# Poster Warned then Suspended for debating in Great Debates

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092>\
**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")\
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**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 21, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poster-warned-then-suspended-for-debating-in-great-debates/842092/12 "2019-10-21T18:59:09Z")

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Just backtracking on where this came from, Bone had issued the following instruction back in July:

> [@Trump vs Regular Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-regular-joe/836629/21):
>
> This is fair notice to you. I’m done with you interjecting your pet topic of statism or authoritarianism or the combination in unrelated threads, as well as passive aggressive denigrating the board. This goes for this thread, and all other threads in GD and Elections. I am bookmarking this post and If you do this again, you will be warned…

This injunction is quite understandable. But I have to say I don’t think Will violated it in the thread in question. His comment was relevant to someone suggesting that an ex-president could be quietly silenced by the state. Here’s the prior comment in the thread, then Will’s comment that got him a warning:

> [@Hypothetically, what if an ex-President loses it and starts spilling state secrets?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetically-what-if-an-ex-president-loses-it-and-starts-spilling-state-secrets/841989/14):
>
> Yep, I totally agree.
> 
> A former President who just decides to leak classified information would just be arrested, like any other person making an unauthorized disclosure.
> 
> There wouldn’t be any Secret Service hijinx, no relegation to a black site, no tampering with Twitter or iPhones, no insane asylums. Just arrest and prosecution.
> 
> If an ex-President wouldn’t shut up after arrest and conviction, they would probably end up in solitary confinement somewhere so they have very limited ability to speak to the outside world. Just like any other person convicted of the same crime.

> [@Hypothetically, what if an ex-President loses it and starts spilling state secrets?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetically-what-if-an-ex-president-loses-it-and-starts-spilling-state-secrets/841989/15):
>
> Brutal infringement of anti-state speech. Such is the treatment of actual whistleblowers under the current regime. See Manning, Snowden, Binney, etc.

So, much as I agree that Will posting repetitively about his hobby horse is a bit tiresome, given that he didn’t have a complete topic ban but an instruction not to post about it when it’s _irrelevant_, I’m not sure Bone’s warning for WIll making that comment was fair.

Of course, Will’s subsequent petulant reaction to the warning is another matter.

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