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Interestingly, the accusations of political correctness are starting to gear up in the Comic Books thread, and so should hopefully shortly be funnelled here. It always amuses me that people who generally identify as anarchists/socialists think nothing of dragging out a term used as a pejorative exclusively by the right-wing media when they are feeling a bit threatened.
[Peep Show] I hate Political Correctness gone mad as much as you do, but some things are fair enough and some things are just not on...
So far, as near as I can tell, case for the defence is:
1) Nobody who has read the thread so far has expressed offence, therefore it cannot be offensive. Of course, I *have* expressed offence, but of course that does not matter because of
2) PC gone mad
3) Gypsies have always been called smelly and stupid - you may as well stop complaining about it
4) Gypsies are extinct. Like cro-magnon man. So you can say whatever you like about them.
I'm not seeing a lot of value in these criticisms. I'd suggest that the case should perhaps be made on freedom of speech (man), which then kicks off a discussion on what we should leave and what we should remove as infringing others' right to enjoy Barbelith.
I'm seeing the Fetch as our case in point here. The Fetch himself is a bit of a different case, being a persistent and rabid nutter (though one who did try to tone it down for Barbelith), but the argument in his favour - in essence, that he had some interesting things to say about conspiracy theories, and if he just happened t talk about the international Jewish conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that did not invalidate the interest his posts held for those on Barbelith who liked to read about conspiracy theories - might be a useful comparison. So, in essence, you should forgive people's excesses in the interests of freedom of expression.
I had thought that that was generally the case - that the only offence on Barbelith was trolling, and mere stupidity or offensiveness did not justify moderation or administrator action. *However*, the Fetch situation, and Tom's explanation of it, seems to alter that. Likewise the comment that a valued member of Barbelith, when ze joined, nearly left again at once because the Greenland Posse were doing their anti-Semitic thing.
Which I think is maybe what it comes down to. There is a whole Internet out there that would _love_ to listen to the funny gypsy jokes, or indeed the Jewish conspiracy theories - Barbelith doesn't have to provide that space. What Barbelith might want to provide is an environment where people can speak without worrying that they are going to read something that makes them, to quote Persephone in her upbraiding of my own insensitivity some time ago, feel like they have been stabbed in the eye. That is, that at any moment their race (for example) could be the next one singled out for some locker-room hilarity.
On preview - Benny, you'd hope that, wouldn't you? However, we have now had one person kicked off the board for anti-Semitism, and Tom has stated that if he had seen other examples of racist language at the time, he would have banned those users as well. That is, the rulings have changed, perhaps partly because the user base of Barbelith has changed.
More generally, you may not be offended by anti-gypsy insults, but, and this is a quite big but (which I like, and I cannot lie), there may be other people on Barbelith who are, whom you have shouted down in the Comic Books thread by telling them that any objections they may have are going to be mocked as "PC gone mad" - for which, see above. |
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