I posted this meme to the Lemmy Shitpost community. I reckoned that it might generate a bit of debate, and would probably end up locked, but the entire post got deleted, and moreover, I’m now forbidden from sharing political posts to the community. Political posts are not against the rules of the community.
I have reason to believe that the post was deleted not because it was controversial, but because the moderator (Decoy321) disagreed with the political slant of the meme. The reason I find this suspicious is because other controversial posts, such as one about veganism remains up, and Decoy321 seemed to enjoy the fact it was controversial:
Not saying it hasn’t been done, I’m saying it’s hard to do well. I’ve seen “women’s issues” and “pronouns” included under “politics,” in old-school and new forums, which is why I’m hesitant to agree with no-politics rules.
Sure. I’d consider them politics as well. Those are all topics with a very high chance someone comes along with some (weird) opinion and makes the discussion derail. And then everyone stops discussing the scifi computer game or Linux, and homes in on the controversial topic with a lot of feelings involved.
I think the big cultural achievement is: Forum members have all agreed to live a certain culture. They do it together and there’s some group cohesion and a pre-made agreement to all pull in the same direction. So what I’ve seen a lot of work isn’t done by the mods, but people all identify with the rules and the next random person will step in and state “it’s getting political again”, and then everybody else is cautious not to add to the drama.
I think we lost that with social media. And there’s also less group cohesion here. So we end up handling it out of band, mods have to delete posts. Plus we regularly have to peck out the rules again and again… I mean it’s not as bad as my words make it out to be. And this isn’t entirely down to design and hierarchy. But also group dynamics changed, there’s more regular people online than some 15 years ago instead of nerds amongst themselves. And I think politics became way more polarized.
Ultimately, it’s all part of our lives. There’s obviously demand to discuss politics, pronouns, the crazy setup US Americans call a political system… And I think they’re all valid topics. We just have to figure out a way to make it work. Which isn’t easy. But I think the Fediverse is up to something. Our basic idea allows us to customize the experience, steer clear of some things or dive down… I think we just have to strike some balance and put in some more work because politics is such an all-consuming topic. And we’re a bit of a diverse crowd here. Which is a good thing. But also makes certain things more difficult.
The person who comes along with their disruptive opinions should be moderated, not people who simply exist. Being a woman or having chosen pronouns isn’t dramatic.
If someone is uncomfortable with a topic they can simply disengage and start their own thread on their chosen subject.
It’s either accept that no one agrees on what’s considered political, or have firm rules about subjects that can and can’t be discussed.
Hmmh. I think I largely agree… There’s definitely a red line. Things like disrespecting people is unacceptable. That’s what misgendering and questioning pronouns is largely about. And people trying to walk the line and other kinds of behaviour are highly problematic. And done to hurt people. On the other hand I sometimes wish there was a way to communicate. With a bit less strict (hierarchical) rule based systems to enforce some kind of fairness (to the letter), and instead a bit more good faith conversation. I think in that kind of context mistakes, or dissent, or even wrong or offensive stuff would be way more approachable.
(Edited, removed some paragraphs.)