I’d like to think of this as an observation, but I suspect it will be considered a complaint caused by a sharp pain in my hindquarters. But anyway.
A couple times I’ve noticed a type of response that leads me to ignore the post, which might have some worthwhile bits. It involves an indirect insult, or at least that’s my interpretation.
For example, somebody says “I think such and such is a problem,” which gets a response like, “the only people who think that way are” whatever. Maybe “cheap”, maybe “trendy idiots”, whatever. It’s usually milder than that last one.
It’s an insult by proxy but I can’t recall any rule about it or seeing any mod notes, so I’m unsure if it would be worth reporting if it appeared outside the Pit.
The rule is that it’s OK to make negative comments about large groups, so “People who think [Z] are [insult]” is generally OK. However, in a specific context, if it’s clearly referring to specific posters, it would be a “thinly veiled insult” and we’ve always* modded those as NOT OK. Hence, as almost everything, it depends on context.
Thus, a comment, “People who like circus peanuts are idiots” would be acceptable in general. However, if the context was that a few specific posters were commenting in that thread on how delicious circus peanuts are, then it would be an insult and rules violation.
Obviously, we can’t disallow general insulting comments (else we’d have no political discussions at all, f’rasample), so the question of whether a generalized insult comment is really aimed at specific posters always becomes a matter of context.
On a purely personal level: I try to avoid “all” characterizations. Like on a true/false test, the word “all” is almost always a clue that it’s false. I don’t like making false statements, so I’m sure that there are a few people who like circus peanuts who are very bright indeed.
Mods can’t read everything carefully. If you see such an example, please REPORT it (hit the little ! in the red triangle in the upper right corner of the post) so the mods are aware of it.
It’s not even always an insult - for example, there’s a set of things that (pretty much) only creationists ever say.
In fact, I’m pretty sure in the past I’ve seen someone doing that, but evading questions about their affiliations, their axioms, etc - and in that context, surely it would be just fine to respond “these are things that only a creationist would say, so unless you tell me otherwise, I’m assuming you are one”.
That’s sort of what I meant - the accusation “only [x kind of people] ever say that” isn’t necessarily an insult (although it may be) - it could just be an astute observation, or a statement of the obvious.
