The way I see it? (Which, I admit, probably doesn't carry that much weight). Ideal solution? SS takes a long hard look at what he's said, realises that he's caused offense, more importantly realises WHY he's caused offence, apologises for offence caused and rethinks his attitudes and continues posting.
I would love it if that happened. I don't think ShadowSax is entirely aware of the degree of his own misogyny, and I would consider it a significant victory if ShadowSax were to be taken aback by the reaction to his posts enough to unpack his assumptions, rethink his life and his attitudes, and go forth like Paul after his encounter on the road to Damascus and spread the good news far and wide.
I think that would be lovely if it were to happen by some miracle.
However, I don't really have the time, nor am I willing to put in the effort to see this transformation through. I don't come here to educate the misogynist trolls of the world, I come here to talk to people whose ideas I find stimulating and enlightening, a fair number of whom now avoid this place specifically because of ShadowSax.
If he were to stay, I think it's likely that he will make an effort to change his ways, and I think it's likely that he will fail. Which, of course, would leave us in an awkward position, as numerous people have pointed out. Do we let what he says slide, and give the mistaken impression that we put up with that sort of shit here, or do we confront him and derail the thread for another edition of the ShadowSax show? Bear in mind, if we choose to let him stay and ignore him, that as new people come in, they won't know we're ignoring him, and he will help set the tone for the whole board for them. Do we really want that?
I don't want to be continually faced with that decision. His contributions up until this point just aren't worth the effort to me. I don't think he's beyond redemption as a person. I think he's more childish and ignorant (with a head full of issues) than truly malicious. But it's not my job to sort him out, nor is it fred's, or nina's, or flyboy's, or GGM's, or anyone else's.
I mean, seriously, look at what we're talking about here: we're seriously asking the question "Would we rather ban him, or allow him to keep posting and simply ignore him?" Why would we allow someone to post only with the understanding that everyone's going to ignore him anyway?
He doesn't have a Constitutional right to post here until proven guilty of some particularly heinous post. He's only welcome here to the degree that we welcome him, and I think at this point he's been rude enough to enough of the other guests, and has contributed so little of value, that he's being asked politely* to leave the party.
I was trying to point out that style and content are the same
This is an excellent point, and I think it's one that kind of causes SS's defense to come unglued.
* well, ideally, it would be polite, anyway. |
