Quote:
Originally Posted by smoothcriminal99
How's that the case?
I'm going to suggest you just read the thread again and follow the discussion that began between AllCowsEatGrass and TiltedDonkey, then read the post I quoted, then read my response to it.
Quote:
They're allowed to be expressed but secretly I think you're a racist and am going to ban you one day?
Part of the confusion is undoubtedly that we understand what it means for a post to be bigoted or racist differently. But yes, I am explicitly suggesting that, were I a mod (I'm not, to be clear), I might think that your point of view is racist (in some sense; a lot of unpacking can be done here) and not ban you for it, or take any other action. And that it might be a good general policy to allow certain points of view to be expressed in appropriate forums despite the fact that many (but not all) people think those points of view are (implicitly) racist.
Also, it wouldn't be a secret belief, necessarily. I would probably tell you I thought so!
All of the above is connected (maybe a bit tangentially) to the question of how you formulate site-wide rules about objectionable posting given the fact that there are big differences of opinion about what's objectionable, as well as differences in posters' behavior when they post in different sub-forums.
So, the reason why I highlight the fact that I might tolerate posts that I personally find objectionable (and by extension: which others may find objectionable) is because I think it's a requirement if the goal is to find some site-wide policy that might be consistently followed, so that the question of how to deal with some of the complaints that come up from time to time would have a more predictable answer.
As BTM2 pointed out, and borrowing from Gizmo's post, part of the idea is to move the criteria somewhat away from a judgement about what qualifies as "racist" (or sexist, etc) in some absolute sense to a judgement based in part on other factors, i.e. whether or not the perspective in question is reasonably mainstream, whether the person is obviously more interested in trolling than discussion, and etc. But with the caveat that there should be some minimum site-wide standard of what constitutes unacceptably racist or sexist posting, along with the more variable forum-specific rules.