Welcome to Rigorous Intuition v.2020! (admin issues thread)

[JackRiddler]

^^^

(I feel weird, us talking about his possible problems in his absence. It's meant in the best, gentlest way but after this maybe private messages are the better way to go.)

Yes, you're right; it's also unfair & inappropriate of me. Sorry Mac!

Well it's been said and it was meant in a loving way so leave it be. We try to avoid memory-holing here.

[Elvis]

Sounder is banned.

For too long Sounder has promoted and defended racist sources on this board, and his defenses have consisted of miscellaneous sophistries, non-sequiters and personalized attacks. In other words, he's tried to defend the indefensible. His latest posts have made this decision inevitable.

Also taken into consideration is Sounder's years-long spreading of corporate-fed misinformation about climate science.

[Project Willow]

Sounder is banned.

For too long Sounder has promoted and defended racist sources on this board, and his defenses have consisted of miscellaneous sophistries, non-sequiters and personalized attacks. In other words, he's tried to defend the indefensible. His latest posts have made this decision inevitable.

Also taken into consideration is Sounder's years-long spreading of corporate-fed misinformation about climate science.

You're joking, right? Quotation please.

He joined in 2006. I have opinions about what works and what might be counter productive in anti-racist activism. Guess I can't talk about it here. It gets even worse than that, the world is so nuts these days, I occasionally agree with... Tucker Carlson *gasp*.

If an brief insult and a failure to conform to a very narrow band of views is enough to ban a long time contributor, you might as well ban me too.

[DrEvil]

Labeling all the BLM protesters arsonists and looters isn't an opinion, it's a racist lie, and it's not the first time he's pulled shit like that.

[Cordelia]

Sounder is banned.

For too long Sounder has promoted and defended racist sources on this board, and his defenses have consisted of miscellaneous sophistries, non-sequiters and personalized attacks. In other words, he's tried to defend the indefensible. His latest posts have made this decision inevitable.

Also taken into consideration is Sounder's years-long spreading of corporate-fed misinformation about climate science.

What a crock. You were just being fascist facetious, right?

[DrEvil]

Sounder is banned.

For too long Sounder has promoted and defended racist sources on this board, and his defenses have consisted of miscellaneous sophistries, non-sequiters and personalized attacks. In other words, he's tried to defend the indefensible. His latest posts have made this decision inevitable.

Also taken into consideration is Sounder's years-long spreading of corporate-fed misinformation about climate science.

What a crock. You were just being fascist facetious, right?

He's not wrong. I've been arguing with Sounder for ten years straight, and I've lost count of the times I've called him out on racist, misogynist, transphobic and right-wing disinfo content (and don't get me started on his science denial). His usual response is to deny it, move the goalposts, get angry, accuse me and others of being brainwashed by mainstream indoctrination and not seeing the world as clearly as he does and then disappearing for a couple of weeks before returning and doing the same thing over again.

Sorry, I can't call it a Movement for Black Lives given that it largely involves burning and looting black areas of cities.

How is this not a racist dog-whistle? It's straight out of the Fox News approved talking points list. They're not protesters, they're arsonists and looters, common criminals, the implication being that their message isn't worth listening to. It's insidious and fucking disgusting.

[Project Willow]

He's not wrong. I've been arguing with Sounder for ten years straight, and I've lost count of the times I've called him out on racist, misogynist, transphobic and right-wing disinfo content (and don't get me started on his science denial). His usual response is to deny it, move the goalposts, get angry, accuse me and others of being brainwashed by mainstream indoctrination and not seeing the world as clearly as he does and then disappearing for a couple of weeks before returning and doing the same thing over again.

Sorry, I can't call it a Movement for Black Lives given that it largely involves burning and looting black areas of cities.

How is this not a racist dog-whistle? It's straight out of the Fox News approved talking points list. They're not protesters, they're arsonists and looters, common criminals, the implication being that their message isn't worth listening to. It's insidious and fucking disgusting.

Oh, so you've had disagreements with him, how awful! I know plenty of black folks who've decried the looting and destruction and who've made the same exact point Sounder made, over and over again. I'm a gender critical radical feminist, are you going to work on getting me banned for "transphobia" too? We are all steeped in misogyny and racism, it is part of the air we breathe, no one is immune, which Sounder also admitted to in one of his recent posts. That is not something an actual, out-right, "racist" would do.

I can't abide this call-out, holler than thou, 'I know you're secretly a horrible person because you don't agree with me', SJW crap. (I went down that self destructive path right here at RI a number of years ago, thankfully I snapped out of it). If that's how this board is going to be run, I'm out.

Jack, you're so much better than this.

[LolaB]

Oh, so you've had disagreements with him, how awful! I know plenty of black folks who've decried the looting and destruction and who've made the same exact point Sounder made, over and over again. I'm a gender critical radical feminist, are you going to work on getting me banned for "transphobia" too? We are all steeped in misogyny and racism, it is part of the air we breathe, no one is immune, which Sounder also admitted to in one of his recent posts. That is not something an actual, out-right, "racist" would do.

^^Thank you for this Willow.
I wholeheartedly agree.

[DrEvil]

He's not wrong. I've been arguing with Sounder for ten years straight, and I've lost count of the times I've called him out on racist, misogynist, transphobic and right-wing disinfo content (and don't get me started on his science denial). His usual response is to deny it, move the goalposts, get angry, accuse me and others of being brainwashed by mainstream indoctrination and not seeing the world as clearly as he does and then disappearing for a couple of weeks before returning and doing the same thing over again.

Sorry, I can't call it a Movement for Black Lives given that it largely involves burning and looting black areas of cities.

How is this not a racist dog-whistle? It's straight out of the Fox News approved talking points list. They're not protesters, they're arsonists and looters, common criminals, the implication being that their message isn't worth listening to. It's insidious and fucking disgusting.

Oh, so you've had disagreements with him, how awful! I know plenty of black folks who've decried the looting and destruction and who've made the same exact point Sounder made, over and over again. I'm a gender critical radical feminist, are you going to work on getting me banned for "transphobia" too? We are all steeped in misogyny and racism, it is part of the air we breathe, no one is immune, which Sounder also admitted to in one of his recent posts. That is not something an actual, out-right, "racist" would do.

I can't abide this call-out, holler than thou, 'I know you're secretly a horrible person because you don't agree with me', SJW crap. (I went down that self destructive path right here at RI a number of years ago, thankfully I snapped out of it). If that's how this board is going to be run, I'm out.

Jack, you're so much better than this.

I don't think he's a horrible person because I disagree with him, I think he's a horrible person for repeatedly and approvingly posting far-right content and broad generalizations about entire movements. If that makes me a holier-than-thou SJW, great. I'll wear the badge with pride.

Also, I had nothing to do with his ban and I didn't report him to the mods. In my ten years here I've reported a grand total of one person, and that was for repeatedly linking to sites pushing Holocaust denial.

Disclaimer: I don't actually think he's a horrible person (apart from the fiddling. That's the Devil's instrument!), I just wish he would spend five seconds checking his sources and thinking about what he just wrote before hitting 'submit', and for what it's worth I wouldn't have any issue with him being let back in. I'd rather argue with him than see him disappear.

[JackRiddler]

I'm a gender critical radical feminist, are you going to work on getting me banned for "transphobia" too?

Of course not!

If you or others insist on quitting over Sounder, there's nothing we can do. But why would we ever want to ban you?!

Willow, you know that I know your views on many things (most of which I share). And you know that I've invited you to take a more active role here.

You put a lot of work into backing up your convictions, unlike the user you defend. To this board, you've always brought honesty, insight, creativity, integrity, and empathy. You've shown courage against the online abuse that at times has been thrown at you.

Also, generosity. This ain't kidding or flattering, you know I mean it from our other contacts. I still have the haunting work you sent me on my wall, right here where I sit. And, come to think of it, another one, quite a bit peppier, sits on the shoulder of the avatar you helped trick up for me.

Anyway, no.

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[JackRiddler]

Sounder is a bad fit for R.I., for all the reasons Elvis said. This comes after years of tedious experience with his posts of mystifying disinfo, and his endless, disingenuous apologetics for it, pushing the board in a repetitive, reductive direction.

We bet that like us, there are others here who also feel that if we're not inviting people to come check out this board, then one of the reasons has been having to stand for Sounder's posts. I have suggested to him that he should leave many times. If it had been up to me in the past, I would have forced it long ago. His latest comments are merely the latest cause.

Like Willow, I may find myself agreeing with several things Tucker Carlson says. That doesn't mean this is the board for Tucker Carlson, or that I'd tolerate his aggressive promotion of barely camouflaged race realism or use of bogus "reverse racism" arguments on this board. Lucky for him, and too bad for us, Carlson has his own TV show with however many million viewers.

We're a small pond. Sounder can also find his place, elsewhere.

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[JackRiddler]

R.I. is not a country. It is not a state that can violate your human rights. R.I. does not impose "fascism" by asking a user to go post elsewhere. You don't depend on it for anything other than posts and responses. It's a small discussion board with a few hundred readers-users-guests.

The management prefers to cease endlessly repeating the discussions that Sounder regularly forces here. That is not due to a recent bout of "SJW," whatever that appellation is supposed to mean. The way it is used at times sounds to me about as meaningful and fair as "TERF." The right abbreviation for this place is R.I.

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[JackRiddler]

If your response to the recent US protests is to do an extended illustrated parody piece that equates protesters with the Jonestown cult and predicts their mass suicide by Covid, complete with pictures of the Guyana corpses, or if the idea of police reform prompts a similar work in which the liberals have appointed Charles Manson as the new chief of police, or if your gloss on Black Lives Matter involves pictures of white men in blackface, then there probably are boards and blogs and venues where you can enjoy your artistic expression without the hindrances present here, and where you can defend your works endlessly with (facially disingenuous) claims that the contempt for humanity expressed therein is actually high art. (I'll confess the latter was more annoying, and I can't believe I let myself get rolled into being trolled like that.)

But not here. It's a big world and a big Internet. R.I. is a small place with room for many discussions, but not every conceivable discussion need be welcome.

(Links to "the works.")

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[JackRiddler]

This is not based on just one or two chance comments from either. Sounder would have been stopped from posting here years ago, if it had been up to me at the time. (Also, to be clear, there was no mod complaint about Sounder from Dr Evil. I mean, other than the hundreds of posts refuting Sounder's, to little effect.)

It's not personal. Are they bad people? We don't know either in person. We are speaking to posted content. Both have danced on the borderlines of racist and fascist-lite expression, as if to see what they can put over on the mods. It wasn't obvious hostile action, like some of the brief, coordinated attacks the board has sustained in the past from alt-right and other circles, but it was long-term. It may have been unconscious, or lazy, or out of minor resentments, or for the lulz.

We don't care. It's not worth our time here to debate this.

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[JackRiddler]

for extending the brekin and Sounder flamewar to a different thread. I deleted the new thread immediately and suspended the account.

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