This is specifically regarding the "Man Gives Birth in Finland" thread, though is a pattern that I've seen time and time again in this site's short life-span.
A thread with a totally accurate title, a clear-and-concise OP with all of the specific details about the story, and a link to the article, was uprooted because a large portion of posters seemingly could not handle that the thread title referred to the man as a man, and not as a "transman."
To me, this seems like a pretty cut-and-dry example of Transphobia, transmen ARE men, and while that thread did eventually get locked. The lock message made it apparent that the moderators saw the problem with the thread as not being the blatant transphobia, but just the fact that members were bickering. We need to call a spade a spade, and actively be denouncing these toxic viewpoints, and not reducing these problems as merely "bickering".
I've seen numerous examples of this, posters getting warned over their language for telling other posters posting openly-bigoted content to "fuck off", threads closed due to the fact that things got heated, rather than looking at why things got heated. Users openly promoting rape, and only getting short-term bans.
Before this thread immediately gets locked with a "please discuss this with moderation in private" response, I should state that I've repeatedly talked to multiple moderators and admins in private about my concerns over this stuff, and it's largely fallen on deaf ears.
I don't get this place, sometimes. The entire idea was to create a new site for the community with a more diverse moderation team, but the moderation system seems to put so many restraints on these moderators, that they can't properly moderate on a macro level as to what kind of community we'd like to see ResetEra become, and are forced to hone-in on the micro level, where more concern is placed on the fact that hostile language was used, than the fact that hostile language was used as a response to a bigoted post.
To me, it feels like an example of shitty "respectability politics." It's the same kind of empty rhetoric that people indulge in when they talk about how we shouldn't punch the Nazis, though not to the same degree. It feels like the site bends to be overly inclusive towards the toxic members in it's community, and not to the marginalized members that we should be working to welcome and include in more meaningful ways.
A thread with a totally accurate title, a clear-and-concise OP with all of the specific details about the story, and a link to the article, was uprooted because a large portion of posters seemingly could not handle that the thread title referred to the man as a man, and not as a "transman."
To me, this seems like a pretty cut-and-dry example of Transphobia, transmen ARE men, and while that thread did eventually get locked. The lock message made it apparent that the moderators saw the problem with the thread as not being the blatant transphobia, but just the fact that members were bickering. We need to call a spade a spade, and actively be denouncing these toxic viewpoints, and not reducing these problems as merely "bickering".
I've seen numerous examples of this, posters getting warned over their language for telling other posters posting openly-bigoted content to "fuck off", threads closed due to the fact that things got heated, rather than looking at why things got heated. Users openly promoting rape, and only getting short-term bans.
Before this thread immediately gets locked with a "please discuss this with moderation in private" response, I should state that I've repeatedly talked to multiple moderators and admins in private about my concerns over this stuff, and it's largely fallen on deaf ears.
I don't get this place, sometimes. The entire idea was to create a new site for the community with a more diverse moderation team, but the moderation system seems to put so many restraints on these moderators, that they can't properly moderate on a macro level as to what kind of community we'd like to see ResetEra become, and are forced to hone-in on the micro level, where more concern is placed on the fact that hostile language was used, than the fact that hostile language was used as a response to a bigoted post.
To me, it feels like an example of shitty "respectability politics." It's the same kind of empty rhetoric that people indulge in when they talk about how we shouldn't punch the Nazis, though not to the same degree. It feels like the site bends to be overly inclusive towards the toxic members in it's community, and not to the marginalized members that we should be working to welcome and include in more meaningful ways.
