I don't know whether you'll read this, since you have apparently put me on ignore, but for the record let me respond since you have laid out your position.
1. I invite anybody who wonders what happened to examine the four posts I made on LWP. The first was unexceptional:
Message 15274757
The second also seems unexceptional
Message 15274830
This provoked a reply from X which I took offense to, and was clearly unfriendly (violating the friendliness doctrine)
siliconinvestor.com
My response was:
siliconinvestor.com
That X hides behind a false persona is a fact. That she has in the past boasted of writing things she didn't believe to create controversy is also a fact. Was this any more unfriendly than her post? It seems to have invited an end to the exchange. But it didn't.
X's reply:
siliconinvestor.com
Was this more friendly than mine? I don't think so.
My final post was this:
siliconinvestor.com
This was the extent of our exchange. I think the blows, such as they were, were about equal.
But shortly after that, I found I couldn't post to the LWP, and had to go to SI admin to find out why. They told me that I had been moderated off.
What I objected to, Poet, was that there was no sense of what our society generally considers justice, a fundamental concept which is notice and opportunity to be heard. You didn't even have the courtesy to tell me that you had moderated me off the thread. I found -- and find -- this inconsistent with basic principles of liberal thought. As I told you, I would expect such treatment in a totalitarian system of "justice," but not in a liberal Western one.
If you were simply concerned with the tenor of the posts, a simple "Chris, knock it off, we don't allow bickering on LWP" would have sufficed. It seems clear that something else was at work. Though since you've never told me what, I can only speculate.
If my posts were sufficiently terrible to warrant immediate banishment without any notice or warning, why weren't X's? After all, she initiated the personal attacks; if she hadn't attacked me I would have had no need to respond. (Interesting that she did that even though she claims to have me on Ignore.) Her posts to me were every bit as objectionable and unfriendly as mine to her.
The point I was making to you, and will invite comment on here, is: should a thread dedicated to liberal principles comply with basic tenants of liberal principles? Is an autocratic, dictatorial exercise of power without warning, notice, or opportunity to be heard consistent with liberal principles? |
