Guest mod mailbag: deleted Skepchick comments
There once was a thread here on /srs in which someone suggested I do an Effortpost. I suggested a mod mailbag of sorts, showing some of the shitty comments that I or another Skepchick contributor deletes before it see the light of day. The /srs mods kindly agreed that that would be cool. So!
This isn't everything, really, just a few of the ones that made me laugh. The bulk of the deletions were victim-blaming ("but she mentioned her anus! Open season!"), so I haven't included them.
It used to be that I'd only delete comments on Skepchick that were really, truly out of bounds. If someone said something idiotic but polite, I'd let it through. That's changed now due to the sheer number of idiotic comments in moderation. I let a few through here and there and the Skepchick commenters tear them to shreds, but if I let them all through, the idiots would dominate the conversation and that's the antithesis of the community we have built on the site. It would be r/atheism, I guess, where a few intelligent people valiantly battle against a flood of morons and a post in which I argue for compassion is currently at -3.
So yeah, if you're wondering why these didn't make it onto the site, the answer is: basic moral and intellectual standards.
OK! First let's dispense with the usual uncreative shit:
"get back in the kitchen, bitch"
"GO SUCK A COWS DICK YOU FEMINIST WHORE" (That one was because I 'started swearing.' It's true, I did use the word 'shitty'.)
"Back to the kitchen with you, Twatson" crt56a via Reddit message
eatadickdyke@whineycunt.com via Skepchick message
And there's always at least one guy who tries to get me "fired" from the podcast I co-host.
OK, on to the other deleted comments:
Comments don't count until they have at least 30,000 upvotes. Also, individuals within a group giving to charity means that individuals within that group can do whatever they want!
Just to make sure I’m clear on this, you’ve shown posts with about 1,000 upvotes (most of which have at least half as many corresponding downvotes) in a subreddit with over 300,000 subscribers, and that’s what you want to tar the entire community with? 0.30% of the community are what make you hate reddit? Are you aware that the number of atheist redditors who donated actual cash to ‘Doctors without Borders’ during the atheism donation drive far exceeds the 1,000 upvoters on the (admittedly disgraceful) comments above?
There’s a clear difference: she’s smiling whereas the guys are not, some are even out of focus. It’s likely that some men would also show up their faces, my anecdotal evidence is that it’s common to find pics of women showing their faces but not among men, perhaps men are more concerned about criticism against their looks or their vanity, so they’re more prone to repress themselves, or perhaps my memory is biased because I’m a man.
What I find telling is that you wouldn’t give a shit if this were occurring to a boy. I’m not defending their behavior in anyway, but that’s because I don’t like double standards regardless of what side I find myself on.
I auto-delete any comment that refers to human males as "men" and human females as "females"
Obviously females have been (and still are) prejudiced against more than men, but that’s a little ridiculous. Men, too, can be put in difficult situations due to their gender. If you don’t think so I’ll just leave these here… more to come if you really think men shouldn’t be allowed to have a voice when they feel they’ve been wronged for whatever reason (ie divorce cases) http://reason.com/blog/2011/11/28/gag-order-silences-parents-of-boy-charge And you should read about “Joe Paterno”. I imagine you all would be up in arms if a sex offender was given was a slap on the wrist and fired from his job, hhmm?
A special message from Wow.you.whiney.bitch@******.us:
grow a thicker skin
This makes me feel way better.
Most of the people on there…are in no way actually thinking of raping kidnapping or doing anything horrible to that girl.
Don't shoot down potential allies for equality. Love, femnazi@.com
…And 15 year olds don't like to jokes [sic] about sex? I don't see what you're getting at there.
A few examples of baffled Redditors who don't understand the 1st amendment:
I find it extremely telling that you did not approve either of my comments in which I tell you that you overreacted
Why did you women bring up the sex of the poster? WHY DID YOU DO THAT??
Are you seeking special treatment because you have breasts? I don't expect to have any type of treatment a all being a male on the internet. I never bring my sex up at all, besides in threads like these.
"Why are you targeting us when you should be aiming your disgust at Muslim men?"
Do you know that they rape girls for going to school?
There are more coming in by the minute, but I'll end there so I can do something else with my day. Thanks again to /srs for making me laugh at the things I would otherwise just rage at.
Posted Dec 28, 2011, 5:35 PM UTC · edited