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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4046 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Not coincidentally, sites like this one will continue to revolt at the merest suggestion of activism.

For most activists, the end justify the means. You're really not allowed to be critical because it's more important to be a team player (the cause is more important).

You really can't be an activist and be rational.

That...is really not true. More important doesn't mean absolutely important; it trades off. On the margin, organizations which don't take criticism will bloat and fail. But that means getting replaced by groups and ideologies which don't, even if they hold the exact same fundamental beliefs.

That's purely a dictate from the mods, rather than the users.

To be fair, it would be even harder to attract a varied userbase if we were coordinating to do activism here.

I don't know.

This site is incredibly steeped in Internet liberalism. The obvious aspect is our free-speech policy, but more generally, having a community based around getting into (reasonably) civil arguments is weird. It's part of the Internet tradition going back through atheist discussion boards and federated BBS. Take away the "no recruiting" rule, stop moderating for it, and the community will die. Not because the activists win, but because they are incompatible with the interesting bits of the site.

There's a certain irony in saying "gosh this individualism thing is awful rough" to a community summoned by those principles.

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