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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   1969 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 31, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I think this is the first time I have ever been utterly confused and disgusted by a moderation action on this forum.

If you are confused that calling someone (including a mod) a fucking asshole will earn a ban, then I am not sure what your expectations were.

  • -14

It seems like a pretty reasonable reaction to being accused of racism by two different moderators for absolutely zero reason that I can see.

As I said in a reply before I found out he was banned, I do not actually think he was being racist towards me. I was more mildly peeved by the idea that my writing would be clubbed in with silver's. It really was a joke, I have thicker skin than that.

We did not call him a racist. We both thought it was odd that he grouped the two Indian posters together like that in such an unrelated fashion. But he wasn't modded for that.

There is almost no situation in which calling someone a fucking asshole is going to be considered a reasonable or acceptable reaction.

  • -13

We did not call him a racist. We both thought it was odd that he grouped the two Indian posters together like that in such an unrelated fashion. But he wasn't modded for that.

With all due respect, you did strongly imply it:

We also agreed you're being kind of an ass about this, and not just because you apparently think all Indians are the same.

OTOH, the following is absolutely fair, even if you fired the first shot (sort of, anyways) by calling him "kind of an ass".

There is almost no situation in which calling someone a fucking asshole is going to be considered a reasonable or acceptable reaction.

Can't really disagree with that.

You said, apparently seriously, "you apparently think all Indians are the same". That is an accusation of racism, and not the boring scientific kind most of us are, the actually-mindkilled kind. That's an accusation of moral turpitude and irrationality; levelling those without the best of grounding is literally against several rules of theMotte and extremely likely to incense people. And, well, I can't say I've read all his posts, but searching his posts for "India" only shows up a note that it has lower QoL than the West and thus its inhabitants have less to lose and more to gain from gambles like AI than he does as a Westerner. Your post there is the kind of post that people get modded for.

Now, it is true that theMotte does prohibit returning flaming in kind, so this doesn't mean @iprayiam3 is fully off the hook. But for you, Amadan, to flame someone and then personally ban him for responding less escalatorily than you did, while walking off scot-free? Yeah, that's not good modding. If I saw a mod I didn't trust pull that trick, I'd immediately categorise it as entrapment. I do trust you enough to take at face value that this wasn't a deliberate trap, but you've got to realise that a lot of people on this board don't, and acting with unclean hands like this is a really-good way to reinforce their suspicions.

NB: I'm not accusing @self_made_human of anything here. I don't think he did anything especially wrong and rated his response Neutral.

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