A week or so ago, I decided never to visit Reddit again unless I was brought to a page by a search engine link. I have found myself beyond exasperated at the censorship, the bias, the noise, the mobs, the nonsense, that has taken it so far away from its roots as a smart geek enclave. It's really become intolerable.
(Voat is just intolerable and probably a FBI honeypot at this point.)
I decided today to make Saidit.net my new home, replacing my favorite Reddit links with Saidit ones. I even replaced /r/worldnews with /s/worldnews.
But then I read a thread about /s/pedophilia involving both the main devs of Saidit.com, /u/magnora7 and /u/d3rr. Magnora claimed the first post on the sub "promot[ed] sex with children", though we cannot verify that since the post, like the sub, has been deleted. However, when the sub owner pasted the sidebar, the tone was not at all extreme in my opinion. It was not a /r/jailbait situation, calling for nude pictures of minors. However, D3rr characterized the sidebar like this:
This is objectionable, along with parts of the post you made.
and issues that effect children who are or would be sexual if given the chance
This is sexualizing minors.
This is the problem with an ideological term like "sexualization." Even talking about what children do, presumably of their own volition, or things they might do if they were given a chance, is framed as a form of falsification, of treating children in a way that is not true to them. But the concept of "children" is ideological, too, lumping sexually active post-pubescent teenagers alongside infants. The real aim of phrases like "sexualization of children" and "sexualization of minors" is to restricts us from considering the facts, in other words: a falsification.
The pyramid of debate can be found here. It lists, in decending order
Refuting the central point
Refutation
Counterargument
Contradiction
Responding to tone
Ad hominem
Name-calling
Phrases like "sexualization of minors" are a form of tone policing. It says: "We don't care what the facts are, only that facts might establish a tone which we are not willing or able to engage with. Therefore the conversation will not take place."
Both the top devs of Saidit share this opinion even thought it is clearly in contravention of their own Pyramid of Debate.
Saidit is small, and magnora7 and d3rr are free to keep their small (but growing) world free of unnecessary controversies. But, as I've told magnora7 in private message, I for one am not going to invest in Saidit my time and passion when the admins so whimsically ban a sub that had (by their own reports) one post.
There are many people who can have a detailed and interesting conversation about this subject without veering over the edge into illegal activity. It is not wrong as an admin or mod to be concerned about such a topic, since it is so controversial, and so heavily policed. But by failing to even allow such a conversation to begin, without giving any guidance in advance, as magnora7 did for the /s/incels sub, it just proves to me that the Saidit admin are ultimately not trustworthy. Not only are the admins NOT free speech absolutists, they are also not even adherent to their own fancy pants Pyramid of Debate.
magnora7 to the /s/pedophilia creator:
If you don't like the rules of saidit, you're free to leave.
and
If saidit makes you this angry, then why are you here writing paragraphs? Goodbye.
We're writing paragraphs, magnora7 because you've invited us here to create a new community and then slam the door on our faces based on vague ideologically tainted phraseology that doesn't rise to the level of actual debate. So basically you've disappointed us.
I know the vast majority don't care, but pedophiles are the most censored, most controlled, most hated minority in America right now. Nothing else compares. And so the decision to cut off access to Saidit is a POLITICAL DECISION with POLITICAL CONSEQUENCS. Even if nobody holds magnora or d3rr to this, it's true. To invoke Godwin's law, this is like the local newsseller refusing to sell the Jewish magazine after Krystalnacht. It's a substantial moral decision that, at the time, just seems like common sense.
Okay, magnora7. I'm taking the advice you gave Mr. Deleted, and saying goodbye.
So what is the solution to this kind of problem?
We need to stop investing in centralized social media. It is just a waste of time, over and over and over. And all our effort ends up in the hands of some dictator or a corporation selling user information or burned in a wave of censorship. It can even fall into the hands of a well-meaning person like magnora7 who simply doesn't really care enough to follow through on his promises. There are a thousand ways centralized systems break.
The solution is to develop decentralized networks, like the days of yore, mixing the insights gleaned from the dynamic Web 2.0 with the wisdom of the decentralized internet of the 1990s. Magnora7's tepid response to the call for Activity Pub strongly suggests that Saidit is not going to square that circle any time soon. It will be up to others to establish the technologies of the future. That is what I intend to do, instead of investing more time on centralized servers with centralized censorship.
[–]magnora7 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]basedaf1 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)