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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   25606 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 26, 2024

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Normally, yes I like when people flip the script. But the original post had generated a lot of heat already and I was in more of a damage control mode. And OP is not republican, so it wasn't really a flip the script type moment. It was sort of just an opportunity for OP to trash another group as well.

I didn't make it explicit, but yeah if someone did a flip the script and just rewrote the OP from another perspective and posted it top level they might also eat a ban.

We do allow for mistakes here. I don't think the OP was originally intending to be as antagonistic as some of their language suggests, they just weren't being careful. Once moderators have come by and said "hey you messed up and this is too antagonistic" it is not ok for someone to then pull a "flip the script" move. Because its basically flaunting the rules and the enforcement of those rules.

Three things that make me a little more cautious to endorse your moderation here:

First, regarding your last point about ignoring moderators, I don't know that I can see it now, but how much time had elapsed between you saying that it's too antagonistic and KnotGodel's comment? Since they're right next to each other, there's probably a good chance that he didn't see, because the page wouldn't update until he reloaded? I do understand that it was not just that that resulted in the warning, though.

Second, I don't actually know whether KnotGodel was trying to be antagonistic; while it comes off a little harshly to me, that might not be intentional. I don't know.

Third, while I definitely wouldn't trust popular opinion on all moderation, in this case the vote count on your warning is genuinely pretty low.

I think some of us are confused by you using “antagonistic” to refer to the loaded language of “boo outgroup” from the “sore losers” and not the response itself being antagonistic against the OP himself.

(Also, a lot of us probably comment in a way we don’t necessarily see mod action trying to reset a tone shift before we pile on.)

I know you wrote elsewhere in the subthread that "some questions are inherently antagonistic", but this makes it seem like you consider any instance of what you call "flipping the script" to fall under that category. I think that that is wrongheaded, and in particular I really don't think that this question was "inherently antagonistic" - if it were, then surely basically every interaction here where people talk about each other's opinions rather than those of abstract people who are not part of the conversations would be inherently antagonistic, and everyone is posting on borrowed time while moderator goodwill lasts. If you want to retain that level of potential for anarcho-tyranny, you ought to put some thought into it before threatening its application.

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