Mods are total scumbags

For background, I got carded in the politics forum because 1) some guy called me a Nazi because I took the controversial stance that shooting your political opponents in the head is bad; and 2) I responded in kind my delivering a childish insult to the guy who called me a Nazi for my controversial stance.

Then I happened to come across a post where a poster said he wished someone would kill his least favorite political candidate. No discipline was rendered to that poster, which I pointed out to the mods. Their response.

https://imgur.com/a/title-unWb6PZ

 

I disengaged from discussion with him. Just posting here as a public service to let people know that there’s one tier of forum moderation (draconian) for people whose political views are anywhere to the right of Stalin’s, and then another, privileged tier (feel free to openly encourage political violence) for soy-chugging Cluster B personalities with the political views of your average freshman at Oberlin.

Glad it’s been explicitly stated by a moderator himself.

 

How should I respond when I’m called a Nazi? I responded to one personal attack with another.

 

Anyway, I got permabanned from that forum, so you guys have your little hugbox back. Maybe the posters in there will get the assassination they’re so desperately hoping for.

 

No, guys, you don’t get to act like a bunch of raging assholes and then clutch your pearls when someone else does the same back at you.

 

Here’s another good one, by a “staff member”:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/murder-of-united-health-care-ceo.2133477/#post-42677116

This one is basically half a step away from a legitimate incitement to murder people, and somehow it’s stayed up, no cards, no moderation.

As long as there continue to be two tiers of moderation, I won’t bother to engage with you guys in good faith. Just know that the mods are a bunch of huge losers - you and I both know it, and you really don’t like that I know it and don’t mind pointing it out.

 

Whatever you losers say.

When’s the last time a bigsoccer moderator has seen his own toes? I’m guessing 1980s at the latest.

 

Maybe worry less about me and more about getting rid of all the shitty ads on this site and making it look less like something from the dawn of Geocities

 

People, no. You losers, yes.

 

I’ll take that feedback on board, loser

 

Sorry, I see the error of my ways now. I understand that you don’t want that forum devolving into mean-spirited insult slinging. Only constructive posters are allowed, like sounders78. I could only dream of matching the level of gentility and insight he managed to achieve in his most recent post:

 

Welcome to the Nazi party, DK. Go pick up an armband out of the bin over there /s

First of all, let me sincerely apologize for flaming you upthread. I appreciate that you made an honest attempt to rein in the bad behavior from sounders78. That said, I think you can see how that went. You got dogpiled, mocked, called a Nazi, a race-traitor, etc., all just for telling a guy not to act like a total asshole to people he disagrees with.

I think this raises a bigger point - what do you want the politics board to be? Do you want it to be a place for intelligent, measured discussion? If so, you need to have very strict moderation standards for everyone, no exceptions. Otherwise, do you want it to be a place where people can vent their spleens and fling shit? If so, you need to have lax moderation standards for everyone, no exceptions.

But the way it is now is really pretty shitty - there are lax / no moderation standards for one group of people, and draconian moderation standards for everyone else. So you have what you have, which is a circle-jerk forum for people raging unopposed against some bizarre Frankenstein’s monster of neo-Nazi strawmen crossed with an outdated Boomercon stereotype that hasn’t been relevant in 15 years (Fox news, religious right, etc.).

I guess if that’s what you want, that’s fine, but frankly it kind of sucks, and you should at least be honest enough to put up a sticky on that forum explaining that it’s a circlejerk without any real substance. But really, ideally, it would either be lax moderation for everyone or strict moderation for everyone.

I’ll leave you with this - I’m just asking for rules to be applied equivalently for everyone. The people who’ve spent the last two days calling you a Nazi and mocking you are asking for the rules to be applied selectively to people they disagree with, while they have free rein to be as abusive as they want. It warrants asking who the bad guy is here. (Spoiler: it’s not me.)

 

I have to say that this is a very blinkered view of the world. Of course sounders78 thinks these political issues have grave implications for him. These issues have grave implications for me, too. To give just one example, as a child, I saw the decline of American manufacturing transform my hometown from a thriving, small to medium sized city into a violent, drug-infested dump. Thanks to all this, when I was 12, I got randomly assaulted in school by a classmate who was having a bad acid trip. This kid was so out of his mind that I thought he was going to kill me - I was fortunate that he just beat the crap out me, but when you’re an innocent 12 year old, well, that kind of ends your innocence. I’ve since moved away, but my parents (legal immigrants, btw) are still there, and to this day, I have to worry that they’re going to get shot or stabbed when they go to the grocery store, and I’m afraid to bring their grandchildren there to see them. Most people on the politics board are fully supportive of the policies that created the conditions that allowed this to happen, and fully against measures to remedy this. Personally, I think most of them are completely blind to the struggles of anyone outside of their little bubble.

The point of all this is not to get sympathy, but to explain that sounders78 isn’t special. We’re all bringing our baggage into these discussions, and his baggage isn’t so special that he should have special dispensation to be an asshole to people who disagree with him. This brings me back to my original point, which is that it’s bs to selectively pick and choose who gets to be an asshole to people who disagree with them on that board.

Anyway, I’ll gladly apologize to sounders78 if he apologizes for calling me a Nazi. I’m saying right here that I’d take that deal. Ask yourself: would sounders78 take that deal? Once you’ve answered that, ask yourself who really is the bad guy here.