Make Atheist Forums Great Again (Part 1)

[Angrboda]

Those are both broad generalizations about a large class of people without anything really backing them up.  As already stated, I think you're simply wrong.  And this disingenuous bit about how what you said may or may not have been a slur is straining at gnats to avoid any discussion of the actual point I was making.

Well obviously if I don't think the entire mod team has that vibe I sure don't think the entire forum does.  I didn't mean the forum as whole in the sense of "without exception", and I certainly don't mean you.  I just mean there is a loud and conspicuous portion of the forum giving rise to that vibe, and there is very little if any push back from the site's leaders against it.  I think the reason they don't is that "freedom of speech" is put on too a high a pedestal here.  There isn't even a culture of regret toward some unavoidable but toxic forms of speech.

You have your surly moments but you've always been very much worth it because you're so smart and insightful.  You are also versatile enough to go civil when you want as you showed during the brief, wondrous life of that sub-forum Tibs started.  Besides you've just become more open and at times vulnerable over the years making pushing you even higher in my regard.  You still have and probably will always have a tendency to lash out when someone hits a nerve - as Shell does and as I do as well.  But that isn't what I'm complaining about.

I'll likely have more to say, but what you're saying disturbs me. How exactly are you going to excise the people who do not use such language well from those that do? I can't help but see your interests as somewhat political here. You want certain behaviors preferred to other behaviors because you want the partisans of such behaviors to be more prominently represented. Isn't your own damn forum enough for you people? Regardless, if you deny them their words, you deny me my words. You're not going to get something for nothing here, Whateverist. Whatever restriction you place on their speech is going to affect the range and efficacy of the things that I can say. The moderators have put forward a least restrictive approach to the question which makes your claim that they are placing too high a premium on free speech seem, frankly, dishonest, and seems nothing more than a stealth advocacy of an agenda. You value your interactions with certain groups more highly than you value me and my lot. Well good on you. It's this type of shit which makes me wary of the lot of you and makes me hesitate to join former friends in your new Eden.