# ...the unmarked grave thread should be reopened

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 7, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738 "2021-06-07T03:38:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/21 "2021-06-10T12:59:45Z")

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This is not equivalent to Holocaust denial because what happened in Canada wasnt a ‘Holocaust’. There was no systematic attempt to murder these unfortunate children nor every living SN person in Canada. It was an horrific occurance but it was no Holocaust.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/22 "2021-06-10T13:29:34Z")

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> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> So this is the part that confuses me. There didn’t seem to be any confusion in what part of the interaction between myself and slash2k derailed the thread. We were debating, sure. But I only posted in that thread **five** times. Martin posted **twenty** times.

I think you got different replies because I had been reading the thread, and the other mod wasn’t. The other mods was trying to be generally helpful – “when you report a really long post, it makes it easier for the mods if you point out what part of that long post is a problem and why”.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/23 "2021-06-10T13:33:21Z")

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In general, I don’t think this is the right place to re-litigate the issues in the thread about unmarked graves. Some of the discussion here belongs there, and some probably belongs in the pit.

The thread has been re-opened. But it’s a hard thread to moderate, so I’m sure there is plenty of constructive criticism y’all can still give us. But it would be more helpful (and less likely to get this thread closed) if you stick to discussing how such threads might be moderated, and not how bad the “residential schools” were.

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**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/24 "2021-06-10T14:43:17Z")

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While I think it’s sometimes really hard to know where the cutoff is, to me it seems like the thread just doesn’t belong in MPSIMS. It seems there’s a group of people who want to debate the history of Canada (and North America) (which is GD territory) and another group who just want a recreational outrage thread blasting various things involved (which would to me be obviously a Pit thread.)

While again, I know it’s never been hard and fast, this thread seems to run afoul of this guideline for the forum: [No political/religious jabs in breaking news threads in MPSIMS - Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS) - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-political-religious-jabs-in-breaking-news-threads-in-mpsims/740558)

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**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/25 "2021-06-10T14:48:52Z")

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> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> It looks to me I got thread-banned for **tone**.

Reading back over that part of the discussion: I agree with this.

And I note that Martin Hyde has been repeatedly modnoted, but not threadbanned, despite producing tone that I think is worse, including the “bucket of warm piss” line in post #157. – I’ll grant that I didn’t report it, because it was arguably not aimed at a poster, so I wasn’t sure it was reportable; plus which, I was pretty sure moderators were already watching the thread.

I’m not arguing that Martin Hyde should be threadbanned. I think they’re probably better argued against. But I do think there’s inconsistency here.

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**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/26 "2021-06-10T14:56:43Z")

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I didn’t address this in the thread because I felt it was relatively clear I was not engaging in direct address to an individual with that line.

That being said I don’t plan to participate in the thread further in its present forum, I do not believe it can be discussed productively there and I just see it resulting in inevitable warnings or thread shutdown to continue.

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**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/27 "2021-06-10T16:38:44Z")

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I think the thread’s been pretty productive, overall. Opinions obviously vary.

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**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/28 "2021-06-10T17:06:58Z")

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I see nothing about **slash2k** ’s posts to indicate that he(?) is being racist. What I do see is that **Banquet Bear** was taking the entire thing too personally.

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**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:** [June 10, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/29 "2021-06-10T17:30:01Z")

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> [@madsircool](#):
>
> This is not equivalent to Holocaust denial because what happened in Canada wasnt a ‘Holocaust’.

Genocide is genocide. And systematically trying to destroy _several_ cultures is _multiple_ genocide.

Making a concerted effort to minimize it is denial of genocide. Which is what Holocaust denial also is. So when I say, in reference to a post calling murdered children “forgotten” and “outcasts”, one is tantamount to the other, I mean it in that way.

It’s not tantamount to the “No Jews were killed by Nazis” Holocaust denial, I’ll grant you. More like the “They almost all died from disease” kind of Holocaust denial.

> [@madsircool](#):
>
> It was an horrific occurance but it was no Holocaust.

“She only died _accidentally_ when I stuffed a sock in her mouth as I was raping her. That’s not as bad as being a premeditated rape-murderer!” - that’s what I get from your post.

Not sure what SN is, BTW.

> [@SCAdian](#):
>
> What I do see is that **Banquet Bear** was taking the entire thing too personally.

Heaven forbid anyone take hundreds of murdered children personally.

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**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/30 "2021-06-10T17:50:03Z")

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Doesn’t take much for them to get triggered by someone’s mildly stated opinion and take it extremely personal.

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**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/31 "2021-06-10T17:59:08Z")

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There is what I think of as a catch-22 about objecting to things:

Part 1: If anybody shows signs of actually being upset, they’re being emotional, and shouldn’t be listened to.

Part 2: If nobody shows signs of actually being upset, whatever’s being objected to clearly isn’t upsetting anybody now, and therefore it doesn’t need to be taken seriously.

– so either way, the objections get written off.

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**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/32 "2021-06-10T22:35:08Z")

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> [@chela](#):
>
> Doesn’t take much for them to get triggered by someone’s mildly stated opinion and take it extremely personal.

…I mean, it isn’t exactly a secret that yes, the posts in that thread were upsetting? I thought I had made that clear in the other thread, I thought I had made it clear in this thread.

But I suppose I should say thank you for finally noticing?

And yes I take it extremely personally. And the fact that you characterize those comments as “mildly stated opinions” illustrate just how casually dismissive society is of the collective trauma and grief experienced by indigenous people.

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/33 "2021-06-10T22:46:46Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Genocide is genocide.

You’d think a “genocide light” subcategory would evolve. ☹

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**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/34 "2021-06-11T02:22:06Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Your first post compared the murdered First Nations children to homeless people, your third called them forgotten and outcasts, and you did not back down from those statements in the slightest.

A. Most of the kids are thought to have died of childhood diseases. The fact that they were in forced boarding school rather than at home was and is terrible, but tuberculosis and measles aren’t murder, and I think it trivializes genuine acts of abuse to lump them in with deaths from what were at the time incurable diseases. Saying that most Jews in the Holocaust died of disease would be factually incorrect, but in Canada the policy was to kill the language and the traditions and the familial and tribal ties, not the kids themselves.

B. The question I was responding to was about why the kids were in unmarked graves as opposed to getting grave markers. I don’t see it as even disputable that the reason is that the people in a position to put up grave markers didn’t feel the need to do so, and the Canadian citizenry who had no direct connection to the boarding school system didn’t know and didn’t care, so I see no reason to back down. What do you think is factually incorrect about that assertion?

C. Why is the question of uniqueness “insulting”? We compare and contrast the Holocaust to the Armenian genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, for example, but asking similar questions about cultural genocide in the Americas is off-limits? Who made that rule?

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/35 "2021-06-11T04:14:24Z")

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> [@slash2k](#):
>
> A. Most of the kids are thought to have died of childhood d

Slash, this is ATMB. You absolutely will not try to re-spark a thread from another forum here. This forum is solely for discussing the SDMB itself and its rules. No warning but don’t do this again.

This applies to everyone - Banquet Bear, kayaker, MrDibble, everyone. If you want to discuss why the other thread should be open, by all means. Don’t just move that thread here.

RickJay  
Moderator

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**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:** [June 11, 2021, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/36 "2021-06-11T06:05:10Z")

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@RickJay

Can we also discuss why we think **@slash2k** deserved more strict moderation, and why **@Banquet_Bear** deserves less, in this thread ? That was _also_ part of **B\_B** ’s OP, not just reopening the thread.

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**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/37 "2021-06-11T07:09:56Z")

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no comment

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/38 "2021-06-11T13:47:48Z")

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That is a fair question (and it’s why we have ATMB!) His was the most recent post misusing this forum and IMHO the most egregious. No one got a formal warning and the note applies to everyone. A warning will be given to anyone who continues hijacking this thread, whether I named them or not.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/39 "2021-06-11T14:01:05Z")

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> [@madsircool](#):
>
> no comment

FYI, while this was necessary on the old vBulletin software, if you write something and change your mind you can just delete it here on Discourse (within the time limit, of course).

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**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unmarked-grave-thread-should-be-reopened/943738/40 "2021-06-11T14:02:43Z")

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Thank you for the heads up. I did not know that.

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