Mouthwash vs Arakhor

[ori]

Moutwash is apealing a warning:

I'd like to request a review of Arakhor's infraction of my post in the Reagan the racist thread. Given that the thread seemed to be general Republican-bashing over race (which is close enough to the thread's subject matter), I felt it was fair game to accuse Democrats of the same.

The full post reads:

"Democrat drip-feed poor African-Americans money from the public treasury and ensure that their real problems (poor family structure, violent culture) never get addressed in order to keep them as a voting block. There was a lot of pushback in the 90's from Republicans against violent rap music, but they were curiously also called racist for it. So clearly there is no way to avoid the charge without accepting the idea of permanent wealth transfer (talk of reparations for slavery is just another tool to distract blacks and keep them poor and miserable).

I can think of many parallels in colonialism (e.g. opium trade in China)."

It's a claim about a political party not really trying to help their voting bloc but using their problems as a political stick to beat the other side with, which doesn't seem conspiratorial or racist to me. African-Americans having a more violent culture isn't taking aim at 'blackness' or everything that can be construed as culturally black, it's simply saying - by the definition of culture - that violence is not as taboo in African-American communities.

 

[ori]

Mouthwash consents to publication including his messages and forwarded this conversation:

Mouthwash,

Your message (Reagan the Racist.) constitutes trolling under our rules:


Racist conspiracy theories are not appropriate at CFC. You should be fully aware of this by now. As such, this is a 2-point warning for three months.

Wait, really? I've gotten some infractions on here I would call questionable but you really aren't seeing how absurd this is?

It isn't a conspiracy theory when political parties act cynically or create tensions for political gain (I'm sure you can agree that Mr. Trump does it). More than that, I'm unclear on how Democratic cynicism regarding black people is racist against black people. Reaganites would often say that they were lazy or that their culture made them so, and I'm pretty clear in that the charge isn't true.

Well, you're welcome to appeal it, of course, but I should note that if you post in a different thread that you're trolling people just to see the "libs" cry, then you must expect to have everything you say examined through that lens. Besides, what else would you call suggesting that black Americans have an inherently violent culture than straight-up racism?

I never said I was 'trolling' liberals. I think you're thinking of when I said I vote based on how disliked candidates are by liberals, which I only do because I don't see the merit in any of them.

 

[ori]

And Arakhor has this to add:

He asserted that Democrats deliberately keep black people (curiously, with no reference to any other racial group) poor and needy in order to gain their votes. That is unquestionably a conspiracy theory and seems pretty racist to me. If nothing else, he's being a total jerk about it anyway.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

It's a post worthy of consideration for a two-point infraction, but I wouldn't have immediately jumped to "conspiracy theory" straight away. The whole thread is not that great, though Mouthwash didn't get a massive response to this post.

I'm on the fence to be honest, but as I'm not convinced that a two-point infraction is the right way forward, I'll vote to overturn.

 

[leif erikson]

As was said in another of these reviews, we cannot be the arbiters of truth, we can only attempt to keep threads on topic and maintain civility. In reading the thread in question, the issue for me is whether Mouthwash posted this to intentionally inflame or derail the thread? In thread, Mouthwash was taken to task and the topic of his post proven to be what it was, isn't that part of having a discussion?

Other posters certainly posted things in the same thread that were inflammatory and took the thread off topic and received nothing for doing so. I am inclined to overturn the infraction.

 

[ori]

I also agree with overturning the warning - I don't see it as quite rising to anything really disruptive or sufficiently trollish to warrant action. It is a sort of conspiracy theory but that alone wouldn't do it for me. That it is feeding on racial stereotypes about "root causes" of poverty might be a point against it, but I am not convinced that it crosses over a banned racist posting line.

I'll close this thread, inform everyone about the outcome and publish tonight.

 

[Camikaze]

I'm a little late, but my view is that if the post were a deliberate attempt to provoke negative reactions, it would be worth an infraction for that reason (in the same way a "the moon is made of cheese" comment in a discussion between serious astronomers would be trolling). It's easy to see how the post could fall into that category. But the infraction assumes misguided sincerity and instead punishes the post for expressing an inappropriate view. I don't agree it falls into that category. Expressions of opinion about political parties have to be a lot more insulting in a non-RD thread to attract a sanction. I would vote to overturn as well.

 

[ori]

I now informed everyone and am publishing the thread as is.