Morbidly A Beast:
Nah letting bigots have free rein without consequence when they spew their nonsense is objectively worse than being direct and confrontational every time they spew their garbage. Maybe it’s not the job of people to confront abstract things but it’s definitely on the part of our community to keep hate and bigotry out of our spaces, if you let one they will think that behavior is okay others will join in, and that’s no place I or others want to be in.
Malvineous:
Ok, but you're explicitly violating TOS. What you're saying might be true for disorganized communities, but not here. This isn't society at large, and this isn't a place for internet activism. In this case, tolerance actually DOES mean tolerating the intolerant until you can get a moderator to act on your behalf. It's literally their job to do so. When you confront people, you're actually being counter-productive to what you want, because all you succeeded in doing is getting the thread closed, while they still remain a member and will continue to post. That doesn't actually scare the trolls at all. If I'm wrong in my interpretation of the rules, I'll gladly accept that correction from a moderator.
I'll edit to add an analogy. If you're part of the gaming community, and someone is acting disruptive, then yes, people should do some gatekeeping on their own. But if you're part of an after school club, and someone says something out of pocket, then by rising up and yelling at them, it only makes you look like you're just as disruptive and part of the problem. But if you turn to the club president and tell them that person is turning this into a toxic environment, then thy have an excuse to act and bar that person from future meetings.
Okay, so I'm going to stop you right there.
I am a WOC. While most people on this site are normal human beings, I have experienced discrimination on this platform. I've experienced everything from death threats and slurs to creepy people sexually harrassing me.
I do report it when it happens. And admin has taken action. But that can take time since I have to take screenshots and send an email to people in a very different time zones. So in the meantime, confronting the bigot is important.
I remember about a year ago, we had this extremely unpleasant user who'd be super gross in chat all the time. Complete menace to society. Admin had told him to get his act together more than once, but he didn't care.
One day, he snapped and went on a racist tirade. Started using all the slurs and saying a bunch of really messed up things. He locked on black people and Jewish people specifically. Numerous people reported him, but it takes time to get a response back.
In the mean time, the community rallied together. A few tracked down a mod while everyone else pushed back against his awefullness. There were a handful on black people and Jewish people in chat at the time. So it was really nice to see white people step up and push back against it too.
You do not and should not tolerate bigotry. Yeah, it's nice to be gently corrected if you accidentally say something bigotted. I think everyone has said something bigotted without meaning to be. But that isn't something you're owed. And you especially aren't owed that grace if you say it with your chest.
Also, I don't think it violates TOS to check a bigot. I've done that several times, and when I seen admin forum links or screenshots with full context, I've never been told I was in the wrong. And some of my reports were viewed by the site owner.
