Letter to the Editor

Cry me a river. This isn’t a newspaper it’s the editors playground. I’d do the same. Don’t expect to behave without dignity and be treated with dignity.

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That’s the wrong question, though.
Is resisting arrest deserving of death by cop?
Is assaulting a police officer deserving of death by cop?

Not that it’s entirely clear that either of those things happened here…

Huh. Never seen it on the site before.

Never heard the ‘victim-blaming’ forum rule mentioned before, either. Might be worth having a post linking to the rules to give folks a hint…

Awesome to know I’m at least uniquely unpleasant :slight_smile:

I don’t believe I’ve been guilty of most of those, the exceptions being hostility, foul language and (partially) ignoring moderator requests.

I also got banned once for sock-puppeting @antinous as a joke, which was a bad idea on my part!

Oh! Oh! I know these ones!

ahem lalalalalalala memememememe laalaalaa lololololo ahem ahemahem

Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is … ‘no’.

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I’m glad you clearly know the facts of the case beyond all doubt. If we could just get you to tell us what transpired during all crimes, we could get rid of this dang costly and complicated judicial process.

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You may hold the record for being banned by the most moderators. Have you collected them all?

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Despite avatar-based lobbying I don’t have the badges to prove it :frowning:

I keep coming back though… what are you guys putting in the water?

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Don’t worry, that isn’t what I meant or implied. I’m just uncomfortable about invoking the “victim blaming” ban automatically. If I threaten someone smaller than me and they thump me, I’m not a victim, they are. When the facts are in dispute, then it gets hard to know who the victim is. So banning victim blaming over-broadly would ban nearly all discussion of the case. And in the case in question here, I have no idea who the victim is. Yet.

I guess there’s an issue here of how you define the victim. From one end of the telescope, it’s an innocent young man, losing his life shot down by a cop. From the other end, though, it’s an innocent police officer, forced to defend himself with lethal force against a suspected thief. Both are views that people could quite reasonably hold on this issue - at least from the limited press I’ve read about it. This isn’t a discussion like, for example, so many around rape, where the victim and the perpetrator are more clearly defined - the old she shouldn’t have dressed so slutty/been out that late/ had a drink bs. Choosing who the victim is and then defending that by banning other views is censorious and it would be a shame to see that on Boing Boing in this context.

That said, the banned comment wasn’t nuanced and reasonable - it was shouty and clearly intentionally trolling - and in that context the sort of thing that sensible moderators of internet discussions delete.

Of course, Boing Boing isn’t funded by anyone’s taxes (as far as we’re aware!) and consequently, Rob, Cory etc are perfectly free to do whatever they want. No-one has a right to free speech in someone else’s house. I just hope they appreciate a breadth of discussion and continue to facilitate that.

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Antinous tended to foster a antagonistic atmosphere by actively jumping in to mock posters he disagreed with. I really appreciate the tone Falcor uses to (in both senses) moderate discussions.

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So, the facts are in dispute but you provide a “hypothetical” account of a smaller person being threatened by a larger person and ascribe the role of victim? Sounds to me like your mind is made up. You must have been an eye witne- oh no, that’s right you’re in the UK.

I have to admit that I’d never seen that Jill
graphic before, and at first glance it looked like a cute goat-boy in overalls calling for civil unrest.

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I can’t help but chuckle at you blaming the victim of a ban for it being his own fault for being banned due to victim blaming.

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This sounds an awful lot like victim-blaming itself, the victim being the banned reader.

“You made your bed” and “you brought this on yourself” and “if you drag your (slutty dress) into the forum and start (shaking it) jumping up and down…” That all sounds rather familiar, eh?

Dialog is difficult when you don’t agree, but I hope this minor hypocrisy is at least registering.

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Yes, he will be banned - but we can’t mention that it was his own fault.

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Hey, a bit of discussion never hurt anyone…

I feel the metaphor we have to remember here is that we are invited to participate in a semi-private discussion. The mods here are more or less in the same position as a person hosting a party taking place on their own property. They have to deal with unruly guests and show them the door.

And mods are human – if they just had to deal with an offensive boor somewhere else, they might have the normal leniency, and have to be a wee bit more strict in enforcing decorum, clamping down on the normal ribaldry and risqué repartee. But if it happens to you, then it feels like a case of “I don’t care who started it, you are all leaving!”

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…while I don’t support victim-blaming, I’m a little bit disturbed how easily we pile on to the notion that holding opnions that are considered anathema to the majority, and expressing those opinions, is somehow anti-free speech.

Again, I don’t agree with the position of the person who was banned. But, to me, it sounds like saying that expressing an unpopular opinion is a “denial to discuss” is far more a view suppressing free speech than the opinion that was banned here. If you ban the opinions that you disagree with, and never actually have to discuss why they’re wrong, then not only are you suppressing certain opinions, but you’re also ensuring that the “discussion’” is an echo-chamber where things go unchallenged, and you’re not motivated to actually hone and clarify your own arguments.

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No, I am saying that prematurely assigning the role of “victim” is daft, whichever way anyone wants to assign it. Simples.

Not with my great new headphones!

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