Here I am, reading away on a very topical thread about the inherent homophobia of Islam. I have been emotional about the shooting all day, and I thought it was one of the most insightful discussions I had read in a long time. People were responding to each other, snark was being brushed off, and people were staying on topic. I was wrestling with the viewpoints, found myself agreeing at times with Dopers I rarely do, and very unsettled on my own opinions.
And then, 4 pages in…Boom - the Mod LOCKS it! His reason was that the Original Post (written 4 pages ago!) was ill conceived! This thing had legs, but the Mod stopped it because he didn’t like how it started? That’s unfair, in my opinion, to the people actively participating, and to the teeming millions reading at home.
His other reasons were because he “could have” given two warnings to the OP. Regardless of whether that has merit, that warrants a punishment to the poster, not a locking of the thread!
I ask that Jonathan Chance re-open “Does Islam drive homophobic violence?” with whatever mod instruction he deems appropriate.
Religion is such a touchy subject. I still don’t think it should be in any way more protected than any other ideology but I know I’m in the minority with that point of view. There were some interesting points of view that I hadn’t considered before that were brought up in that thread.
You shouldn’t be in the minority with that point of view on a board devoted to fighting ignorance, and I don’t think you are. I had great respect for all of the posters in that thread.
I concur. And I really don’t tend to like these sorts of threads. But this one was being much better than most of the other threads I’ve seen on the subject, which were not shut down. Sure, the OP was failing to do what he intended in the OP, at first, but things settled down.
To be honest, I thought we were finally making some headway in the discussion. Sure, everyone started out arguing at cross purposes, but they wound up actually addressing things head on–instead of degenerating into small side points.
Plus, well, the OP is of the opinion that liberals want to shut down all discussion of this topic. And shutting down a good discussion of the topic only seems to confirm his suspicions. And it seems to be the opposite of what you’ve said many times in ATMB.
I disagree with shutting the thread down, though I think I can probably understand why it was done. Yesterday was an intensely emotional day. Maybe the thread can be reopened in another day or two when we’ve had more time to process it all???
I was having a good time in that thread and I am sorry things couldn’t play out better.
I was curious to see if Valteron would reply to any of my comments once he was assured I wasn’t a Muslim.
I was also interested in learning how mentioning histories of colonialism as one of several factor to consider for analysis meant that I was a communist blaming Western imperialism for homophobia.
I’m coming from the same viewpoint as the OP in that thread, even the same generation, and share many of his concerns. I was following the discussion with intense interest on a very emotional day, having difficulty expressing my own feelings. In a way, that thread was an intelligent alternative to watching the carnage on CNN. And then, without any warning, it was suddenly closed. What the hell was accomplished by that? Do you really think I give a damn that the OP violated some mod’s idea of decorum, while on an extreme emotional roller coaster? I’m still on that roller coaster, and feel like that closed thread just added to the body count.
Tell you guys what. Out of respect for what I see in this thread I will reopen it. I still believe my concerns about poisoned well are real but I’ll monitor it throughout the day and see where it goes.