# Poster Warned then Suspended for debating in Great Debates **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 21, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092 "2019-10-21T16:26:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/61 "2019-10-23T14:36:45Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > What if you gave someone an instruction that they are not allowed to bring their religious beliefs into a debate? The subject is abortion, and they say it’s wrong to even conduct very early abortion because the fetus has a soul. The issue was that we were hearing about statists and Murray Rothbard in threads about the weather. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/62 "2019-10-23T14:43:24Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > He’s banned for racking up 8 warnings, [5 in the past year](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=884007), and blatantly disregarding them and snarking at the mods instead. That doesn’t seem unreasonable. He recieved warnings for invented rules that only applied to him. Such rules should never have existed in the first place, and so the warnings and banning should be rescinded, the rules abolished, and the mods that made them removed from power. This won’t happen, but it would be the right thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/63 "2019-10-23T14:46:59Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > He recieved warnings for invented rules that only applied to him. All rules are invented. And they only applied to him because he was the only one doing it. Not a unique situation on this board, I might add. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/64 "2019-10-23T14:48:13Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > He recieved warnings for invented rules that only applied to him. Such rules should never have existed in the first place, and so the warnings and banning should be rescinded, the rules abolished, and the mods that made them removed from power. > > This won’t happen, but it would be the right thing to do. Are those facts, or opinions? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/65 "2019-10-23T14:53:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are those facts, or opinions? Some of each. First sentence fact, second sentence opinions, third sentence one fact then one opinion. As is obvious to anyone who understands how the English language works. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/66 "2019-10-23T14:59:19Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Some of each. First sentence fact, second sentence opinions, third sentence one fact then one opinion. > > As is obvious to anyone who understands how the English language works. I would have marked down that first sentence as unevidenced opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/67 "2019-10-23T14:59:51Z")
If one doesn’t follow the directions given to them by the people in charge of enforcing the rules, one can hardly complain when those enforcers subsequently “pull the trigger”. Or so I’ve been told. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/68 "2019-10-23T15:00:23Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > All rules are invented. And they only applied to him because he was the only one doing it. Not a unique situation on this board, I might add. Most rules are not invented, but evolve - and almost all are not invented by those who enforce them. “Don’t be a jerk”, for example, was almost certainly never invented by any individual. And no, the rule only applied to him because it was specifically, by name, directed at him. Which is the problem - rules like that are inherently discriminatory, as they require different behaviour from different people. We have rules aginst being a jerk, and against threadshitting - so use them, don’t add extra silly personal rules. The obvious reason they did that, of course, is because he was neither threadshitting nor being a jerk, but the Powers That Be wanted him silenced. The sad thing about this is that you, with your dislike of rulers and powers and so on, should be firmly against that happening. But, like the vast majority of leftists, you can’t deal with having to hear things that you disgagree with, or that you choose to be offended by, and want them silenced. Which, to make a statement of fact not opinion, is a hypocritical position. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/69 "2019-10-23T15:02:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I would have marked down that first sentence as unevidenced opinion. Then you would be factually wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/70 "2019-10-23T15:03:39Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Then you would be factually wrong. That’s your opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/71 "2019-10-23T15:04:08Z")
Cool story, bro. But nonetheless, **WillFarnaby** was a massive jerk and persistent threadshitter. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/72 "2019-10-23T15:04:58Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > If one doesn’t follow the directions given to them by the people in charge of enforcing the rules, one can hardly complain when those enforcers subsequently “pull the trigger”. > > Or so I’ve been told. Do you have the same view of “protesters” being arrested? Or about people being arrested or worse for resisting the police? Most people here don’t, and are pretty anti-authoritarian - I don’t know your views specifically but at least **Czarcasm** and **Mr Dibble** fall into that category. It seems silencing dissenters is fine, as long as they dissent from _your_ party line. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/73 "2019-10-23T15:08:02Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Do you have the same view of “protesters” being arrested? Or about people being arrested or worse for resisting the police? Most people here don’t, and are pretty anti-authoritarian - I don’t know your views specifically but at least **Czarcasm** and **Mr Dibble** fall into that category. > > It seems silencing dissenters is fine, as long as they dissent from _your_ party line. Unsubstantiated opinion again. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/74 "2019-10-23T15:08:03Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Cool story, bro. > > But nonetheless, **WillFarnaby** was a massive jerk and persistent threadshitter. No, he simply saw things from a different perspective to you. That you think disagreeing with you counts as being jerkish and irrelevant (to expand threadshitting to a more general sense) says more about you that anyone else. To put it bluntly, your opinions are not always right. Neither are mine, neither are anyones. To shut down opposing opinions in a debate is to embrace ignorance and tribalism, things that most people here claim to be opposed to. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/75 "2019-10-23T15:14:56Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > The issue was that we were hearing about statists and Murray Rothbard in threads about the weather. Cite? Every time I saw him discussed in ATMB, the warnings were not non sequiturs like that. > [@Gyrate](#): > > If one doesn’t follow the directions given to them by the people in charge of enforcing the rules, one can hardly complain when those enforcers subsequently “pull the trigger”. > > Or so I’ve been told. Sounds like the kind of justification Laura Ingraham would use for cruel treatment of migrants who cross the US border without documentation. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/76 "2019-10-23T15:15:13Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Do you have the same view of “protesters” being arrested? I think you’re getting a bit carried away with this. I lean toward your view in a quantitative sense, in that I would have preferred Will had been given more latitude, because he was a bit crazy but seemed completely sincere. But it’s a judgment call, not some absolute principle. Free speech cannot ever be absolute. It’s always a judgment call if someone is abusing the privilege of free speech to infringe on the rights of others. If you want to use that analogy - yes, I think there’s a point at which protesters should be arrested, depending on _how_ they are protesting, not _what_ they are protesting - if they are throwing Molotov cocktails at innocent passers by, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/77 "2019-10-23T15:18:21Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Sounds like the kind of justification Laura Ingraham would use for cruel treatment of migrants who cross the US border without documentation. :dubious: You had to travel hundreds(or even thousands) of miles with just the clothes on your back, starving most of the way for weeks on end just to make that post? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/78 "2019-10-23T15:24:17Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Do you have the same view of “protesters” being arrested? Or about people being arrested or worse for resisting the police? Most people here don’t, and are pretty anti-authoritarian - I don’t know your views specifically but at least **Czarcasm** and **Mr Dibble** fall into that category. > > It seems silencing dissenters is fine, as long as they dissent from _your_ party line. And some people here are strongly authoritarian and are fine with those authorities shooting people, including children, to death with little justification. As long as they don’t ban them from a private messageboard, I guess it’s all fine. But that has nothing to do with **WillFarnaby** , who wasn’t oppressed by the system or banned for speaking truth to power or silenced by The Man. Were that the case, I would certainly oppose his banning. But it isn’t. He was banned for being, as already noted, a massive jerk who shat all over a wide range of threads with his particular firebrand lunacy and refused to stop. Consider the late unlamented **Huey Freeman** who was also a raging asshole. The particular bee in **Huey** ’s bonnet was the unfair treatment of black people in society which, if this board really is as loony left as suggested, ought to have been warmly welcomed. And indeed we tried to engage. But **Huey** was a massive jerk, although he did eventually restrict his raillery to one thread, and he got banned for it, just like **Will**. “Don’t be a jerk” applies to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/79 "2019-10-23T15:26:07Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/80 "2019-10-23T15:26:26Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Most rules are not invented, but evolve That’s custom, not rules. > [@](#): > > - and almost all are not invented by those who enforce them. I didn’t say they had to be. > [@](#): > > “Don’t be a jerk”, for example, was almost certainly never invented by any individual. I disagree. Whoever first codified it, invented it. > [@](#): > > And no, the rule only applied to him because it was specifically, by name, directed at him. Because he was the only one doing it. > [@](#): > > Which is the problem - rules like that are inherently discriminatory, as they require different behaviour from different people. I’m pretty sure if a second poster started inserting their anti-statist bugbear everywhere, the rule would shortly be applied to them, too. Do you think **Evil Captor** was being discriminated against for his custom rule, too? > [@](#): > > We have rules aginst being a jerk, and against threadshitting - so use them, don’t add extra silly personal rules. I see this as the mods just highlighting what specific flavour of jerkishness and threadshitting they were seeing, and telling him to knock it off. The existence of the specific doesn’t mean the general doesn’t apply. See **Evil Captor** and **Skald** and others’ various personal rules… > [@](#): > > The obvious reason they did that, of course, is because he was neither threadshitting nor being a jerk, but the Powers That Be wanted him silenced. They could ban him anytime they wanted, if that was their wish. Hell, they could do it, say absolutely nothing, and if anyone asked, say he was a sock. Instead, they gave him every chance to change his behaviour. Your conspiracy theory is as leaky as a rusted colander, there. > [@](#): > > The sad thing about this is that you, with your dislike of rulers and powers and so on, should be firmly against that happening. Why? This board is a voluntary association, not a national government. I choose to put myself under the mods, and I can leave anytime I want to. The Mods aren’t rulers, they’re unpaid employees of an establishment I choose to frequent. You can keep trying to shoehorn my anarchism into this, but it’s really not a good fit, mate. > [@](#): > > But, like the vast majority of leftists, you can’t deal with having to hear things that you disgagree with, or that you choose to be offended by, and want them silenced. I hear things I disagree with all the time I have no problem with existing here. It’s jerks who threadshit that I’m glad are gone. > [@](#): > > Which, to make a statement of fact not opinion, is a hypocritical position. You’ve clearly shown you have no idea what my position on things is, so I’ll give all accusations from you that they’re hypocritical a _shrug_, it’s the only response they deserve. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092.md?page=5)