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It has been a little while now that this fledgling community has been around and it remains one of my favorite stories about communities. A splinter of a much larger community took it upon themselves to challenge the rest and make a move to a new home. Shedding the shackles that were being placed on them was a bold move, but one that has been fantastic.
The community here is great, but here is my question. Overall, we are amazingly tolerant of others, of the choices they make, and of their beliefs. I would then be curious, if we are such a tolerant group, how do we address intolerance in our ranks? I recently came across what I can only say filled me with pity and sadness. I find it saddening that in this day and age, and especially in this group, there are still such hate-filled people.
But this poses a question: how does a group that is tolerant deal with intolerance within it's ranks? Does our acceptance of others extend to accepting someone that has thoughts and beliefs which are far from the norm within this community, or is there a limit placed on how far from our own values a member of the community may be?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by FakeBeldin on Sunday April 13 2014, @08:03PM
So... who gets to define what's intolerant? You? Ethanol-fueled? ....
Not tolerating intolerance is itself a form of intolerance. A major difference is that we agree with the one and disagree with the other. Remember the phrase
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
-- Evelyn B. Hall (according to Wikipedia, not Voltaire, though it should sum up his outlook)?
I prefer that approach to an approach of excluding people. I wouldn't know where to draw the line precisely. (Actually, I'd wish the community could draw such lines itself in response to intolerance, but it's too easy for a troll to exhaust community "line-drawing" resources.)
One solution could be to implement a "block" button, where comments by a specific user are automatically blocked for you. I'm not sure that's great, but for me it beats kicking out someone whose opinion is contrasting strongly with the majority.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday April 13 2014, @08:21PM
There is no slippery slope. Discriminatory behavior is bad, but if you try to stop it, you're discriminating against it. Oh noes! We should allow discrimination otherwise the mean old dictionary will get us!
The issue isn't the definition of tolerance, it's that the dude is being a racist jerk but it's unclear what to do about it because we believe in free-speech. Silencing him is not the first choice anybody wants to go with. Banning him could (as proven by Slashdot....) cause him to be even noisier since he cannot be banned in a way that'd not affect others who are uninvolved. I don't have an answer to offer right now because, frankly, if I had to solve the problem I'd have to toss AC posting, and I don't think anybody (including me...) would really want to do that.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Interesting) by FakeBeldin on Sunday April 13 2014, @08:39PM
Hey, I noticed that the tone of my previous post wasn't what I had in my mind when I wrote it. Sorry about that - I had a "questioning" tone in my mind: I genuinely meant to ask the question "Who gets to define..." - I honestly don't know.
I'm not saying we should tolerate discrimination... nor am I saying we shouldn't. I'm wondering how to deal with speech I myself find objectionable.
If I could downmod that sort of speech, I'd gladly do so. (To me, the difference between that and censorship is that downmodding only works if the community agrees with me and can be undone by any other (modding) member of the community.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Sunday April 13 2014, @08:49PM
Ah, I'm sorry dude. I think I could have intuited that from the rest of your post.
I think the important thing is to understand why it's objectionable. Is it merely an observation or is it intended to harm someone? Was Ethanol Fueled trying to turn people hostile towards Mexicans or was he trying to draw attention to an issue so it can be solved? I do believe this questions can be answered without a whole lot of subjectivity.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by FakeBeldin on Sunday April 13 2014, @09:20PM
Hey, good post! (no mod points or I'd have expressed it that way)
It got me to re-read Ethanol Fueled post top to bottom, and answer those questions for myself. (I actually took it in this time.) I arrived at my conclusions.
I'll leave it to others to come to their own conclusions - none of you need me to do your thinking for you.