristics in general. Either that concept is acceptable in all of its permutations or it’s not.
Well, color me slightly confused then, too. I think of the sock rule as very much not a bright-line rule. Mods take context into account. Accidently post with your spouse’s account? No problem. Forget your password and email and then create a new account to ping the mods? Maybe a scolding, but not a ban. Actually try to covertly maintain a separate identify? Insta-ban.
Yes, of course. Still I prefer to not write out the N-word unless needed.
That is a rule here.
That’s not sock puppetry though. You’re not intentionally using more than one screen name, which is what the rules define as socking:
Socks - Do not use more than one screen name. We reserve the right to refuse postings from screen names we find objectionable.
That doesn’t seem to conflict with the rule as written, at least to me.
I’m confident that either your new or old account will be banned in that situation. They aren’t going to allow both accounts to be active.
But you do have good points that the sock rule might not be a complete bright line.
The word ‘intentional’ is not in the rule, which is my point. If you do it accidently, mods will take the context into account and act accordingly, rather than applying a bright line rule.
Agreed - and presumably the new one. But the punishment for socking is having all your accounts banned. So again, context followed by appropriate action.
But anyway, sounds like we agree, so I won’t belabor the point any more.
I agree that we agree. 
I think the takeaway here is that there really isn’t a bright line about what constitutes a bright line rule.
Anyway, I’m back, vaxxed, and… really tired. I don’t think I’m going to be one of those lucky, “no side effects” folks, so I’ll make this quick. If there’s further questions, clarifications, or castigations, they may have to wait 'til tomorrow before I address them.
So, you all have persuaded me that I’m being too lax about terms like “cracker.” While I think the concerns I raised about strictly moderating it, and similar terms, remain valid, I think I made a mistake in using an edge case to avoid moderating the term at all. While I was pushing back against it initially, the argument about “cracker,” in particular, having both a racist and classist meaning seems pertinent - I think I was reacting to it like it was strictly a classist term, even in contexts (like the one in question) where it clearly has an exclusive racist connotation.
I’ll add a mod note to the thread in question reflecting this new direction.
I had my second shot of Moderna a couple of weeks ago so I feel for you. It was no picnic.
Thanks, Miller, and I hope the side effects pass soon!
Yup, not all that bright a line. In particular, we’ve had a ton of people who had trouble getting in with their old IDs, and creating new IDs with the transition to Discourse. Most of those didn’t try to hide it. They often picked user names like Alsopuzzlegal. And by and large, they’ve just been directed to work with the mods to get their old account back
Whereas I planned ahead and got a large blanket, some potato salad, cold fried chicken and a Frisbee ready for my second shot.
Frisbee?
It’s what we bring to a picnic.
Second face plant by me in the same thread!