Take your eyes off your navel and read this. Understand it. Live it.
First, all of the mods here at ONTD_Political do believe that -isms are a serious issue that should be confronted. Intersectionality is also a significant issue and I appreciate people who take the time to really get to understand it. Second, this isn't about any one particular instance. This is about certain changes that have taken place in this community over the past 3 or 4 months.
That being said ONTD_Political is a debate community. It is not the PC Police headquarters. Unfortunately the way some members in this community have been attempting to police each other can be problematic in that their methods shut down conversation. There are a few ways people have been behaving inappropriately that need to stop.
The most common way to shut down conversation is through language policing in the use of the phrase "check your privilege/-ism". This phrase does nothing to teach people why their comment is a problem. Even worse it leaves no room for debate or discussion. Telling someone to check their privilege/-isms is down next to the tone argument in ways to derail a thread. The person policing language has added nothing of value to the topic at hand. The "offending" commenter feels like they must apologize and shut up or be ganged up on over how they said something rather than what was said. Lately, anyone who uses questionable language has had their comment derailed by complaints of -isms rather than anything that actually address the substance of the comment. In order to be successful ONTD_P needs to be a place where we address the substance of the issues at hand rather than how a comment is phrased.
ONTD_Political is a debate community. It is not a navel gazing more PC than you competition. Sometimes people will have opinions on things that are different from yours. It is ok to write a comment disagreeing with them. It is not ok to claim their opinion is offensive just because you disagree with it. Some of the 10,000+ members may not think that the things you find offensive are offensive. It is not ok to police other user's comments in this community. If you have a serious problem with something someone said comment here. If it is a violation of our current rules the mods will deal with it. If not you'll just have to pull on your grown up undies and deal with it.
ONTD_Political is a debate community. Even though you may not be an able bodied heterosexual white male that does not mean you are the end all be all of knowledge on your particular sub group. If you are interested in sharing your personal knowledge of your group that is fine. If someone has said something that may have something to do with your sub group and you have a substantive opinion that is different great. But shutting down conversation by claiming to be a victim of a comment that is not as inclusive as you like is not acceptable. Claiming you are a victim because someone reacted in a way you did not like is not acceptable. Attempting to harass someone into accepting your perpetual victim hood and feeling or thinking the way you want them to is not acceptable. If you feel that you are constantly a victim because of opinions that are different than yours about your subgroup you need to figure out a substantive way to discuss it or learn to scroll.
ONTD_Political is a debate community. Sometimes ONTD_Political users will express their opinions on an issue. This is understandable given that ONTD_Political is a debate community. However, just because a user has an opinion you disagree with it is not ok to blow the dog whistles and get your mean girl crew to come in and gang up on them. Since the first day of this community one of our rules has been "be prepared to back up your belief. If you cannot back it up, don't comment." If you can't handle 1 on 1 commenting on your own don't comment. If you can't have a conversation without 5 of your girlfriends repeating your comments and needling the other commenter don't comment. Cyber bullying isn't acceptable here. If you have something substantive to say then say it and move on.
The same rules still apply. Taking it to personal journals = banned. Deleting other people's comments = banned. Deleting your own comments for anything other than a spelling mistake = banned and you need to repost the corrected comment. Don't delete your own posts. Trolls will be sent packing. If your comments are that annoying that we think you're trolling, you're banned.
Most importantly remember that ONTD_Political is a debate community. ONTD_Political is not a monolith. If you can't handle differing views and opinions you do not have a place here. The mods are not going to bubble wrap the conversation on your behalf. If you can't handle differing views and opinions Get The Fuck Out.
Sincerely,
The Mean Mod