Thoughts on GD moderation change for Gun Debate threads

[Kimstu]

Here’s what I wrote in response to a cross-reference in that Pit thread:

@Kimstu

Yeah, complaining because being “reasonable” in a Pit thread hasn’t preserved you from a “shitshow” of “disgusting abuse”, or claiming that such abuse somehow demonstrates that the people abusing you are “incapable of arguing in good faith”, is missing the point.

Vituperation and venom in the Pit don’t have to be reasonable, they don’t have to be proportionate, they don’t have to moderate their “tone” if their target is responding with moderation, they don’t have to be “dialed back”. People are allowed to vent all they want in the Pit, and to take out their anger on anybody who seems to be supporting whatever it is they’re primarily angry about. The only thing they can’t do, and the only thing the Mods have to ding them for if they do do, is commit actual violations of the rules of the Pit.

Also, nothing that people post in the Pit can be taken as a reliable guide to the standards of debate that they hold themselves to in other forums, or to their ability to discuss something thoughtfully. Look at the number of usually implacable adversaries calmly discussing “What are Rights For?” in the concurrent GD thread, for example.

There are in fact plenty of us who are willing to discuss calmly even in the Pit, but that doesn’t mean the Pit has to be treated as just a slightly spicier debate forum with a little more profanity and invective. This here is a safe space for full-on rage, hatred and contempt, among other things, whether rational or irrational; and even those of us who don’t use it that way should not expect to be exempt from the phenomenon. If we don’t like it, we can ignore it.