[Cobra Mgr]

I'm not one to tell people to run things in their own house. If anything consistently happens not to my liking, then it is up to me to leave. And I think I have proven my belief in that when I self-exiled for about 3 years from this forum. That is why I merely suggested the thread be moved.

I would like to comment on the following if I may.

Originally Posted by kq76

2) I don't think posting links to right-wing sites on its own should warrant a warning. I mean, how many of us from time to time land on a website we've never visited before and have no idea what its political leaning is. And if we decide we'd like to share the link should we investigate this before we do? I think that's asking a bit much.

I agree. I hate both the right & the left. Problem is no news source now isn't guilty of being off center. And people are so polarized that anything a person says that a conservative disagrees with is "woke", and anything that a liberal doesn't agree w/is fascism. So I don't blame mods for being hesitant to go down that road because it is a game you can't win.

3) Even if one does knowingly post links to well-known right-wing sites, does that also in itself warrant a warning? We can infer whatever we want about people based on the links they post, but even if they are what we might think they are, if they're not doing anything overtly racist, what grounds do we really have to ban them? I think it's entirely possible to be a fan of a right-wing news site and not be a racist. Some people say it's important to them that they get their news from a wide array of sources so they don't echo chamber themselves. And while I don't bother to do that, I think good on them. Should we ban posting links to X? I'd personally like to see them go away, but I also think it wouldn't be right to do that. And what about the people who are convinced everyone is racist, it's just a matter of how much. Should everyone be banned?..........

Understood. Again, no one wants to play a game they can't win.

And accidents do happen. I went back & looked @ the rules and saw there were 2 I had unknowingly broken myself. Full confession

I did highlight the above though because I think it is important in maintaining order. In the post in question, the OP mentioned he knew the website itself would ruffle feathers. Now that's not an accident. That is proof he thought about it beforehand, saw the likelihood, and did it anyway.

Now you guys have heard me say before "your tolerance of bad behavior is measured by your willingness to punish bad behavior". This person knew the rules & said "who cares?" That was blatant disrespect to the guidelines for this forum.

So going forward, how much respect do you think he, and others, are going to give the rules of this forum if no form of discipline is given? How much further is he going to push the line? How fair will mods appear to be if they let this slide, but choose to bring down the hammer in the future?

This guy knew that link did not belong on this side of the forum. And that is why I pointed it out.

.........4) The article itself didn't have anything clearly racist in it. I read it three times and another moderator made the point as well. The worst part about it I noticed was it quoted an X tweet that had the word "antiwhiteism" in it. Now yes, it sounds like that site might cater to racists and the whole angry mob that like to claim "the black WNBA is out to get Caitlin Clark" when in reality white opponents hate her too as evidenced by the recent eye-poking of her. But I like to think we should judge things on what they clearly are and not on what we just imagine they probably are. I think it's important to keep an open mind and give people the benefit of the doubt. If they clearly prove to us that they're what we're hoping they're not, then so be it, but until that time I think we should presume the best of everyone.

This is why racism still prevails. I'm not saying you & the mods are personally tolerant of racism. But you have made it virtually impossible to police racism. Because what you have done is set a parameter where any racist action could be excused.

The fact is no one can present "tangible" evidence that the motivations of a person is due to bigotry. Three bosses vote on which of 2 candidates to hire. All 3 choose the same one. One does so because of skin color, the other because it is a relative, the third because they went to the same school. How do you know which one did it because of prejudice? Unless the 1st comes right out and says "I want so-n-so because I hate_______" each action looks the same to the eye. It is only by the amount of circumstancial repeated evidence can it be reasonably revealed.

So yeah, I knew what I was going to get when I clicked that link. Cause the poster basically told me beforehand what I was going to get. And one look at that article told me what I already knew coming in. If anyone, including the OP, still didn't believe that was a white supremacist site, then they are like a guy repeatedly sniffing an expired carton of milk to see if it went bad. At this point, they are no longer investigating. They just love the smell.

But as I opened up, I'm not trying to tell anybody what to do. This is your house. Thank you for allowing me to pull up a chair on the porch. I never said lock the thread. I never said he shouldn't post from that site at all (though I wish he wouldn't). I merely pointed out, according to this forum's guidelines, this section wasn't the place for it.