The community c/[email protected] states in the sidebar it’s a community for leftists and post leftists, but if you actually look at the posts the mods are making, it’s almost nothing but trolling and telling people not to vote in the general election.
This rhetoric is especially dangerous to trans people, who this instance is supposed to be a safe space for, and West Bank Palestinians. If the USA elects a fascist president, there is guaranteed to be multiple genocides of society’s most vulnerable groups, in addition to what the US is already doing in Gaza.
The mods on Liberty Hub openly troll their users and ban people for advocating left wing or harm reducing positions. The only action that is allowed on the sub is advocating political inaction in the face of genocide, taking a centrist position with regards to open fascism.
This community has absolutely no place on Blahaj Zone and should be removed by the admins.
I’m not going to remove a community for pushing back against a system that forces them to vote for genocide.
I don’t think that not voting is the answer, but I also don’t think that me telling people they’re not allowed to feel differently is the answer. The majority of the people in that community will be forced to live with the consequences of their votes. They will be directly targeted by Trump. And if they still feel that pushing back against genocide in Palestine is more important than the consequences of Trump on their very own personal safety, I’m not going to stand in the way of that.
This isn’t outside trolls and agitators. This is a community of folk, directly in the line of fire, choosing to stand there for a cause they see as important. As long as their intentions are genuine (which I believe they are), It’s not my place to tell them that they’re not allowed to take that stand.
That being said, I am going to reach out to the staff there, and address the insults and the like being thrown at other users. It’s against both the community rules, and against the Blahaj Zone Community Guidelines.
There’s a difference between taking a stand that will harm themselves, and taking a stand that will harm everyone else as well while preventing others from taking a stand against them.
Pledging to vote for someone despite the genocide means they have no incentive to stop the genocide. That is the more dangerous stance.
Ballots are secret. There is no way to prove how you voted once the ballot is sumbmitted. The optimal play is to make a lot of noise saying that your vote is contingent on an end to the genocide, even if that isn’t how you actually vote on election day.
Pledging to vote for biden at this point is encouragement. Why would he do anything about palestine if he knows you’re going to vote for him anyway?
You might be clever enough to walk that fine line, but the average voter is not. They hear “don’t vote for Biden” and they believe you. Expecting to trick the president and not trick the millions of other people who need to vote against fascism for fascism not to happen, is impossible.
You’re playing chicken with fascism. You’re spreading fascist propaganda to voters while the DNC threatens the same and hoping the other one blinks first. But you and I have a lot more to lose from fascism than those rich white people do, and they’re not going to blink. Your threats of fascism are going to come true.
There is no harm free choice here.
I fail to see how that community is pushing back against any system by repeating the same tired talking points that dissuade people from voting.
And that’s s perfectly reasonable perspective. But it’s not a reason to moderate or ban the community…
Quickly going through the modlog of that community I’ve found these three comments that were removed for no other reason than they didn’t align with what some mod thinks, along with a lot of people who were banned with the reason “liberal”.
I don’t even agree with these comments, but that doesn’t matter. You’re willing to host that community to give them a voice, while the mods stifle dissent and ban anyone who disagrees.
I am not willing to exclude trans and queer folk over a difference of opinion, when those opinions are genuinely held, and on issues that directly impact them.
I am not going to tell queer folk that there is a right or a wrong way to deal with the rising tide of bigotry, racism and intolerance we are all facing.
As long as the their community rules live up to the instance community guidelines, they’re allowed to moderate on their own terms.
I get that you see me as “giving them a voice”, and I guess, ultimately it is. But that’s because the goal of blahaj zone is to create a space for trans and queer voices. And that’s what those voices are.