Quote:
Originally Posted by pokerodox
I would have thought it would be a discussion worth having.
In most cases I'd prefer to allow the debate to happen. the intent isn't to police the quality of sources in general. I think that would be putting the thumb on the scale a bit too heavily. That's why (for example) the general rule banning Breitbart links was rolled back.
But in this case there's two problems, and it's the combination of the two that leads me to disallow this source
1) The claims in the image are false, because of the egregiously disingenuous nature of their methodology, which they don't disclose up front.
2) The purpose of that false information is propaganda in the service of dehumanizing Muslims in general, in violation of the site rules against posting hateful content. The fact that the information is obviously false contributes to the conclusion that it violates the site rules. We don't allow links to hate sites, and in my judgment the site from which the image comes qualifies.
So, if someone was wielding actually legitimate data in order to make a hateful argument (violating (2) but not (1)), I wouldn't disallow the source, but I would probably warn them to modify their language to avoid violating the site rules.
If someone was posting misinformation but it didn't run afoul of the site rules, I would also let it be subject to discussion and rebuttal rather than ban it. But the combination of the two problems leads me to the conclusion that it should simply be disallowed.
Obviously, the downside is it's harder for anyone else to evaluate my reasons for doing so since I deleted the post, but I'm happy to discuss it with anyone interested via PM.