# Mod question about a not-warning in a thread **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 8, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-question-about-a-not-warning-in-a-thread/959121 "2022-02-08T19:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 29
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-question-about-a-not-warning-in-a-thread/959121/29 "2022-02-09T09:53:09Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > For example: Can we say that the U.S. Congress is infested with white supremacists? I ask this question, because, as a general matter, objecting to this usage would be inconsistent with how the term has been used, and received, by the board, going back many years. A few recent examples follow; there are many more. Posts in which Trump and his far-right loyalists are described as infesting various groups and institutions: > [@Would ex-President Trump run in 2024?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-ex-president-trump-run-in-2024/840373/98): > > In a clear, non-Trump infested playing field, Pompeo would hardly register with the base. > [@What's Trump's end game for the last 14 days of his presidency?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-trumps-end-game-for-the-last-14-days-of-his-presidency/929599/209): > > Also hope those units are not as infested with MAGAts as most police forces are. > [@How bad will it be on Inauguration Day?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bad-will-it-be-on-inauguration-day/930098/77): > > Have the MAGAbots infested the FBI and/or Secret Service? > [@Which do you believe is the bigger threat to democracy in the US?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-believe-is-the-bigger-threat-to-democracy-in-the-us/946880/31): > > They make sure their candidates infest school boards. > [@Biden Is President, Congress Is Blue. Now What?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-is-president-congress-is-blue-now-what/923188/134): > > You cannot work with Republicans. Don’t even try. Treat them like an infestation in the halls of congress. Posts referring to the presence of disruptive people in online fora as infestations: > [@Rorschach Test: Pregnant white woman brandishing gun at black women](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rorschach-test-pregnant-white-woman-brandishing-gun-at-black-women/914365/44): > > Reading the racist twitter post and some of the comments makes me realize that the uneducated and highly delusional folks who infest social media are proof that we are having a negative return on investment with regards to the time and money spent on the education system. > [@A sneak new Frank Parler app appears!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sneak-new-frank-parler-app-appears/945467/33): > > So apparently the place is so completely infested by the lowest lowlife of the internet that Jason Miller spends most of his time censoring and banning, to no avail. Political operators of various stripes constitute an infestation: > [@I've come to the sad realization \[about our elected representatives\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-come-to-the-sad-realization-about-our-elected-representatives/947606/22): > > I tend to think of horrible elected representatives as a vermin infestation – you’re always going to have some to deal with, but we create the circumstances in which they can truly flourish > [@Why can't Taiwan be independent?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-taiwan-be-independent/943158/26): > > You are mixing up crony capitalism with communism. And the current crop of communists in crony capitalism clothing these days infesting Beijing. Drug-dealing cartels infest a country: > [@Is now a good time to talk about gun safety laws?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-now-a-good-time-to-talk-about-gun-safety-laws/938605/132): > > Mexico has a gun problem because despite having a fairly high level of industrialization, they are infested with powerful violent drug cartels and rampant government corruption. And so on, and so on. All of these posts are in Great Debates and Politics & Elections, not the Pit. All of these posts use the infestation imagery to refer to actual people, rather than concepts (“crime-infested”) or inanimate objects (“gun-infested”). As far as I can tell, not one of these instances attracted any attention or resulted in any sort of objection; all passed without comment. The point here is not to call attention to these posts and expose these posters to censure under the terms established in this thread. No — the point is to observe that usage of the “infestation” concept has been non-controversial on this board _when there is a general consensus that the phenomenon being so described constitutes a harmful invasion, **especially** by representatives of an established center of power against an oppressed minority._ For example: I would hope nobody on this board disputes the premise that the long-standing and ongoing infiltration of law enforcement by violent race-motivated terrorists is a bad thing. Which is why the following usage does not produce a single batted eye. > [@US voters: Are you afraid of the other side, and to what extent?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-voters-are-you-afraid-of-the-other-side-and-to-what-extent/953659/105): > > The real thing to fear is when they get a critical mass too large for the police to manage, and the extremist-infested police departments start arguing in favor of deputizing them to “control” them. The “infestation” concept is certainly powerful, in how it connotes the penetration, infection, and/or destruction of an established entity by a corrupting outside force. As has been noted by prior posts up to this point in the thread, there is a well-known application of the concept which reflects a hateful and harmful dehumanization and suppression of the unwanted influence of untrusted minorities by suspicious majorities and their delegated authorities. This, clearly, is negative — racist, supremacist, etc. — and is rightfully condemned and should not be tolerated in respectful discussion. But this is not the only possible context, as illustrated by the litany of counterexamples above. Authoritarian zealots are not, in any universe, an oppressed ethnic group or other victimized minority, and there may be legitimate rhetorical value in the perception and labeling of their nefarious shenanigans as an infestation. From this perspective, I don’t think it’s clear at all that @XT committed an unambiguous infraction in his use of the word, as implied by the unanimous tenor of this thread. Ukraine is not a monolith of power imposing their will on their helpless Russian neighbor; and the Russians moving into Ukraine and setting up camp are not innocent pilgrims with motivations unconnected to the larger Russian political agenda. To describe these Russians as “infesting” Ukraine may be _questionable,_ in that it treads closer to the gray center between the heretofore uncontroversial connotation illustrated by the examples above and the nasty, hateful usage connected with the subjugation of persecuted minorities. But it does not, I believe, fall all the way to that side of the continuum, and the pile-on here, in my opinion, was unwarranted. Now — if it is the consensus of the board’s moderators, or of the membership generally, that _any_ such usage of the word must be avoided, because (say) the previously useful and acceptable sense of the term is no longer allowed because it opens the door for malicious actors to justify deployment of the word in its more loathsome context, that seems fine to me. It may be debatable, but there’s a rational basis for it. But it will be _new._ It was not previously a rule, as shown above. And any suggestion that it has always been a rule is not accurate. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-question-about-a-not-warning-in-a-thread/959121)._