I’m not speaking for him, but I take it to mean that the whole point of this war is that an “Ask the Psychic” would get ripped to shreds.
To paraphrase: See, the thing is, an “Ask the Psychic” thread would be absolutely ripped to shreds and driven through with a speeding locomotive faster than you can say skepticism. In fact, the fact that such a thread would get ripped to shreds while an “Ask the Mormon” doesn’t is the whole POINT of of this “war” that’s going on here at the SDMB right now.
You’re exactly right, and Liberal and I already talked about this. I don’t mean this to sound rude, Mangetout, but I cleared things up for you directly after you graped my post a few days ago. Have you not been following the thread since then?
PunditLisa: You decided to ad hominem attack me after reading one post of mine of probably 50 or more that I’ve made on this topic since this mess began. If you want to apologize, apologize. If you don’t, don’t. I’m not going to explain to you why you’re wrong or argue about whether or not you misinterpreted me when it’s already all out there for you to read.
What exactly is the point? No threads should be ripped to shreds?
Who is going to rip all the Xian threads? All the other Xians on the board? Or do you think the mods should do it, like they do all the other threads? If you want to rip a Xian thread to shreds, knock yourself out, go for it. As long as you abide by the rules of the forum you are in why shouldn’t you?
The point is that religion, and especially the big three, and especially Christianity are given special treatment here. I don’t know how many times I or those who agree with me have to say it.
I’m surprised you’d ask for a cite, Guin. A search on the term “Christian” will reveal hundreds of such threads dominated by Christians basking in their popularity. Like OMG!!! Christian groups upset AGAIN!. From the OP: “Ya know, let’s band together and make a movie they’ll really shit their britches over. How does Bible Camp Massacre sound? With a killer dressed as Jesus?” Meanwhile, even as Christianity is treated with such favoritism, religions like Islam are universally shredded by a membership seemingly incapable of empathy. Like Jesus Christ, this anti-Muslim shit scares me. It is shameful that absolutely no one rallied to defend the Muslims against Christian bigots.
A Xian posts a message here expresses his beliefs and you are complaining about what? Other Xians do not condemn him? Other Xians defend him? Not enough atheists attack him? He won’t debate on your terms? What exactly is the complaint?
Apropos of no particular post, as far as I can tell, the only special treatment being expected in connection with this matter is that a certain poster be considered immune from moderation, regardless of his behaviour, in case such moderation could be interpreted as bias.
You seriously wanted me to search your name and filter out the 50 or more posts you’ve made on the topic so that I could fully understand your position before I responded? You seriously overestimate the amount of discretionary time I have. I responded to what you wrote. End of story. If I (among others) misinterpreted your meaning, then I apologize. However, if your agenda includes declaring “war” on the boards or on the Mods, then I withdraw that apology.
You did misinterpret my post. Liberal understood what I meant, after briefly misunderstanding it, and I think everyone else understands it besides Mangetout. I don’t know what he wants me to clarify.
I also don’t know how anything I’ve said could lead anyone to believe I’m declaring war on the mods or the board or anything or anyone else. I like the mods here and I’ve said as much. I’ve been having a perfectly civil conversation with tomndebb in GD for a couple days now. I referred to the recent happenings as a “War” because there were several threads about similar subjects in a very close time period with two opposing sides and it was an easy, concise umbrella term.
Are you trying to get at something? As I stated above - my comments on this matter have absolutely nothing to do with the moderation here. If these comments are directed at prr, badchad, etc., then I believe you should make that a little bit more explicit, because I don’t believe they apply to me or the point I’m trying to make.
It was a simple request for semantic clarificiation, not any kind of attack on your position or viewpoints (whatever they may be), but never mind. Let’s just leave it.
That post was nothing to do with anything you in particular have said (that’s why I began it “Apropos of…”).
In my opinion, the case for the stated bias in moderation here at best tenuous - and I concede that, like everyone else, my perceptions are prone to being tinted by y own prejudices - but if this is indeed the case, and there really is no significant bias in practice, then the cries of foul actualy represent a push in the opposite direction - a desire to award special protection for certain posters or certain classes of misbehaviour.
We seem to be having trouble understanding each other here (or maybe it’s all in my head, but I’m going to clarify anyway.) I do not believe that there is a bias in the moderation here. I’ve stated in this very discussion (if not this particular thread) that I’ve seen the moderation at most other message boards and that’s one of the reasons I love it here - we have professional and even-handed moderators. I’ve run afoul of them, but I don’t think it’s been more than once per year or once per thousand posts. A number low enough to be practically insignificant.
What I do believe, and what I’ve been arguing about despite telling myself that I’m an idiot and I’m fighting the tides here, is that there is a Christian bias among the members here. I also believe that - far from being debunked - it’s been highlighted by the recent arguments. I’m real close to being done with this whole mess because almost everyone seems content to stick their fingers in their ears and scream THERE’S NO CHRISTIAN BIAS HERE! to an incredibly frustrating fault.
It sounds as though you think my fingers are pointing at something you said regarding bias, they’re not; my post (#432) wasn’t directed at you in particular, but anyway…
If you mean ‘Christian Bias’ in the sense that this board also has, for example (among others) an American bias - i.e. that the board population is weighted in this or that direction by statistics of membership, then yes, I think I’d agree. Implicit in this is that the subject matter of discussion will also tend to reflect those population biases - how could it not?
As far as I understand it though (and I’ll admit skipping a couple of pages in this thread), the Christian bias that people are denying is not the population/discussion topic kind, it’s the moderator-favouritism kind, and in my opinion, such denial would be largely truthful.
That’s exactly what I mean, so I guess we do agree. I’m not saying we should hoist the black flag and grit our teeth for battle - I’m just saying it’s there. Sometimes it’s hypocritical, often it’s under the surface, unnoticed, not effecting anything at all. It’s just frustrating when people refuse to admit that it exists and argue adamantly against it while simultaneously proving that they’re supporting it.
Example:
Person 1: “There is a Christian/religious bias at the SDMB”
Person 2: “No there is not!”
Person 1: “Threads about psychics, scientologists, dowsers, etc., are held under mass scrutiny, while Christianity gets a break from this.”
Person 2: “But being psychic, dowsing, etc. aren’t religions!”
QED
I disagree that people aren’t denying a Christian bias by the population here. They are. I agree that the moderators don’t seem to play favorites to any unreasonable extent.
I think maybe what you’re describing as bias, I would prefer to see as just the normal tolerance function of a community - the voices of Christians (and other religions represented here) are entertained because they are members. if we somehow acquired a segment of membership that identified as, say, psychic (although I’m not sure how that could happen), and if those members became properly integrated into the community (by contributing to other forums / topics), i think there would develop a situation that you might describe as ‘pro-psychic bias’, but again, I would just see as the normal functions of tolerance, respect and interaction within a community
Maybe it’s better labelled ‘bias’ - I dunno - because it just seems so ordinary