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RPG.net bans support of Trump on their forums
- Thread starter Jintor
- Start date
That's just the nice ones. Plenty of people thrive on the misery he's spreading. Plenty of people are filled with hate, and love to watch the suffering of others.
Sounds more like putting a sign on your door that says "no nazis allowed"
I suspect a lot of it is the difficulty in not revealing how they actually feel about a topic whilst trying to appear acceptable. It must be tricky not being able to say what you actually feel
They wouldn't, but they would get a dog-pile in many threads. I tried having a conversation with people on Gaf, I got dog-piles there. You will get this if your views go against the core, vocal community.
They will only get banned if they express things that go against the ToS, such as dismissing minority issues, support of hate groups, trolling, etc... I know people like to claim Era is a hive mind and the bans are ridiculous, and sure sometimes the mods might come in a little heavy, but there's a good reason for this...
(I'm not talking to you bow Hodgy, just using your post as a jumping off point)
Just go to any right leaning site like Gaf and try to have a conversation about minority rights, and see how dismissive they are, how defensive they are because they feel they're being attacked by minorities who are simply asking for a little balance. It's actually sickening at times, the dishonesty and deflection and outright denial of what their support has caused and will cause.
A very common view is "the left are trying to tell me what to do!", but if you actually look at what the left are saying you'd see this isn't what they're making it out to be...
"Believe women who talk about their abuse"
"It costs you nothing to just use the pronoun a person identifies by"
"White privilege is an actual thing that needs dismantling and that doesn't mean we're attacking YOU!"
Etc...
Everything the left is calling for is essential at its core, and if some people take it too far in their calls, well, honestly I don't blame people for being upset. People are being de-humanized and marginalized, poc are dying because of a racist system, LGBT folk the world over are being persecuted and killed...
There really is only one right side here and it is NOT the right, history will absolutely show this.
Going into detail would derail this thread, but broad strokes my fear is jeopardising my account by not expressing condemnation in strong enough words, or using a wrong expression. These have got people banned even when supportive of said issues.
By the admission of the OP, the thread was not a vegan thread but literally addressing meat eaters, asking them 'cutting meat consumption by 30%: why is there so much resistance on this?'. If replying with "because I love bacon" along with several other reasons, mentioning being concerned of animal cruelty is considered an antagonising shit / troll post due to some humour being attempted and failed, then I don't see what else that thread was but a bait to get meat eaters "shit post". So I won't venture to more vegan related discussions on Era, even if addressing me as a meat eater, simple as that.
The reason I think this diversion is related to the topic of thread? The reason is that the moderation policies (and more importantly, 'activist posters' vigilantly reporting other people's posts) already effectively ban support of viewpoints they don't like. These clearly would include support of Trump. So a formal ban would make little difference in practice, other than give people feel good points.
And FWIW, search it up, I am saying this as someone with a history of anti-Trump posts.
That post is very clearly intended to rile people up... massive picture of bacon, "mmm bacon"? It's exactly the kind of shit post that deserves a warning (and it was just a warning...). There are countless ways that opinion could have been framed without the trolling. I honestly don't know how you cant' see this.
Many vegans are vegan because they find the meat industry incredibly distressing, I know you probably view this as some kind of snowflake consideration but it really doesn't cost you anything to frame your argument in a way that won't actively upset people this. It baffles me how people have such resistance to this concept.
Sure, that kind of ban here wouldn't change much.
Banning viewpoints we don't like? Sure, we don't like viewpoints that dismiss minority rights, etc... you will not get banned for expressing your opinion if it doesn't do these things, but you will get piled on. If you can't take the latter then maybe go to another forum where your view is more accepted.
Half of America voted for him. This isn't a solution to any problem.
No they didn't. Half of america didn't even vote. And of the half that did, he lost the popular vote.
How are people like you still so bad at understanding basic statistics?
Sure it is.
I get your point and yeah it's valid, but that particular analogy doesn't work since one of those is highly illegal.
I'm just saying I would personally allow someone to say something like "I support Trump" on issues x and y without banning for it. Of course if they supported Trump on being a bigoted pos or locking people in cages and separating families etc... I'd ban for that. Anyone that supports that kind of crap isnt anyone I'd want on my forum, or in my country for that matter.
I'm sure I have more to say but I'm on mobile at work.
Yes it is. We've tried speaking with these people, and they dismiss and deflect all valid concerns and frame the people hurt by these things as snowflakes.
The time for discussing has ended. We need to actively protest, engage in politics, de-platform where we can, and lead the way for actual positive progress. Minorities need us, peoples are being de-humanized, hounded, and even killed. This is not a false alarm of any kind.
If you support Trump /at all/, you support ALL of his actions. That's what support means, you're backing him up and giving him more power and opportunity to do the horrible shit. You can't pick and choose, you can't say "I only support this aspect", that's not the reality of how this works.
While this kind of thing could be interepeted as a slippery slope, the reality is that the political divide has been reinforced and weaponised in this current social media era in a way that has made those with extreme opinions more vocal and more comfortable about expressing, and the Trump administration is directly responsible for sowing these seeds of discord within American society.
Remember the Bush Jnr era? Progressive people were upset about him, but it didn't get to a stage where people needed to ban talk about supporting Bush on websites. Some might say it's because that was before social media etc. if the Bush era happened alongside social media things would be different, but I would say it's not just about social media, it's a different and more extreme level of right wing politics that has become normalised.
Remember the Bush Jnr era? Progressive people were upset about him, but it didn't get to a stage where people needed to ban talk about supporting Bush on websites. Some might say it's because that was before social media etc. if the Bush era happened alongside social media things would be different, but I would say it's not just about social media, it's a different and more extreme level of right wing politics that has become normalised.
Sounds like a good set of rules as long as the mods don't give a slap on the wrist to bullet points 2-6
That's the thing, I did not appreciate vegans are a distressed minority that get upset about things. People in our studio are vegan, we have three kinds of milk in the studio fridge including "animal milk", many of my friends are vegan, none of them are distressed about it. It's more work for them, I respect them for it. They don't get distressed if I eat meat, and I am happy to go with them to vegan and vegetarian restaurants (fantastic London tip). Normal. Maybe my immediate circle of vegans is not representative, or maybe internet forums attract people who are more distressed about these things.
Obviously the "mmm bacon" and bacon picture was a failed attempt at humour trying to play into the stereotypical portrayal of meat eaters by vegans. Anyway, the net effect of the warning is the same as banning meat eating discussion for me in the TOS.
lmfao no, people have absolutely shit memories. Deplatforming works precisely because people don't remember shit past a few days. Guarantee you in a few days, you will not remember at all about RPG.net banning trump supporters.
GAF should do this to get rid of the 120 right wing conspiracy losers that remain and shut down completely.
More spine than NPR. This is awesome. This is sadly the truth of it. You can't both sides this shit when one side has an anti-human outlook.
Because the person listed they don't engage in said threads and the reply to it was basically bait to get said person banned. It's painfully obvious when people do that.
How are you so bad at understanding how people talk. No one is thinking about non voters in these statements.
It's a dumb policy. Ban political talk, fine. Skew reality? Sounds like what I experienced before the presidential election.
Stop framing it like people are being unreasonably distressed and you're having to walk on eggshells. This is the exact kind of dishonesty and deflection I was talking about.
There are much better ways you could have expressed that opinion, and you know it. Having some respect for others does not mean wrapping people in cotton wool, and that you think it does is quite amazing.
Then obviously it wasn't a good idea to post it and the warning was justified, that "joke" is not funny, it's tired as hell, and it clutters every vegan thread. I'm sure you can do better than that kind of low effort humour anyway...
Why not?
I understood how you talked, you talked like someone who wanted to make a point that didn't exist. You were being disingenuous. An argument in numbers, when you don't even have the numbers to support your claim. Hence why I called you out on it.
"half the country voted for him" is some sort of proof of ground swell of support, as though "trump supporters" make up an enormously large percentage of the population, as though banning trump supporters silences half the fucking country. This isn't at all true. Trump supporters are actually, literally a vocal minority.
Yes very important to allow an RPG fan forum to be bogged down with MAGA shitheads to make sure it really reflects the makeup of opinion in the US.
Your post in that thread contributed nothing. It's a typical example of shit posting. It's like going into a thread about rhino hunting or the excessive use of leather and fur in fashion, and posting pictures of hunting trophies of said animals. Or going into a Surf Boards OT and posting news and pictures of people getting injured or dying from surf boarding accidents, not with the intent to ask people to be more careful but as a "gotcha" moment.
They're actually speaking the truth, though, it wasn't half and more people did vote for Hilary. Look at the numbers, Trump won because of the electoral college.
They won't listen. They actually believe they're right and feel justifiably attacked for their opinion which means they'll only get more defensive, or they're being dishonest on purpose.
That pot is very clearly poorly framed and warn worthy, and their attempts to justify it are the exact kind of deflection we see from these people all the time.
Or, like a lot of people in public settings, don't make a lot of noise about it because they don't want to disturb the peace. A lot of vegans exist because they detest the practices of industries that use animal products from milk to meat to leathers. They're not going to roll over and cry because you like your steak medium rare and like the purchase of leather goods, its a personal choice a lot of the time and most respect that.
But if you walk into a random vegan group - a group where you're a literal stranger - and then start talking about the merits of bacon and how good the prosciutto from your local butcher is, they're going to yell at you because you're being an asshole to be quite honest. Its not funny because no one there knows you, your sense of humour or if you're even being serious. If a doctor started bringing out the gallows humour among a group of complete strangers that aren't in the medical industry, they're not going to react well to said doctor's "jokes" either.
People in your studio are not strangers, they are acquaintances at worst. There will be minimal degrees of separation between you and anyone you come into contact with in that studio. People will give you the benefit of doubt because you are there for a reason and they don't want to fuck up any relationships if you're being insensitive. Its exactly how some people might let casual racism, sexism or homophobia pass in the workplace when they damn well know its not cool.
Only supporting certain aspects of political parties or persons is exactly how reality works. It is almost impossible to support every aspect of a politician. Did you support every aspect of Obama?
Problem with Trump is that there are no good actions, and if there are I never noticed it because they got buried under a huge pile of shite actions. So while I agree that people who support Trump are shitbags, I do not agree with your concept of 'You either support all aspects or none'.
Theres no skewing of reality going on, just not allowing open support of a white supremacist/sexist/etc who makes no secret of those facts on a private website that's free to make those kind of decisions. It's all pretty clearly laid out and makes a ton of sense to me. Nothing dumb about it. They have people of all different races, ethnicities, sexualities, etc. Not allowing support of a candidate that seeks to and is actively involved in causing all kinds of harn to those groups seems to be the least they can do to help those groups actually be comfortable on the site, unless Trump supporters being able to support their bigoted candidate and spread their own hate just matters more than that. I'm with them in feeling it doesn't and thus am perfectly alright with that. Trump's just on a different level entirely and open support if that man should not be tolerated.
The bait game is something that has been played here and down the block for years. It's a great way to end a conversation dead in it's track.
They don't engage in said threads because they feel the forum is against them, when in reality it's because a lot of people centre-right/right aren't honest and up front about their feelings and instead hide behind ambiguous statements. Asking someone to clarify something is not baiting.
It's painfully obvious when someone is hiding their thoughts because it comes out as ambiguous and impossible to define without further information. On asking for further information people retreat and start blaming everyone else for their inadequacy in explaining their point.
If someone is going to get banned, or has been banned for being completely honest and plain in their language then perhaps they should find somewhere they won't get banned for said truths
Makes sense, when the person in question is hate speech incarnated it's better to ban his existence.
"Oh sure my healthcare is taken away and the stock market is going to crash, but some RPG forum banned Trump support. Guess I'll vote for Trump again."
Thanks for the "useful" insight guy with year old account yet only 80 posts
Agreed. I was just reading a mod post on RPG.net to that same point: https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.ph...or-his-Administration&p=22198874#post22198874
Couldn't agree more.
Kbear received no warning or ban for being a Trump supporter. Please don't pretend that Era bans these people on sight, because they do not
I commend them for everything except this piece. How can you say this, and then ban Trump support? He's the GOP, he represents them, he was elected and has been supported (and protected) by them every step of the way. It takes some cognitive dissonance to not connect the two. And confusing the two certainly does not legitimize bigotry and hatred. Ignoring the connection and pretending it doesn't exist does.