Quote:
Originally Posted by chillrob
You realize that bigotry exists outside of this forum, right?
If a bigot can't post in this forum, he is still going to be a bigot in the real world, where it could possibly matter. Someone expressing bigotry in this forum hurts no one, as far as I can tell. It just brings the bigotry out in the open. Would you prefer there be secret bigotry or open bigotry? Which do you think is more dangerous?
Quote:
Originally Posted by shortstacker
I try to be open about my bigotry.
Got me in trouble in this forum in the past.
No one expects that a bigot would stop being a bigot due to a conversation in this forum. If they are a bigot in the real world, they're a bigot, period. (There are non bigot trolls who play bigots on the internet just to get a rise out of people, but that's a different issue). Does allowing bigots to post their bigotry on our forum cause any harm? Yes, it does. First, it does harm to the forum itself. We want to build the number of people who come to our forum because it is a place where they can discuss and debate with other members. We want that experience to be enjoyable for them. Part of that enjoyment is engaging in debates with people who hold different views from their own, in an environment where everyone is treated with courtesy and respect. Logging onto the forum should be a fun activity that members will want to repeat often.
But the forum cannot be welcoming to everyone if we allow bigoted, hateful speech targeting various groups to be posted. No one can feel welcome if there are posts questioning whether they are even considered equal to other humans, or fall into some designated inferior group unworthy of the same rights and privileges as the majority group. And no non bigoted person, whether a member of a majority or minority group, would want to read that vile trash during their entertainment time. So allowing various forms of bigoted hate speech would drive away the vast majority of people, leaving only a core of bigots reinforcing each other. This, in turn, would leave a forum that would never be acceptable to the company owners, who do not want their company associated with a gathering place for bigots. So the forum is killed. In simple terms, the small number of bigots would **** it up for the rest of us.
There is a secondary effect as well. Every media outlet that permits bigots to post their hate is another place where impressionable people can get exposed to their ****ed up ideas. Sure, there are a ton of dedicated websites that spew pure garbage in hopes of radicalizing people. But even on a primarily poker based website, there could be people, esp young people, who could wander over to our forum. If while here, they see bigoted posters attempting to justify and normalize their hateful beliefs, or providing links to other sources of bigoted propaganda, that could end up being enough of a veneer of respectability to cause them to delve deeper into the hate speech arena. Radicalization of young people doesn't happen overnight or from one info source. The greater the number of places they are exposed to these ideas, and the more mainstream the sources appear, the greater the chance of someone getting sucked into that world.
This is why we will always maintain guardrails, or a "left and right limit" on what topics will be allowed here. And we seek to have those limits set wide enough apart so that many points of view can be discussed. But as wide as the highway is built, we will insist that posters stay on the road. Bigotry, racism, conspiracy theories, and other wild claims unsupported by the evidence, have no place in this forum or on this site.
So is the secret bigot better than the open bigot? In regards to our forum, yes. We will not allow open bigotry to degrade our members experiences on the site. The fact is, no one wants to hear that hate **** except other bigots. And they have their own websites for that. (But you won't find links to them here )
Ps: if anyone has intentions of posting bigoted stuff to test the limits, I advise against it. Depending on what is posted, this type of posting may accelerate the disciplinary steps significantly. You may advance directly to go without a series of warnings and temp bans. If you are unsure whether certain topics are acceptable, please pm me first to discuss it.