Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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I've just read the box-cutter thread. Isn't it funny how Setar usually spends a lot of his time jumping over everybody when they say something he doesn't like, yet as soon as people started questioning whether his actions were right or productive, he disappears from the thread entirely? I guess he's not so good at defending his actions when he can't just shout "STOP ERASING THE RAPED BABIES!" at people and instead has to formulate an actual argument.
 
jhunter1163 said:
Come on over, A-Plussers. I promise not to do anything like edit a typo in one of your posts so you get an AutoModAction PM and shut down for two days. I swear I won't do that. Really.
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You mean you're the one in charge of that jerk? Whenever I get a message from him I'm unable to function for a week.

Axiom_Blade said:
Did anybody else notice that the women are standing on the sidelines filming (clearly terrified of this guy), while the men have been sent in to do the actual poster removal? That's real equality, ladies!
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Yep. And for many people that was their first introduction to Creepy BitterGrrl.

Also, how dare you question the deliberate hypoagency of the women there you sexist bigot?

qwints said:
That's not true.

<quote about permissions snipped>
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Well that's good. I guess it became a good idea to do that after they made that brilliant PR move of attacking Anna Johnstone for suggesting that they ask permission from the owners of the work they were going to transcribe.

Linky for those interested.

WATCH as Anna makes a reasonable request
SEE the people in favour attack her while claiming she was attacking them
READ Greta Christina threaten Anna and misrepresent what happened on a medium where one just has to scroll up slightly to see what actually happened.
WITH special guest Setar as the Elf of the Star Chamber something something.
 
Wildy said:
WATCH as Anna makes a reasonable request
SEE the people in favour attack her while claiming she was attacking them
READ Greta Christina threaten Anna and misrepresent what happened on a medium where one just has to scroll up slightly to see what actually happened.
WITH special guest Setar as the Elf of the Star Chamber something something.
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4 days after the site was created. Start as you mean to go on...
 
Wildy said:
Yep. And for many people that was their first introduction to Creepy BitterGrrl.
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Ah, Creepy Bittergirl. Anyone interested should do a Youtube search. Well worth it. And thank you for bringing it up Wildy.

Wildy said:
Well that's good. I guess it became a good idea to do that after they made that brilliant PR move of attacking Anna Johnstone for suggesting that they ask permission from the owners of the work they were going to transcribe.

Linky for those interested.

WATCH as Anna makes a reasonable request
SEE the people in favour attack her while claiming she was attacking them
READ Greta Christina threaten Anna and misrepresent what happened on a medium where one just has to scroll up slightly to see what actually happened.
WITH special guest Setar as the Elf of the Star Chamber something something.
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And that really is a fantastic read. I've read it before but couldn't remember where. So many good memories though - the misrepresentations, the ban hammers, the abuse and obfuscation. Good times.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
I've just read the box-cutter thread. Isn't it funny how Setar usually spends a lot of his time jumping over everybody when they say something he doesn't like, yet as soon as people started questioning whether his actions were right or productive, he disappears from the thread entirely? I guess he's not so good at defending his actions when he can't just shout "STOP ERASING THE RAPED BABIES!" at people and instead has to formulate an actual argument.
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Isn't said thread in their wayback machine, though? You'll note a lot of voices asking if that's really the best way to argue - by taking a box-cutter to their posters and essentially censoring them. Would those many people be allowed to state that in today's A+ environment. They were also still sorting out the pecking order at that time and Setar may not have been given his status as one of the Primes (I think they should go like the Transformers and call them Ceepolk Prime, Setar Prime, Cipher Prime... it would make it so much easier for the new squirrels to understand that they WILL NEVER be one of the inner sanctum).
 
Respecting the origins of Creepy Bitter Girl: I like Mykeru, love most of his parody work, but it still seems downright ****** to do an in-depth exposé like this one on Sasha while hiding behind his own anonymity. Granted, she was conspiring to vandalize for the sake of censorship, and that makes her a profoundly horrible person, but it still seems wrong to go waving someone's identity around like that while actively concealing your own.
 
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Ha! Charity? That's done by people with privilege.

We're all victims here, we don't need to do charity or anything societally useful.

This is the impression I have of A+.
 
Preventing harmful slurs and arguments isn't tone policing. Tone policing is the idea that passionate or angry responses are less valid than flat responses.



Krikkiter said:
Fantastic. They changed their policy then?
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I'm not a part of the project, and I'm unaware of what the original policy was, but that's the current policy.
 
qwints said:
Preventing harmful slurs and arguments isn't tone policing. Tone policing is the idea that passionate or angry responses are less valid than flat responses.
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From what I can gather on the A+ forums "tone policing" is whatever the popular people say it is.
 
qwints said:
Preventing harmful slurs and arguments isn't tone policing. Tone policing is the idea that passionate or angry responses are less valid than flat responses.
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Actually, that's what tone policing is SUPPOSED to be. Look more closely, though, at the posts where one of them pulls that particular trump card. If you take the original posts at face value, I don't see that much evidence that they're either passionate or angry at the outset. They're just posts by spoiled (privileged) brats who know they have an out and take advantage of it to write rude ad hom posts. Look at the famous invitation to Wind that she should do something and die. Do you really think that was spur of the moment impassioned speech? The issue had been kicking around for weeks and the poster had loads of time to compose Zoon's thoughts. Of course, no one called Zeep out on it, but had they, the "Oh, no! That's tone policing!" would've surely followed.

Many of them are not writing fierce and impassioned rhetoric, but bringing out their old hackneyed silencing tactics. Shouting down the other person is an accepted mode of argument for them.

It's Calvin Ball mixed with Mornington Crescent mixed with 52 Pick Up. They just invent the rules as they go along, and like MC, if you get enough regulars to agree with you then an orange can be a watermelon in their world.

"Tone Policing" could be a valid term. But it would need to be applied to all sorts of tones, not just loud, foul-mouthed and obnoxious, which it's used as a bogus defense for. It's a cheap rhetorical trick.
 
d4m10n said:
I'd've thrown in a reference to Numberwang/Wangernum but yeah that pretty much sums it up.
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The problem with these comparisons is that it insults perfectly good game systems.

Check out this thread, for example: http://atheismplus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3974

I defy anyone to point out which stated rules I actually transgressed, and how.
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Well one of them was ignoring a mod directive.

The rest of the hostility towards you is quite obviously them being censorious, capricious and biased since they know you've also posted on the Slyme Pit, and also that you remind them of their brilliant PR efforts when you asked non-mods to comment on the A+ forums.
 
Foolmewunz said:
The issue had been kicking around for weeks and the poster had loads of time to compose Zoon's thoughts. Of course, no one called Zeep out on it, but had they, the "Oh, no! That's tone policing!" would've surely followed.
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I think the mods did a poor job of handling that situation. I don't, however, think that's what would have happened as the mods did condemn some of the abuse.

Which sort of response is more likely to have been carefully thought through?
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This illustrates the problem with tone policing. Emoting about an issue is completely compatible with carefully considering an issue. Careful consideration can evoke emotions. If people directly affected by an issue are more likely to express emotion on a subject, then banning displays of emotion is more likely to keep out people who've been directly affected by an issue.
 
Once or twice, when I’ve felt immaturely malicious, I’ve considered registering on the A+ boards to agree with almost all of their positions on things, and then take it to the obvious conclusion : that all those horrible things will never change and the Plusers are stuck being perpetual victims (while people like me bask in privilege) because they do sweet sod-all to make any /real/ difference.

Rather than trying to argue with them rationally or simply poking them with a stick and laughing, I’d tell them they’re right : there truly /is/ a vast, conscious conspiracy by white, middle aged, middle income, average intelligenced, heterosexual males like me to deprive the Plusers (and any/all underprivileged groups they’d care to identify) of all the social equality they so stridently insist they’re due. I’d post that I sit nightly in my icy Fortress of Cisitude, nibbling biscuits of pure white male privilege and sipping a tea sweetened with Setar’s tears, reading the bleatings on FTB, A+, and other SJW sites, secure in the knowledge that I and my ilk will never be removed from power because of the utter ineffectuality of those who raise voices against us.

Just to watch their collective heads asplode I’ll tell them that I giggle like a schoolboy whenever I fill out a form which demands I choose either “male” or “female”. That I feel a little bit stronger every time I hear a news reporter describe someone as acting ‘hysterically’. That I’ll high-five a man I’ve never met before if I see him hold a door open for a woman, because we both know he’s only doing it to check out her butt as she passes. And that the SJWs are as unable to change things as a woman is unable to do math. So re-tweet and blog as much as you want : the Evil Patriarchy will still be here at the end of the day, now and forever, because re-tweeting and blogging is all that you're actually DOING <insert diabolical supervillan laugh>!

Obviously none of the above is even remotely true, but they’re so far removed from reality and beyond rational discourse, it’s not like it would make a difference any way. I’d never actually /do/ the above on the remote chance that there are still left there any people who genuinely thought it would be the ‘safe space’ it was advertised to be. And as I noted it /is/ a fairly immature impulse on my part. But, one needs idle fancy to pass the time driving to and from work, so it can be fun to simply toy with the notion and try to picture their reactions.

Oops, my bad – I should have given out both ‘vehicle owner’ and ‘gainfully employed’ trigger warnings.
 
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