RE: Dealing with homophobia on Atheist Forums
November 5, 2010 at 6:30 pm
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2010 at 6:33 pm by Existentialist.)
Well anyway thanks for your replies everyone. Apart from Dotard, obviously. And Padraic, I find your mysogynistic language offensive but I wouldn't want to force you to stop using it. Which brings me on to my next point. I've mentioned before one of my favourite quotes, "I disapprove of what you say, but I would fight to the death for your right to say it." (Evelyn Beatrice Hall) In principle I support the idea of defending a person's right to say something, even if it is offensive.
So may I just reassure everyone again that I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't "let" people say what they want, where they want - that goes for both the homophobes and their opponents. My point was really about my feelings as a gay man seeing the same homophobic remark being repeatedly bumped up to the top of the thread lists, often by anti-homophobic members. I imagine the same would go for a black or asian member seeing racist remarks repeatedly bumped up in a similar way, or a disabled person or someone with a physical or mental health problem.
All I wanted to do was suggest that there might be a better way of dealing with the problem, and in the process creating a more positive environment. This better way I'm suggesting doesn't involve removing anyone's entitlement to say something anywhere. Equally it doesn't mean that when people respond to some of the issues arising from a homophobic thread, they must respond under the same homophobic title. It is a personal decision for each individual what they do, and they can be judged or not by others on the personal decisions they make.
The question of whether bumping offensive homophobic remarks up to the top of the thread lists 'dignifies' the homophobia is also a personal one, but it is far from being an absurd suggestion that it does. A hundred anti-homophobic replies may well express opposition, and contain some extremely well-argued points, but the homophobic remark is still at the top of the thread list as a result of each of the 100 replies. Personally I find this an unsatisfactory outcome because of the repeated appearance of a homophobic remark at the top of the thread lists. It creates an ugly environment. I don't think that's an absurd opinion. All I am doing is trying to find out if there are others in the forum who also think that repeatedly bumping a homophobic remark is not a good outcome, even if it is done by anti-homophobic posts. We are in the realm of exploring individual approaches to a problem, not discussing what is and is not allowed to be said.
So may I just reassure everyone again that I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't "let" people say what they want, where they want - that goes for both the homophobes and their opponents. My point was really about my feelings as a gay man seeing the same homophobic remark being repeatedly bumped up to the top of the thread lists, often by anti-homophobic members. I imagine the same would go for a black or asian member seeing racist remarks repeatedly bumped up in a similar way, or a disabled person or someone with a physical or mental health problem.
All I wanted to do was suggest that there might be a better way of dealing with the problem, and in the process creating a more positive environment. This better way I'm suggesting doesn't involve removing anyone's entitlement to say something anywhere. Equally it doesn't mean that when people respond to some of the issues arising from a homophobic thread, they must respond under the same homophobic title. It is a personal decision for each individual what they do, and they can be judged or not by others on the personal decisions they make.
The question of whether bumping offensive homophobic remarks up to the top of the thread lists 'dignifies' the homophobia is also a personal one, but it is far from being an absurd suggestion that it does. A hundred anti-homophobic replies may well express opposition, and contain some extremely well-argued points, but the homophobic remark is still at the top of the thread list as a result of each of the 100 replies. Personally I find this an unsatisfactory outcome because of the repeated appearance of a homophobic remark at the top of the thread lists. It creates an ugly environment. I don't think that's an absurd opinion. All I am doing is trying to find out if there are others in the forum who also think that repeatedly bumping a homophobic remark is not a good outcome, even if it is done by anti-homophobic posts. We are in the realm of exploring individual approaches to a problem, not discussing what is and is not allowed to be said.
