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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 6, 2024

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Conservatives were stupid enough to think these weapons were only going to be used against Osama bin durka durka jihad, which is why all the original "counter-terrorism surveillance tools" had foreign activity requirements.

None of them ever suggested using them against domestic political opponents, and naively believed Democrats would also consider that out of bounds.

If I was going to own up to how stupid I think conservatives and their politicians are, I would be at it all day and inevitably get banned.

Let me spare you some time: take two days off for low-effort antagonism in this thread, degrading the discourse with your inability to keep your seething contempt in check, and generally failing to take heed of our previous warnings to stop being a jerk.

It is tiresome to have to keep reminding people that this place is for discussing the culture war, not waging it. This place is also not for you to vent and work out your anger issues.

ETA: Escalated to 7 days for "Fuck you" in response. We will accept people being upset at being modded, but abusive messages get you a (longer) ban.

2rafa: own up to how stupid conservatives are.
Me: sure, I'm not supporting them.
You: how dare you!

This was possibly the dumbest ban of the week, although the competition was steep.

If you think "How dare you" is an accurate summary of why you got banned, nothing is going to disabuse you of this. Nor am I going to be disabused of the conclusion that you provide zero value here when all you post is rage and then want to come back over and over to continue bitching about being banned for it. You're lucky your "Fuck you" didn't get you a longer ban. Read the rules (including the part about accepting temp bans with some grace and maturity) and comport yourself accordingly if you want to keep participating here

Zero value huh?

You just pick people you take a dislike to and twist the rules to go after them. You're the worst mod on the site, and the downvotes on every one of your mod actions proves I'm not the only one who thinks so.

You are straightforwardly wrong.

The votes seem to agree with me, and the mod team discord defense force doesn't. That should tell you something.

Could there be a bigger "consensus building" attack than this? Jesus dude, they should ban you just for this. The mods are not even corruptible, I tried about a month ago when I was stuck at home with a knee injury.

It's written in the rules that the mods will try to respect user sentiment, so user opinion of moderation is actually useful information. Also, consensus-building is most harmful against other users; in the case of mods, it is easily offset by mod powers. The point of the rule is to prevent users from suppressing views they disagree with, and he has no power to suppress mod actions.

It would be pretty cool if people stopped trying to fight the refs and just accepted that we're trying to maintain a system that actively does not want to exist, especially given that that forks with variant moderation have in fact been tried and have not gone well. Unfortunately that is never, ever going to happen.

The bribe attempt was in fact pretty funny, though.

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To elaborate, you are straightforwardly wrong that either @Amadan or any of the other mods pick people we dislike and twist the rules to go after them, and you are also wrong that @Amadan is the worst mod on the site.

You are coming in with an adversarial mindset, and allowing that mindset to color every interaction you have. There's no actual need to do that, and it's hard to see the benefit even if we're lying and you're right about everything. We are actually committed to fostering communication across the tribal divide. We are actually trying to implement the rules in good faith and with the explicit goal of keeping this forum performing its intended mission. You've gotten modded by @Amadan because I've been trying to engage with you directly, and we have a policy of not modding conversations we're involved in. Some of your comments are quite good, and some of them are pretty bad, and the distinctions between the two are not subtle. I am hoping at some point you can entertain the idea that we aren't trying to game you, simmer down a bit, and just lean into the productive discussions that I think you are entirely capable of. I want this to happen because I think your perspective and receipts-heavy approach are valuable, and I want to see more of it, but that isn't going to happen if you don't actually see value in calm, rational discussion with people who disagree with you.

Hey, you take that back. I’ve been working hard to earn that title!

Objectively false in every particular (except maybe being the worst mod on the site), but sure, dude, carry on.