Travellers, racism, sexual violence...is Boards policy right wing and tone deaf?

I was recently carded on the Soccer forum for referring to an incident where a footballer of Serbian descent abused an ethnic Albanian by saying "I f****d your Albanian mother", invoking the mass rapes during the Kosovo Wars. I said if he said it, he's "a clown", which I thought was pretty mild. A mod - who reviewed a thread where abusive comments were made about the Irish soccer manager and let them slide - pounced and said it broke the charter on abuse.

And that's fine, if a rule is absolute so be it. It's clearly selectively applied, but I know saying others were overlooked is not a complete defence.

But the unusual thing is, Boards seems to take differing stances when it comes to the interface between free speech and abuse. Saying a racist who invoked sexual violence is a clown was carded. On the other hand when it comes to travellers the policy on After Hours seems to be the opposite and favours freedom of speech. I haven't posted there for years because a Mod who him/herself had a certain view of travellers carded me (while overlooking references to ethnically cleansing them). But it seems from a post here that the policy of tolerating very questionable posts about travellers continues...

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=116895627

And again if that's the position of Boards, so be it. A quick search tells me the highly pejorative word "pikey" appears here 2,000 times, and one could say it's a great example of freedom of speech.

But the problem is, that contradicts the position on the Soccer forum. And in each case it seems a pretty right wing slant is taken. Abuse of an ethnic group is tolerated, abuse of a racist on the basis of what they said or did is not.

Now, I'm long enough in the tooth to say so be it, if a forum is left or right wing I post subject to their philosophy, and I know very well that what I say on a liberal forum may not wash on a conservative one. And the Admins and Mods who give their time to keep the forum going are entitled to set the agenda. It just seems to me a little odd that, in this day and age, on a platform as broad as Boards.ie, there are apparently no Mods who are liberal and progressive enough to say "it's not okay to abuse travellers because of their ethnicity, it's perfectly okay to abuse an individual for what they have said or done". Or maybe there are and they are just not being heard...

Leg End Reject

Your suggestion at the end of your post was indeed said in the very thread you linked, by Beasty I think.

JMNolan

To be honest, I think this thread should be closed as it was opened in bad faith. Your ban was for having multiple warnings and your latest card was for essentially the following

Rule: Don't call people bad names
You: Person X is a racist and therefore is a *bad name*
Mod: Here is a yellow card for *bad name*
You: You clearly support racism

And when the judgement in the dispute forum didn't go your way, you said you were off to feedback to create a thread. If the judgement did go your way I don't believe you would have created this thread. Therefore, this thread was created in bad faith.

The worst thing about bad faith threads is that they are not setup for genuine debate. At no point in this thread would I expect you to say "well, perhaps you have a point". No, it will be a disruptive and antagonistic thread only here to "right" your perceived wrong. These types of threads are a poison to a forum.

JMNolan

JMNolan wrote: »

To be honest, I think this thread should be closed as it was opened in bad faith. Your ban was for having multiple warnings and your latest card was for essentially the following

Rule: Don't call people bad names
You: Person X is a racist and therefore is a *bad name*
Mod: Here is a yellow card for *bad name*
You: You clearly support racism

And when the judgement in the dispute forum didn't go your way, you said you were off to feedback to create a thread. If the judgement did go your way I don't believe you would have created this thread. Therefore, this thread was created in bad faith.

The worst thing about bad faith threads is that they are not setup for genuine debate. At no point in this thread would I expect you to say "well, perhaps you have a point". No, it will be a disruptive and antagonistic thread only here to "right" your perceived wrong. These types of threads are a poison to a forum.

What an utterly ridiculous post!

Deal with the issue or don't. But wrongly second guessing the motive to shut down any criticism or debate is very lame, it's classic right wing cancel culture.

I see you have previously (and repeatedly) expressed very negative views about travellers, which you forgot to disclose. Don't worry, I won't wet my pants and shriek "BAD FAITH, BAD FAITH"...:D:D

hullaballoo

Feedback is not the place for collateral attacks on mod decisions you disagree with.

Thread closed.