I posted this last night and deleted it. But here...
I'd like to point out some things about this episode.
First, I issued this
temporary ban myself but Woebot and the rest of the moderators subsequently reviewed everything and expressed 100% agreement with that action. It can be considered a collective action. I believe it also consistent with the rationale behind previous bans (including Padraig/HMLT's
first one, which was permanent). Woebot may have said somewhere on the forum that there were to be no bans, but this was never relayed to the mods. Nor is that inkeeping with the history of Dissensus. We aim for minimal moderation but we don't stand for the abuse of forum members or the forum itself.
Second, being that I was away visiting family, I had much better things to do on Christmas Eve, day and Boxing Day than to mediate the idiot distraction that colonized the original My Fellow Americans thread. I'd have preferred to ignore it but for various reasons that became impossible.
Third, the rest of you were, for the most part (and wisely), either offline or only online fleetingly during this period. You may have missed the thread by HMLT which I deleted because its sole function (made obvious by its title, contents and placement in the wrong forum) was to attack another member in a visible and personal fashion. It is disingenuous to claim that HMLT was banned for a breach of the prevailing PC norms at Dissensus when the real issue (obvious if you cared to notice) was that anyone who debated with him or noted inconsistencies in his logic would typically be subjected to explosive rebukes that were often grossly insulting and fallacious in their personal characterizations. An honest discussion/argument/debate was too commonly impossible unless one played along and agreed. And, as in the My Fellow Americans thread, the result was usually the derailment of a thread in the service of a self-gratifying tirade masquerading as the vigorous application of theory to practice. Some of you have defended this. I think there's a bit of misplaced nostalgia here for k-punk's cold rationalist polemics in the early days of this forum. I don't see why abuse from someone well-versed in Lacan is more acceptable than it is from any other member.
Finally, some of you are questioning whether the forum can remain fair and healthy if we ban members, even temporarily. Past episodes have proven that giving people a short cooling off period can indeed help keep the place from falling apart. Somewhere on this thread it's been suggested that all members should take part in decisions to ban or not. Wouldn't that be a treat, eh? Just like Survivor. "Will HMLT's unMods round up enough support in the Thought forum to vote nomos off Woebot Island? Tune in." We do a lot as mods that goes unnoticed and often decisions have to be made between equally unpalatable choices. So we do our best. But the questions you need to consider are: why should we coddle those who abuse other members? and how many people will quit the forum out of legitimate disgust with both the offender and the moderators' apparent squeamishness about getting involved? Over the last 3.5 years, this forum has already lost some of its best contributors over this issue. (Also ask, why would someone keep coming back to a place that they deemed to be populated by idiots only to make a big show of telling them so? Benevolence?) Anytime the question of a basic standard of decency is raised someone pipes up about attempts to muffle the forum with a PC blanket, or pretends that we're being asked to carry on in false and cheery agreement - "can't we all just get along," etc. That's an ironic given that the issue now and in the past has been one of posters who unilaterally stifle open debate.
It's called Dissensus. Disagreement is built in from day one. No one has ever said otherwise. But at least argue honestly - e.g. don't call someone a Straussian football hooligan child molester because they've said your argument doesn't hold water. Quit with the flak and get on with it if you actually have a valid argument to make.
Consider this a belated statement on the banning and my last word on the issue.
