Iāll just post my initial comment in the entirety since what happens is entirely predicted by my first comment.
The topic was trans athletes and, like with any hot button political issues, there are rigidly defined āsidesā that come with a list of things that you must profess.
These things are simply declared as not being open to discussion and if you challenge that declaration, ye power trippinā bastards rear their ugly head. This dogma is unhealthy in any community and the people who enforce it through social pressure, cyber bullying and mod powers are actively harmful.
As to demonstrate my point I continued with the conversation, responding in good faith to the people who attempted a conversation, right up until I was mass banned (which only took a few hours).
The first comment is here if you want to see the entire conversation or think Iām hiding some secret transphobic rants in my comment history: https://lemmy.world/comment/15496985
The Initial Comment
This is an issue that exposes some of the more dogmatic people in the movement.
It is as if there is a list of positions that youāre required to believe and if you disagree with any one of them youāre labeled a heretic (transphobic, in this case).
Sports and the fairness of competition is a complex issue even when youāre just talking about cisgender competitors:
Can a person use performance enhancing drugs to train and then get clean enough to test positive for a competition? It seems unfair, to me, for the other competitors if this is the case.
It isnāt an unfair statement to say that the physical performance of cisgender men is higher than that of cisgender women. This is why we have separate competitions for men and women.
The issue isnāt as simple as a choice between āTransgender people should be free, without question, to compete in any competitionā or āTransgender people should not be allowed to compete as their genderā
Framing it in such a black and white manner is harmful behavior, no matter which position you take.
We need to understand how peopleās bodies are affected and what advantages of disadvantages are obtained and then base the rule changes on objective data and not appeals to emotion or ideological bullying.
Fabricated Pretexts
The last thing I said on the topic (bold added), as there were already commenters insinuating that Iām secretly a transphobe rather than engaging in discussion, was:
Obviously the people arguing that trans people should never compete are ignorant, Iām not supporting that position. From the point of view of fairness in competition there has to be an objective answer thatās backed by objective tests.
Simply declaring that trans people are beyond reproach and that any attempts to quantify biological advantage are unfairly discriminatory and anyone asking these questions is a bigot isnāt helpful.
I include this because included in the reasons for the bans is: āTransphobia attempting to make excuses for trans exclusion from sports.ā This is completely misrepresenting what I said and what I believe in order to create a pretext for a ban.
And the power trippinā bastards come in with the sweeping community bans ([email protected], really?): https://lemmy.world/modlog?page=2&actionType=ModBanFromCommunity&userId=12926811
Conclusion
This kind of thinking is harmful to any community.
Labeling disagreement as bigotry is nonsense. Refusing to engage on a topic and using filters and bans to hide from people who donāt perfectly align with your ideas is not how you make allies or educate people.
The people that do this are responsible for creating the impression that your communities are hostile and made up of extremists. Attacking allies because they donāt fall in line without question is a blunder.
People with moderator powers should be held to a higher standard of responsibility and fabricating reasons for bans and mislabeling people as bigots is the ultimate abdication of that responsibility. These people are not interested in helping a community thrive, they simply want to be the ones with the power to strike out at people that they want to hurt regardless of the damage that it causes.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk (except you, [email protected], I pray you never learn how to exit vim)
At the time you made your post, there was no blahaj banā¦ If there was, I wouldnāt be able to see this post of yours as it wouldnāt have federated to blahaj.zone.
I have however banned you now, because you ignored people explaining to topic to you in good faith to continue repeating transphobic talking points.
At the time I made my post, from the link posted in my post:
What transphobic talking points? What people did I ignore? This is more of the same āIām just going to make up things, knowing that I never have to defend them or justify them to anybody in any way (because Iām a powerful moderator and nobody can question me), and go on my wayā power tripping crap.
Just because youāre a moderator for a minority group community that is the target of attacks doesnāt mean that everyone is out to get you.
Itās infuriating that youāre more willing to alienate allies by painting them as bigots than you are to educate people or answer their questions.
Just because YOU have seen the questions 1,000 times doesnāt mean that there are not people that are just thinking to ask those questions today. Just because some people will ask questions in bad faith doesnāt mean that everyone is asking questions in bad faith.
Simply labeling anything you donāt feel like dealing with as ātransphobicā and hiding in a filter bubble doesnāt solve anything. Enforcing arbitrary purity tests on people outside of your community is toxic behavior and does nothing but create animosity.
I have never been against trans rights, human rights, and I do not remotely support a ban on trans athletes.
My point was that people who use social punishment and intellectual bullying to silence any kind of dissent are a problem and damaging to communities. The people with moderation power who use their power to punish wrongthink and dissent while labeling it bigotry are especially toxic and damaging.
How many allies have you banned or alienated with this behavior? Does your hubris tell you that that number is zero?
Do better.
You fucking do better. Allies donāt go into minority communities and tell those communities how they should be run.
You didnāt read the OP.
I didnāt go into a minority community, if you read the link in the OP, Iām posting in a California community (which I did not get banned from, important to note) so Iām not exactly sure of your point.
This was literally mods from other communities on other servers deciding to issue bans for fabricated reasons.
This you?
Yeah, thatās telling a mod how to run an instance for your preferences and not for the community itās for. Thatās why I think you deserve the new ban regardless of your OP.
If you want to be taught, youāre being spoon fed a lesson. Open up the hangar! š„š®
Iām not telling them how to run their instance. I wasnāt on their instance or their community. Iāve never posted in any of the communities they moderate nor am I likely to.
Iām saying that theyāre not doing this to moderate their communities (which Iāve never posted to, or even seen).
Iām saying that theyāre abusing their moderator powers like a āSuper Downvoteā button by spamming my mod log with nonsense, slanderous bans. So the next time a moderator is reviewing a report on a comment, theyāll see a bunch of bans for ātransphobeā and think that they mean something.
If you canāt see why that is a problem, imagine this scenario.:
Iām not going to do this, because it is toxic, but imagine this happening, because this is at the core of what Iām accusing these moderators of doing:
I can go and create a bunch of random communities, itās easy. Click a button, type a name, click done. I can make 10-15 in a few minutes.
Now, Iām the moderator of these communities and I have decided that I donāt like how youāre talking to me. So I go and ban your from my community with the reason āSending nude photographs to minorsā and then I go to the next community, that I created 5 minutes ago, and ban you for āsexualizing childrenā. I keep doing this with the various communities that Iāve created until your mod log is full (it takes about 10) of bans from various communities with reasons that imply that you are a pedophile.
Would I be wrong for abusing moderator powers? Absolutely.
If someone called me out on abusing moderator powers, would it be ignorant to attack them for ātelling moderators how to run their communitiesā? š„š® Also, yes.
You literally are. I quoted the part where you do. Good on ada for the bans.
Iām reading the rest of it like:
āI was a dick to people and now their friends treat me like Iām a dick.ā
Thatās not unfair, thatās called having a reputation.
Anyway, Iām going to follow suit with the cool kids and block you since you refuse to take feedback. Keep telling yourself itās anybody but you.
Iām losing such a tolerant friend too, Iāll be poorer for the rest of my days