He didn’t say Democrats want to chop off people’s heads. He said that the American left’s attitude towards freedom of expression was closer to the Muslims who were violent in that incident, than the free-speech crowd.
In other words, he made
You misspelled “provocative.” The statement itself wasn’t even controversial.
As for the post by our esteemed psychohistorian, I’ll preface my remark by admitting that I wouldn’t be a moderator even if I lost a bet. But at the risk of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, I wouldn’t recommend bringing up one’s moderator title in a post that is not, in itself, moderation.
Also, mike curtis? cachet. That is all.
Ah, but the topic in question belongs to the Politics & Elections forum.
~Max
In response to post #1,
I believe Hari_Seldon’s post was ultra vires, but not for any of the reasons mentioned thus far. My logic is simple:
- Hari_Seldon was not acting in his capacity as a moderator
- In P&E, it is inappropriate for a non-moderator to comment on whether another poster is trolling.
- Therefore, in P&E, it is inappropriate for Hari_Seldon to comment on whether another poster is trolling, unless he is acting in his capacity as a moderator.
It is also possible that Hari_Seldon was referring to the incident itself (cars literally “trolling” the Biden campaign bus), but that’s a stretch.
~Max
In response to concerns of a double standard expressed by Lance_Turbo, Octopus, and Velocity,
I do think those concerns are justified by the literal text of Hari_Seldon’s post in the Biden topic. I do not think Hari_Seldon actually believes it is impossible for him to agree with a troll. (That would be the literal implication, trivially disproved). I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that the post does not accurately represent Hari_Seldon’s thinking on the matter.
Given that assumption, I do not see a double standard between censuring Macgiver’s post (on the basis of trolling with a “bald-faced lie”) and letting madmonk28’s post go. There is a line of thinking to connect the two - Hari_Seldon’s personal opinion of the Republican party may very well have been a factor when he judged madmonk28’s honesty. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it being a factor, or even the deciding factor in this particular case.
~Max
Whatever. The same logic applies to P&E, and AFAIK, there aren’t any differences in standards between the two fora.
It would be nice if @Hari_Seldon cleared up any doubts about his thinking on this matter.
A couple of weeks ago he suggested that if American leftists gained power, they’d murder the babies of Republicans in Idaho and torture JK Rowling to death. He absolutely refused to back down from the hyperbole of his claims.
Meanwhile I get a warning for a post that compared his views to the Nazis’. I didn’t call him a nazi; I didn’t say he approved of any of the Nazis’ heinous policies, like antisemitism or murder or invading Poland. I just pointed out that, much like the nazis, he brings up the threat of leftists very often.
I didn’t dispute that warning and I’m not doing so now; I’m also not asking for Octopus to be warned for comparing liberals to Islamists or for claiming that liberals want to kill conservative babies. Not a hyperbolic description of abortion, mind, but literally bayoneting babies.
I’m not asking for him to be warned for his hateful posts. I’m just bringing this up so that any rational person would be able to make their own determination as to whether there really is a double standard in moderation here, and if so, which way it leans.
Actually I didn’t say that. You made that up. Just because I don’t refute every bizarre and fictitious assertion doesn’t make the bizarre and fictitious assertion true.
Exchange, talking about “the woke” and “the left”:
It goes on and on with me pressing you to back away from your hyperbole. You never did.
To clear up any doubt, what I said was idiotic and I sincerely apologize. I can only plead that I was in the full throes of Trump Derangement Syndrome. To repeat, it was wrong and I apologize.
Thank you.
You realize that broad based characterizations of ideology has long been mostly allowed here and personal insults of posters not? Claiming conservatives want to do x, y, z is exceedingly common and never considered remarkable or worth acting on. Claiming liberals aren’t saintly on the other hand causes much consternation.
Furthermore, insults directed at off board individuals typically was not modded. Now they are but in a very inconsistent manner. So the topic of this thread isn’t really that octopus does what the majority does but targets a different subset. It’s that comments that would be ignored if directed at Trump or many on the right are sanctioned if directed at Biden.
I didn’t insult you. Do you dispute that you believe leftists are a huge threat to the country? Do you consider the statement “Octopus believes Leftists are a threat to this country” is an inherently insulting one?
Moderating
This thread is for the purpose of discussing a particular moderator post, which the moderator has apologized for. We have had a more general discussion many many times before, and I don’t think re-hashing that for the umpteenth time is going to be productive. Let’s drop this.
Colibri
Personally I enjoyed the comment, got a little grin out of it, and heartilly approve.
Well, yeah, as I noted above, the statement he agreed with isn’t even controversial. Now if someone had actually reported it as trolling, Hari_Seldon would have been perfectly justified in declining to moderate it.