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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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[Looks up from his vast collection of being called a racist, homophobe, transphobe, white supremacist, rape supporter, Nazi, etc.]

Welcome to political discussion!

Yeah no. You really need to look around you with a more objective view if you truly think this is the case. I won't deny that sometimes I disagree with mod decisions about something which should be moderated but isn't. But at least The Motte actually has rules against this, and they are generally evenly enforced.

Just having rules against it is already better than 75% of the Internet. Go on Reddit political forums, or Twitter, or countless other places, and they have no rules whatsoever against such name calling. Leftists freely call anyone to the right of Barack Obama a Nazi, a fascist, a terrible evil person, etc etc - and they mean it. Not all leftists, to be sure. But it's a super common pattern and almost no discussion forums even try to contain it.

On the Motte, at least we try. It's not perfect. If you want to claim "the moderation here is imperfect and could be improved", I suspect everyone will agree with you (even the moderators). But this idea that the Motte is the worst example of bad behavior in political discussion is completely asinine, and has very little in common with reality.