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posted by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the You-fight-like-a-girl dept.

A couple days back, Newsweek reports:

Feminist activists on Sunday are planning to commemorate last year's Women's March, the response to the election of President Donald Trump that was widely regarded as the biggest demonstration in U.S. history.

As they do so, the so-called alt-right—an anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic movement that has struggled to recruit women—is aiming to co-opt this political moment with a series of stunts, including spreading propaganda and a counterdemonstration in Knoxville, Tennessee. This targeting of a feminist event is part of an ongoing pattern of misogynistic behavior in the movement, according to activists and a rights group that spoke to Newsweek.

[...] Trolls from 4chan, an imageboard website that is popular with the alt-right, are planning to post signs at women's studies departments on college campuses Sunday with the hashtag #mybordermychoice, a deliberate perversion of the abortion-rights slogan "my body my choice," according to a series of posts on the site and research conducted by antifascist activists.

[...] Lecia Brooks of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a rights group, told Newsweek that Heimbach [Leader of the Traditionalist Workers' Party] is "no defender of women," referring to altercations involving the opposite sex he has had at demonstrations.

Heimbach replied to that notion by saying legal abortion and illegal immigration were victimizing the unborn and women, and that "women have had their femininity put under attack by a culture that treats them as either sex objects or as mere economic cogs in the capitalist system." Heimbach is a critic of the capitalist system while also being a critic of socialism, and views a "national socialism" system that includes only white non-Jews as an alternative to both. He said the policies of his group were structured to "empower women to their God given honorable place as true equals to men in society through their unique role as mothers and wives." To be clear, he is an ardent critic of contemporary feminism.

Message received, very clear.


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 27 2018, @12:55PM (8 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday January 27 2018, @12:55PM (#628839) Homepage Journal

    Naw, man, the Politics nexus was never there to say "we want lots more politics". It's there for the opposite reason, so people can filter it if they don't. You shouldn't remotely feel pressured to post political stories that you wouldn't have before its existence.

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  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @01:49PM (7 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 27 2018, @01:49PM (#628849) Journal

    The community submit stories that they feel worthy of discussion. If we only want to accept a small subset of political stories then the Board will have to specify its requirements more precisely, and we must be very careful that we do not fall foul of unintended censorship by simply refusing to acknowledge stories that don't meet the Board's particular political view. Today's story is a case in point.

    Leading up to the election, we were posting an almost running commentary on both parties' activities - none of which I would consider as being 'of interest to us'. Everything that Trump or Clinton said was dissected in some detail. I complained then that I thought it was unnecessary but was overruled by the predominantly US team members. The result was that we created the Political nexus to move them off the front page, or at least make them easy to filter. I suspect that very few use that filter, and as an editor I cannot because I have to be aware of what is happening. It was also intended that a separate group would be doing the editing but that hasn't come to fruition because of the problems of attracting enough editors to meet that requirement.

    From today's stories using the old yardstick, I would also drop the 'Trump Firing Mueller' story too, but many would argue that story is worthy of discussion. We aim for a maximum of 1 politics story per day (average) and the Women's March story is the only one marked for that nexus today. In fact, it is the only political story in the last 3 days. The old yardstick is inadequate for judging which political stories are worthy of discussion. Almost all reporting on the build-up to the US elections was 'not of interest to us' but that is not what was accepted.

    We had a spate of police shooting African-Americans each of which was covered by one or more stories here. What made those stories reportable under the old yardstick? None of them were related to STEM even remotely.

    Story selection is not black and white. We have to judge what the community wants to discuss which we can best do at present by looking at the submissions.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 27 2018, @02:27PM (4 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday January 27 2018, @02:27PM (#628864) Homepage Journal

      I see where you're coming from. Where I'm coming from is now that we're not being affected by Election Mania, let's go back to only covering political stories that are of particular relevance to our community or of serious import. Keeping in mind that one submitter filling the queue with one-sided political bias and snark does not imply that our community is interested in what's being linked; only that he alone is.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:02PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:02PM (#629094)

        Here we see the birth of censorship. From a feeling of "ownership" such people then feel it is OK to "only covering political stories that are of particular relevance to our community or of serious import." Trust the benevolent dictator, they claim to not censor anyone right? Just shaping the narrative, totally different /s!

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:08PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:08PM (#629103) Homepage Journal

          If you're wanting to change our mandate from science/tech news and non-trivial world events to anything goes, a discussion needs to be had by the entire community. Either way, examples of the submitter being a snarky asshat all over the summary or poor journalism aren't going to see the front page.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2018, @08:21AM (1 child)

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 28 2018, @08:21AM (#629364) Journal

          From a feeling of "ownership"

          Er, no, the community have elected the Board to run this site on the communty's behalf, and volunteers help the Board to keep the site running. Feel free to volunteer to help us in some respect or other - maybe even stand for office. We don't have a feeling of ownership but rather one of pride that we have kept the site going for 4 years now. But that has come only as a result of a lot of hard work.

          particular relevance to our community or of serious import.

          There are numerous other sites that cover what you appear to be suggesting - that anything is open for discussion. Feel free to go and join one of them - you can still have a home here at the same time. Since our creation we have concentrated on STEM and topics that are related to, or have a direct affect upon, STEM. True we try to be fairly broad in our interpretation of that remit, but politics was typically one of those topics from which many of us sought an escape. The regular media already cover it ad nauseum as well as many of the social media sites. If our particular niche is not to your own liking perhaps you are on the wrong site?

          they claim to not censor anyone right? Just shaping the narrative, totally different /s!

          We haven't, we don't, and we will not censor any of your comments unless legally obliged so to do. You own your views whether you put your name to them or hide behind anonymity. If you think that what we do is wrong, try discussing politics on a gardening or cooking site. Let's see how successful you are there. Have you tried buying auto parts in your local butchers? Would you go into an haberdashery shop looking to buy a ladder? It is not censorship, it is you choosing the wrong place to achieve what what you are trying to do. Furthermore, you CAN discuss any topic that you wish - PUBLISH IT ON YOUR JOURNAL PAGE! As I have stated elsewhere recently, if your need for anonymity outweighs your need to raise certain issues - then it is your problem. We have given all our community the means with which to discuss anything that they wish - if they don't use it, it does not become our fault.

          • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2018, @08:32AM

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 28 2018, @08:32AM (#629365) Journal
            ... I wonder if it is time to change my signature block?...
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:41PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:41PM (#629163)

      We had a spate of police shooting African-Americans each of which was covered by one or more stories here. What made those stories reportable under the old yardstick? None of them were related to STEM even remotely.

      Story selection is not black and white. We have to judge what the community wants

      I see what you did there . . .

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:44AM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:44AM (#629361) Journal
        I was hoping nobody would notice that - just as I hadn't until I pressed the 'Submit' button.....