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[Meta] Posting comics from transphobic artists?

2mon 6d ago by multiverse.soulism.net/u/Grail in comicstrips

Now that this community has mods, I think we should come to something approaching a consensus on whether there should be a rule against posting "nice" comics from transphobic and other kinds of bigoted artists. People like Stonetoss and Jago who have a lot of innocent-looking relatable comics, but also post the most mean, bigoted propaganda.

And I'd like to present a third option besides yes and no: one might post comics from bigoted artists after removing the artist credit, if the mods think that's a good compromise.

I'd rather this place doesn't turn into a Nazi bar, I'm in favor of banning hate

I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you.

So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, “no. get out.”

And the dude next to me says, “hey i’m not doing anything, i’m a paying customer.”

and the bartender reaches under the counter for a bat or something and says, “out. now.” and the dude leaves, kind of yelling. And he was dressed in a punk uniform, I noticed

Anyway, I asked what that was about and the bartender was like, “you didn’t see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them.”

And i was like, ohok and he continues. “you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it’s always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don’t want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.

And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it’s too late because they’re entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.”

And i was like, “oh damn.”

and he said “yeah, you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people.”

And then he went back to ignoring me. But I haven’t forgotten that at all.

- Michael B Tager

This.

I loved some of what was available on Reddit years ago. What really made me leave was exactly this problem, the fact that the same platform that allowed things I was interested in also allowed Nazi stuff, things like fatpeoplehate and jailbait. If you have a Nazi section of your bar and a pedo section of your bar it is a bar I don't want to be in, it is a Nazi pedo bar.

Also, to be super clear, I am absolutely making the strong claim that fatpeoplehate was a Nazi subreddit along with jailbait. Nazis see people as less human when they don't fit their narrow definitions of human, thus the term useless eaters. They also see women as breeding capacity without humanity and have strong tendencies towards younger and younger girls over time. These are solid links and part of the ideology, not incidental. If you have a Nazi bar it will be a pedo bar too, and they will also hate on people with disabilities and those who are lgbt+.

I'm about to drop a really hot take: The freedom to choose your body includes the freedom to choose to be fat. Now, most people won't understand why anyone would want to be fat, and that's okay. You don't have to understand something to accept it. But going around saying that wanting to be fat can only be a fetish or a mental disorder, like people say about being trans, is not acceptable. We've got a tremendous diversity of different people here on this planet Earth, and I think that's a good thing, because it means I'm never gonna run out of interesting people to get to know.

100% agree. I actually fit this well. I am a tall and fairly muscled dude. My body responds well to keto and I can drop fat fairly easily. I choose to carry some extra weight because I prefer how people treat me at this weight. I am seen as less threatening and less likely to judge which are important things to me.

Also, replacing pants is so expensive. In this economy?

already is

Bigotry belongs in the bin. Denial of platform is nice too. Banned creator list feels appropriate

I'll voice in favor of a banlist for bigoted artists. Letting bigots and other hateful people in with "relatable" content just normalizes their hateful material, even playing into possibly intentional "onroading" on their part to their prejudiced platform. It also reinforces the idea that targets of that hate need to "play nice" if they're not being targeted right then and there, and perpetuates the falsehood that these positions are a matter of "opinion" rather than an existential threat to the targeted.

A banlist would present a higher workload on the part of the mods, which is not something I feel can be demanded, but it would be helpful to have if the goal here is to create a welcoming environment.

MissesAutumnRains also brings up a good point (https://lemmy.ca/post/63256113/22736751) - Leaving it up to users to block bad content does nothing for new users who will have no such curation, and who will be left to assume the community is accepting of such content. Platforming hateful creators will silently push away those who find their content distasteful and entice users that agree with it to stay.

A mod in this thread stated that people already submit a lot of reports on Jago's comics. With a banlist, mods wouldn't need to spend time thinking and debating the issue every time a Jago comic is posted. They can just check if Jago is on the banlist. It might add up to less work overall.

Perhaps. I'm gonna leave that determination up to the people doing the work, though. I don't think it's fair to try and convince a volunteer that an additional rule is or isn't too much work to manage.

That’s the only way for comics or anything else because you can’t really expect users to research the whole ideological history of the author every time they see a funny picture and want to repost it.

I’m not sure I have a strong opinion either way on the censorship vs not supporting bigots debate, but, to the extent the community decides to ban any authors/artists, there needs to be a quick and concise list that posters can consult.

After reading the comments here I have been convinced we should create a list of these artists, and none of their content is welcome in this community.

Main points being:

  • allowing their "nice" content creates a pipeline for users to their bigotry
  • having it signals to new users we are ok with content from bigots
  • it should make moderating easier because there is no need to deliberate what is ok by that creator

Nazis, racists, transphobes, homophobes are not welcome here under any context!

after removing the artist credit

Oh god, please not. This is a whole different can of worms that does not need to be opened in this particular discussion.

There are many comics in the world. Banning a handful of horrible creators won't starve the community for content. It will create space for non-horrible artists.

Allowing the "nice" comics by horrible people just creates a funnel for people to click though and be exposed to hateful ideas.

If in several months the ban list has grown monstrous in size, we could revisit, but that seems unlikely.

It's not book burning or censorship. The horrible creators remain entitled to host their own websites or their own instances.

Can you explain to me how censorship of problematic artists is not really censorship?

Because a comics sub on Lemmy is not the government or a church or any other powerful organisation that has any reach beyond itself

It's a small community of people who are allowed to decide not to welcome bigotry

Ohhhhh so when its just a few people its okay to ignore things they dont like. Quick, hid that info from billion dollar fossil fuel advocates! They must never know the power of ignoring inconvenient reality. Imagine how well they'd sleep at night

If I step into your group of friends one evening and start an unprompted 4 hour lecture on 17th Century Agriculture, would it be censorship if you asked me to leave?

Small communities are allowed to curate themselves. It's not censorship without that power dynamic, and on some level you yourself must understand this since your go-to comparison was 'billion dollar fossil fuel advocates'

Curating would require active moderation. This isnt a proposal for increased moderation, but a content based ban decided by which artists are or are not haram to your leftist sensibilities at any given time. Why should the lemmy.world instance of comicstrips be censored when you can make a new instance like "safestripsforgoodboysandgirls" instead of fucking over the larger community?

Why should the lemmy.world instance of comicstrips be censored when you can make a new instance like "safestripsforgoodboysandgirls" instead of fucking over the larger community?

If most people here are in favour of it, then that's why.

And then you can leave and make a new instance with your preferred amount of bigotry

“If we don’t flood the front page with Nazi stuff, we’re as bad as the Nazis” was always my least favorite argument.

Will you write "I'm an idiot" on your forehead for me? If not, am I being censored? Why or why not? Should you be obligated to carry my message anywhere I desire?

Nobody should be obligated to parrot your mouth diarrhea, no. But that does not mean its okay for an entire community to discourage your mouth diarrhea simply for being distasteful.

That's censorship, just in case you were having trouble identifying the concept we are discussing.

Nobody is obligated but the community is obligated?

Personal preference is not censorship. Banning an artist from an artistic community because the community can't regulate their own emotions is censorship.

So the individuals running a forum cannot moderate the forum. It must be open to any and all content. Otherwise that is censorship, and bad.

Well, I infer from your tone you think censorship is always bad. Maybe you're just splitting a hair about how in a sense content moderation is censorship.

because the community can’t regulate their own emotions is censorship.

The biggest eyeroll

My big problem with censorship is that it dulls the mind. Safe spaces do the same thing. If your thoughts and beliefs are never questioned, you can never grow as a person. Echo chambers are breeding grounds for ignorance. Our world is not tolerant of ignorance. Being unable to react appropriately to emotionally inflammatory bait makes us all weaker on an emotional level.

If you want to coddle yourself, make a safe space to do so. Don't take an open forum and limit it to suit your preferences. The internet is infinite. Make a new space with your own rules.

Make a new space with your own rules

That's what's happening here and you're whining about it. Follow your own advice.

My big problem with censorship is that it dulls the mind. Safe spaces do the same thing. If your thoughts and beliefs are never questioned, you can never grow as a person. Echo chambers are breeding grounds for ignorance. Our world is not tolerant of ignorance. Being unable to react appropriately to emotionally inflammatory bait makes us all weaker on an emotional level.

Also this is nonsense. Some topics don't need to be relitigated. No one benefits from giving "maybe {racist trope} is real" a platform and legitimacy.

Furthermore, allowing stuff like Nazi ideas is corrosive to the community. Like the anecdote about the Nazi bar posted elsewhere, if you let that stuff in then you end up with all the other people leaving.

You are wrong and your ideas are counter productive for maintaining a vibrant community. Many left wing spaces ban Nazi apologia, and have no shortage of debate and competing thought.

Claiming your opponents are just emotionally weak is also laughable. You sound like a real sad sack neo-nazi incel projecting his own shortcomings.

You aren't making a new space. You're fucking up an existing space, and that's very different.

Instead of making "safehappytimecomicstrips" as an instance, youre dictating what a larger, already established instance is going to do in the future. You're taking the general board and turning it into a niche community to suit your own personal interests, and that's not okay.

What if some billionaire bought up a newspaper because they were tired of seeing articles about wealth inequality and only wanted content that exclusively promoted their own viewpoint?

Oh wait....

That's you. You're the Jeff Bezos of internet discussion. Hooray! You did it. You showed those bigots how REAL bigotry is done. Good for you. Im glad your censorship is such an ideological win for you.

You're mistaking pro-democracy people's decision making, for unitary Capitalist Fascism.

Here's a video that might help you untangle the two.

HOW AND WHY a decision is enacted is hugely important in this.

The why is: to protect trans people and women (the target groups of fascist friendly right wing comics), from the spread of those messages here.

The how is by community consensus, which we're forming now. This puts your mindset in the minority, which will sit a lot better with you if you understand the community's decision (which clear comparing us to Jeff Bezo and Capitalism shows you don't rn. Maybe earnestly attempting to understand will change your mindset).

...and if you still don't like it, you can go make your own comic strip community. The rest of the minority opinion can go join you in alt-right friendly liberal la la land... Where democracy and leftist censorship are "the real problems". /s

Hey maybe some hidden anonymous account of Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg will show up there and praise it too. Maybe one day you'll be offered funding to popularise anti-trans content. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened in the world, and that's the problem.

Safe space? Yeah, from right wing Capitalist Fascism, and any endorsement of it we can avoid.

I think if we require artist name in the title, people can easily filter it out.

Do not remove artist credit, people have the right to know who made the art. For the question of "can you separate art from the artist", everyone is going to have a different stance on it, and even then it may vary depending on the severity of the artist's action. Removing the artist credit removes people's autonomy in that regard.

It also opens the door for people to claim "Billy made one off hand joke 17 years ago, so now we must crop out all their credit because it's an advertisement".

Consistent rules will be best. Making exceptions and attempting to maintain a blacklist gets messy to manage and can get out of hand.

This is the only workable option. Anything else is just asking for trouble in one form or another.

I would prefer that the content is not censored by someone else's moral compass. If it's content by a transphobic or otherwise bigoted artist then let us know in the comments. Book burning is bad, no matter who is doing the burning. I would prefer to be educated than have someone else determine what is appropriate for me to view.

TL:DR I'm an adult: I'd rather choose for myself.

And as an trans adult I would rather not be exposed to it at all.

I don’t want a community that’s like 4Chan, I want some where that’s respectful and takes into consideration the wellbeing of its users without platforming hate artists.

I can respect that. I would suggest blocking the users that post the stuff you don't want to see. I would prefer, though, that you educate me about why and how these artists are offensive to you. I can be a better ally if I understand. You gain nothing if I'm kept ignorant just because you say so. I also understand that you're probably tired of having to defend yourself and explain yourself over and over again. I would guess that there's an existential fatigue just trying to live in a society that seems to be offended by your very existence. I'm sorry. I try to call it out when I see it, but I don't see it as often as I should and I think that hiding it, even comic strips, doesn't help me to understand better. I need you, with lived experience, to point it out to me so I know what to look for.

It isn't their job to educate you, in fact requesting that is putting that additional burden on someone who is already burdened by this bigotry.

It is really unfair to ask them to explain it so that you can be a better ally. If you want to be a better ally it is worth looking into it yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yAbQ-CaJXs

That is a good primer, but it is just one person's perspective. If you search "stonetoss Nazi" or "stonetoss bigot" you will get tonnes of people explaining it in more detail.

Just to be super duper clear, I'm not dragging you here. I'm not saying "you suck for not knowing, you should know, and asking is just you being a bad person". That would be silly and short sighted. I am saying that as a person who is not trans you are not experiencing the horror of anti trans bigotry all day every day and so you aren't worn down by it. You surely have your own problems and they are real and hard, and so do trans people. It makes sense to listen when they speak about it and hear what they are saying, but asking them to spend their energy on your understanding is a different thing. You can spend your own energy on figuring it out and make yourself a better ally.

Thanks for explaining. It's easy to be lazy when you don't realise you're being lazy. I appreciate you taking time to politely set me on the right path. I apologise if I caused any offence.

Not a worry. Now anyone else who has the same question will see your comment, my reply, and your graceful acceptance and hopefully follow your example. Somewhere out there on the internet in my turn in your shoes with someone else opening my eyes. I found it liberating to realise I could go find out myself rather than trusting a random internet stranger.

I would prefer, though, that you educate me about why and how these artists are offensive to you

If you really want to learn about why certain art is offensive towards certain people, go look for that explanation yourself. There is plenty of information out there in general. Don't put this workload on someone who just wants to scroll a bit, they are forced to explain themselves often enough already.

My bad. Thanks for explaining. I apologise for any offence.

All good, I realize now my comment reads a bit harsher than I meant it.

Nah. It's OK. It wasn't harsh. It was direct. It was a slap to the face that I needed. I was being lazy and making my education someone else's problem. I am self aware enough to see when I've made a mistake, most of the time, and though my intentions were good, it's really not anyone else's job to educate me. I also hadn't considered that the "lived experience" I was asking for could be traumatic to recall and relay. Like I said, I was being lazy. I make mistakes. I try to learn from them and be better.

Genuinely great attitude. Hope you have a nice day :)

I don't think the defining/worst/significant thing about 4chan is inoffensive comics that are by people who have expressed offensive views, and I don't really think you do either?

No, I think the worst thing is treating it as a “free speech” place instead of moderating what is shared there.

Which is fundamentally the approach being argued here.

There's a chasm between "anything that's not illegal in the USA" and "you can post non-hateful stuff regardless of what the author may otherwise have expressed."

Human rights is not a moral issue. If hatred were an opinion worth platforming, Nazis would have built movements fighting for acceptance rather than trying to violently force their view upon us. The fight for equal rights by queer people has existed for 1000s of years because it's an identity. It is endemic to our species and you can't stamp out identity the way you can with hatred that hides in a deplorable subset of majority populations.

Right... But we're talking about comic strips, not about slowing the march of the third reich.

Education is better than censorship. Let the comics get posted, then start the conversation in the comment section about why and how this comic, or artist, is oppressing minorities so that we can make up our own minds. Education is the weapon against oppression, not ignorance.

If you're so arrogant to think that you can make that decision for me then I'm going to resist you. If you take away my freedom to choose then you're just swapping out one form of oppression for another.

Arrogance is thinking you're smarter than propaganda. You are not. Your position is reactive and oppositional and ripe for mind control tactics. You are so easy to manipulate, in fact, that in one paragraph I'm going to make your blood pressure rise and flow to your amygdala.

But the propaganda hits us whether we see stonetoss in the corner or not.

Banning comics from bigots in a lemmy community is not remotely similar to book burning.

Hi! As of right now, here is my take on the situation: as long as the comics (and posters posting them) do not break the rules, they are allowed. If we were to ban content based on its creators, there probably would be a lot of content people would miss out on. Take for example Harry Potter. In my personal opinion, the author is a trash person, and I personally will no longer invest my time, effort, or money into their franchise. However, the stories and lore and fan base are still good. There is an actor who had a recurring (and popular) role in Star Trek: TNG (and a few episodes of Voyageur) who turned out to be a trash person. But, the memes and other content being posted about their roles are still funny and entertaining.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel that the content is not always a direct reflection of the bad values that their creators/portrayers may have. But, if the community as a whole wants to band together and downvote said content or petition for a new rule that includes a common identifier (i.e., artist name) in the title so it can be keyword filtered by individuals, I would certainly support those efforts. I am definitely not on the side of removing artist credit, even if the artist is not someone I like for whatever reason. They still deserve credit for their work; if anything, so as to ensure other people know who they are and what kind of work they produce.

And if you have other ideas for how we can address these types of situations, please keep them coming.

Take for example Harry Potter. In my personal opinion, the author is a trash person, and I personally will no longer invest my time, effort, or money into their franchise. However, the stories and lore and fan base are still good. There is an actor who had a recurring (and popular) role in Star Trek: TNG (and a few episodes of Voyageur) who turned out to be a trash person. But, the memes and other content being posted about their roles are still funny and entertaining.

The difference is the creators in question aren't the ones making that content. A webcomic about the world of Harry Potter created by someone else has levels of separation from the source material, but if JK started a webcomic, I would object to it being posted and promoted here.

Harry Potter has a character who is a slave who was freed, and then became an alcoholic. That's what slave owners said would happen after abolition. I think Harry Potter is very much a reflection of the values of its creator. And she spends her royalties on donations to hate groups.

That said, I do want to read Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Bad Boy Parasaurolophus.

Minority populations do struggle with high rates of addiction because of trauma. It's just not the argument bigots think it is.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel that the content is not always a direct reflection of the bad values that their creators/portrayers may have.

I think on its own that makes sense, but without some blanket bans on known hateful artists, people are getting exposed to the innocuous works, and then looking up the artists to find a backlog of hateful content. And bad actors are free to limit test what extreme they can go to before any mod response.

The way I see it, if you as a user like a comic enough to research the artist, and you discover said artist holds values that are offensive to you, then you've learned something valuable. Plus, you get to make up your own mind whether you want to continue following said comic/artist. It is a fine line to walk as a mod (or person in power) to dictate what is and isn't acceptable at any given moment. I learned this the other day when I posted updated rules re-enforcing the original "family friendly" intention. People were quick to point out that we are all adults here and should be given the option of choosing for themselves. And there will always be people who try to take advantage of the rules. I can't say what will or won't happen for hypothetical situations that haven't happened yet, because I honestly do not know how I might respond until it happens. So for now, I am willing to give people leeway and go from there.

The way I see it, if you as a user like a comic enough to research the artist, and you discover said artist holds values that are offensive to you, then you’ve learned something valuable. Plus, you get to make up your own mind whether you want to continue following said comic/artist.

Or a person who liked the artist enough that they went to look for more views it under the context of "I like this artist" so they're more likely to rationalize or defend the extreme or questionable positions and the community remains complicit in platforming hate.

It is a fine line to walk as a mod (or person in power) to dictate what is and isn’t acceptable at any given moment.

That is literally the role of a mod?

Wait, who was the Star Trek actor?

The one I was referring to is Dwight Schultz (Lt. Broccoli). There are other actors/actresses I've heard who have political ideologies opposite of mine. It's been a disappointing year for me in that respect. 😅

Reginald Barklay?

Too bad his real self can't have a character arc like barklay did

I do like the idea of putting some sort of identifier in the post title, so I created a new post for discussion.

Keep in mind that the existence of downvotes do not absolve the duty of mods to moderate their community.

I'm kind of tired of seeing comics by known bad actors here. I could and have blocked the account that posts them, but that equates to tacitly approving of them, since newcomers will see that this content is allowed in a large community, without knowing that people are blocking them and not interacting with their posts. And by staying subscribed, I add to that community.

It is your choice to moderate the community the way you see fit. If you know of any alternatives that do have stricter moderation, I would certainly go there instead.

Now that this community has mods

Oh hey. Was Beep banned? Once it became clear they were just trolling and not simply an eccentric internet person I blocked them.

As for the question: If the comics themselves are not hateful or dog whistles for hate, I don't see a problem with posting the comic by itself. Just don't link to the artist's personal sites to give them traffic and maybe include a note about them in the body of the post.

Their newest account is not banned, but their old one is.

lemmy.world/post/45480511 gives a better explanation as to why.

Edit: Link was being goofy

I'm opposed to a ban except for the most outrageous stuff. Let people downvote what they don't like.

We personally agree in removing their comics, though should never remove credits even to a bigoted artist. We personally would rather not like a comic and it’s from a transphobic bigot -a fellow trans person

I would say don’t supply transphobes with free exposure and would option for the third option. Though checking and controlling for the political views of each artist may be too much work to put onto the mod team and would have to be on the poster.

Personally I am also biased against transphobes and would love it, if they would not be posted at all.

Fourth option: Just limit the comics posted to those that are not transphobic/racist/sexist/other shitty discrimination thing.

The author might have shitty views and maybe they expressed them, but as far as the rules go it would be better to just moderate the posted content than whether or not the artist also has shitty stuff that may or may not be current and relevant. I would rather the posters be encouraged to not post content from terrible people, but if an artist was fine until they suddenly exposed a shitty view does all of their prior work retroactively become problematic? If they were terrible two decades ago are they permanently terrible?

It is complex enough that the posted content being moderated instead of the artist's non-posted content is a better approach in my opinion. I am definitely in favor of comments explaining an artist has other shitty art too, because that is good to know and might influence how posted art is interpreted, but it doesn't mean everything the artist made is tainted.

I support this rule. If I see comics I enjoy I will often go look them up. It’s awful to dive into a new comic and find hateful content that I didn’t expect. Prohibiting comics from known hateful bigots would help avoid that.

I'm against censorship, but I'm pro for curated content. I would be happy to make a rule in which after reaching a certain amount of downvotes, a post has to be removed. I also think it is reasonable to ban someone if they consistently post content that keeps getting downvoted. This is no different than spamming or trolling.

PieFed has offered a full suite of these features for years now, as have some 3rd party apps.

e.g. not only does it offer automatic removal of content (posts or comments) based on downvotes, but it can alternatively collapse it based on a different, more lenient threshold, requiring an additional click to see it.

There are also keyword filters, and what I like most are the visual icons placed next to certain usernames - this does not "filter" their content but does let me see what I am getting into, so that I know e.g. that replying is probably not going to turn out like I may have hoped.

All of the above puts both the control and also the responsibility into the hands of the end-user, without requiring that a mod team constantly do extra work for other people. Which among other things will necessarily involve a delay before community rules can be applied.

I hate this book burning mentality. It's not because the person is bad that the content is nessarly bad. Like, if war and peas's author turned out to be transphobic, would that automatically turn all of their comics bad?

Although it doesn't mean that hate and bigoted comics shouldn't be banned. That part is the actual offensive part.

And removing credits is actually scummier than posting bigoted comics imo

For reference, this is not to shill those persons. I'm literally trans and bi. I'm actually concerned with what those are artists are against.

This isn't book burning. This is more like we're refusing to print and distribute more copies of their books for them.

You know, the books the Nazis burned were from the library of Magnus Herschfeld, the director of the Berlin Sexology Institute. He was gay, and much of the library was ABOUT queerness, and transgender studies.

The comic strips we're talking about aren't being destroyed. But a lot of trans people in the world are, and they risk themselves simply by being who they are.

That is more worthwhile than access to edgy comics on a public forum like this. Better that far-right stuff gets blocked, than trans people getting burned.

It's okay for a forum to have a political position. I'd prefer it to be left of center.

no. I have a block button if I don't like how a person submits. why would I want this type of thing done at the community level? Ultimately its the federation so it won't matter as there are other comic communities.

why would I want this type of thing done at the community level?

I have an RSS feed for my unfiltered comics.

I read here for the community.

I don't use rss but I agree im here for community engagement but not for community censorship.

I don't think propaganda is a matter of personal responsibility. I think we should protect other people from propaganda, not just ourselves.

See to you its propaganda. From your viewpoint. You should not be making that call for others. You are not protecting them you are inflicting your way of thinking on them. They are not defenseless. They can block for themselves. This for me comes down to a thing I have not talked about in a awhile but what I would like to see in the federation. I would like no defederation or unreversable domain blocking. Im fine if it blocks stuff by default but I should be able to go into my user config and turn off any of the default blocking. I, and others, should have 100% control of our experiences and it should not be dictated by others.

They can block for themselves. This for me comes down to a thing I have not talked about in a awhile but what I would like to see in the federation. I would like no defederation or unreversable domain blocking.

This will never ever happen.

I don't think its completely impossible but I totally realize its highly unlikely. never know though. that is the magic of community things as you never know who will take up something. imma peanut gallery though but it surprises me how many folks prefer some sort of on high authority over individual control on something like this. How can anarchist principles work if they can't even work in 100% virtual and grass roots community endeavour?

It is 100% impossible lol. Rimu won't do it. Lemmy devs won't do it.

I don't know them well enough to know that but they are not the alpha and the omega of all things free/libre or social media. Ten years ago I would not even imagine something like this is now would exist.

You can speculate another platform might come up that some hardcodes in it the impossibility to deplatform other instances, but all I'm saying is that Lemmy and Piefed will not do it.

But even then, it's a stretch because the tools required to remove seriously illegal content are the part of the same tools that would function as defederation tools. So it probably can't be hardcoded out.

this is not about coding. I don't want the code to make it impossible. I had a longer discussion with someone else that fleshes it out more but its more about general policy. defederation certainly has to be possible because of laws and liability.

Well there will always be instances that defederate almost nothing. There are now.

yeah. that basically goes with what I like. I do hope the software allows for more and more nuance with control of content for the user though. Like I blocked a domain and found out that blocks basically all the users and all the communities from the domain. I am holding out hope those will be seperated out so you can block users and communities seperately. I think many improvements will come because some amazing people have already done some amazing things.

Wait so let's say a bunch of pedophiles make a Lemmy instance at the url child.porn. If you have an account on My instance, and I've defederated child.porn, you want the option to override defederation and view their posts from My server?

sorry. the one exception to defederation (which can't be reversed like blocking) is legal reasons.

What if it's an ambiguous case where I think the content is illegal but you don't?

The legality of content is not based on what one person thinks or another. It either is or isn't but the domain owner ultimately has to make the call based on the coutnry they are in and their interpretation of the law.

Well I'll give you an example. My instance defederated fedinsfw because they have a community that's called fauxbait. Faux jailbait. Faux child porn that looks like adult porn.

According to the laws of Australia, fake child porn is still child porn. So I defederated them. Some people agree, some people disagree. Do you think I have the right to make that call?

Now let's say I decide that Hexbear's habit of sending pictures of filthy porcine testicles to people they don't like is harassment. Can I defederate them?

Let's say I think lemmy.world has too much transphobia (because it's the biggest instance and they don't have enough mods), and that's illegal hate speech. Can I defederate them?

Fun fact: lemmy.world hosts its servers in Nederland, where it's illegal to promote illegal activity. Can they defederate dbzer0 for promoting piracy?

Fact is, every instance hosts illegal content. You've got an excuse for every single instance, except the tiny ones with next to no users. So I don't go by laws. I go by My ethics. I think fedinsfw and Hexbear are too much. Lemmy.world has a lot of problems, but I think it's as good as it is bad. Same for dbzer0. It's an ethical judgement call. That's what I use defederation for.

You defederated. So you own or administer the instance. There is a law in your country and you deem the other instance breaks that law. Its exactly what I wrote before. For hexbear you should have a default block. Users should be able to go to the blocklist and enable it. I am assuming your comment its illegal hate speech means there is a law against it in your country for the transphobia and its your call. the nederland example its the same. if its owner sees it as a illegal in their country and thus exposes them to being arrested. You defederate. You can't control the laws and folks have the ability to move a more permissive instance. I don't think every instance hosts illegal content. Potentially it could but its a lot like in the us violating the constitution. If an individual who works for the government does it and the agency stops it and remediates its not an issue. But if the administration has a policy of its agencies doing it. Then its a constitutional crises. Similarly someone can post something illegal but mods remove it or such. No one should be jumping on the defederate hammer for that. But a community is not being moderated and the instance owners can either remove the posts themselves or remove the defunct community. Now an instance does not make any attempt to remove illegal content and its rampant. Then other instance owners need to protect themselves by defederating if whatever it is is illegal in their country. You can do every X, Y, Z gotcha scenario you want but it comes down to due diligence and good judgement and the law.

I have simply blocked a certain user who uploaded a lot of stuff I didn't like. It was just one user uploading the same type of comic over and over.

I think the problem with this kind of thing is that a new user coming by doesn't get the benefit of all those blocks you accumulate. For you, it's a curated forum of comics. For them, it's a stream of whatever content wholesale.

What that usually means is that users who don't like it don't stick around, and users that do, stay. That's how communities slide in different directions.

At least with Stonetoss (the one I'm familiar with), if I'd seen their comics here when I came to the platform, I would have simply left because I am aware of what type of audience consumes that person's comics. You can guess the type that sticks around.

Fair point

No thank you to censorship.

you can leave

If I leave, that doesn't help me see the things you want to censor. If you leave, that does help you not see the things you don't want to.

Weird.

Thank you for your constructive input on this discussion

I personally don't care about who the comic comes from, as long as the comic itself is cute, relatable, funny, etc.

Consider this: Individual people are not atoms, but complex entities made of many parts. You know what's also complex and made of many parts? The internet. Now certainly there's some bullshit coming from the internet. Does that mean that you reject everything that comes from the internet? Probably not.

But it's the same with an individual person.

Hello Grail@multiverse.soulism.net, thank you for sticking around during our transitionary period with us new mods. Keep in note, Lemmy has a report function, and we do see the reports concerning artist's like Jago and those who post these comics.

At the moment, the best thing you can do is Report them, and give a good explanation as to why they broke the rules.

Yes the report button is great and helps mods a lot, but the issue is that at the moment I don’t see any rule a comic would violate when it is as the op describes safe and relatable but made by an outspoken transphobe. The question seems to be do we need or want a rule against supporting transphobia indirectly by giving the artist free cloud. Because removing the artist name is a violation of the communities rules.

Anthropologists observe societies, writing about them dispassionately and adopting a non-interference, non-judgement policy.

At some point a group of academics decided they wanted to include moral discussions (particularly about their own society), on how things come to be a certain way, and how they could develop differently. Thus Sociology was born.

Anthropology still exists, Sociology eclipsed it, it didn't kill it. They're aspects of each other, not in competition.

This is the censorship debate in a nutshell. A community picks a side, and the other side is free to branch off. The choices here are: Comics can be anything, even 3D printed gun files, or porn! No limits! We're all here to just observe.

Or; we need to advocate some limits, some values. Some values are better for the world, and some are worse.

I believe the no-limits crowd have the less considered standpoint. No group is free from having standards and values. We already moderate, it's the nature of social groups with implicit rules and ideals.

In my opinion, we're here to do more than just observe the chaos. We adopt a stance. Improving the world as best we can. So we must decide what improves it, and what doesn't.

I don't think totally uncensored free speech improves the world. It still imposes a set of values that impact the world - even if advocates pretend that no choice has been made.

I am a firm believer in "There is no better disinfectant than sunlight."

I want to see the most vile aspects of people, I want it to be on full display so we know who they are, and we can counter them directly.

I think the algorithm has done a MASSIVE amount of damage by cordoning things off and creating little pockets of filth festering in darkness out of view until it overflows and spills out on us all.

You're mistaken in thinking "The Algorithm" is some objective equation. I can't stress this enough -

It's not.

It's a lever, a programatic tool billionaires can adjust to control public opinion. What's more there's evidence of this. Internal leaks from Facebook/Meta reported that they were fully aware certain types of commercial beauty standard promotions embeded in social media in an unmoderated fashion on their sites were inadvertently causing young girls to display suicidal ideation.

They didn't stop it (because of the ad profit). There's a whole two part podcast on this (and other forms of confirmed algorithmic damage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIR0Kd27RhI).

Likewise, YouTube prior to Trump's election were very much aware that their algorithm was leading young men through a pipeline to far-right ideas and Nazi content (again, this podcast episode discusses the news and facts of this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IekScPTekz8)

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, the idea that Sunlight will disinfect our views, is no-longer (and I believe the sources cited in those two podcasts show this), is no longer a viable opinion. It's really an abdication to a higher power, without anywhere NEAR enough awareness of what that "higher power" really is: A loaded version of free speech, where the richest promote and demote views that best suit their interests.

I'm not saying I have a solution, but it's really fucking important that we all strongly recognize the gravity and extent of the problem. Because people are now growing up in, and entire social circles are being actively politically groomed by these algorithms in a way that's never happened to this extent before.

The free market of ideas is a convenient LIE which benefits the wealthy and most people do not push back on at all (they see it as objective and impartial). We need far left radicalism but there are no billionaires interested in allowing that into their algorithmically walled gardens - where they control the "sunlight" of what your feed thinks is popular.

They aren't accusing the left of indoctrinating the young because it was happening. They were accusing them, because they were doing it themselves already, algorithmically.

The "indoctrination" is just another Satanic Panic, the dumbest things you have ever heard being repeated enough by "trusted" sources it becomes fact to them.

It's Meta and Xitter now, though, not James Dobson on AM radio.

the algorithm has done a MASSIVE amount of damage by cordoning things off and creating little pockets of filth festering in darkness out of view until it overflows and spills out on us all.

This describes how society in general has handled all vices, since long before the Internet.

Sadly accurate, but it has been wilful ignorance, now it is enforced by what the machines think we want to see.

I think it is worse now, than before, it was a lot easier to pick up that "other" newspaper than it is to break out of your algorithm.

now it is enforced by what the machines think we want to see.

The Machines aren't operating of their own accord. They're being told what to show, to who, and when. Someone sets those rules for the algorithm and updates them periodically for profit.

As I said in my longer comment, it's not machines doing objective and unbiased calculations, it's political. A billionaire constructed echo chamber we all now live in. The aim is sometimes to profit and keep us addicted, other times it's to promote candidates who share Billionaire's profit motive. But it's never an objective democratic analysis.

We have to always be mindful of who is pulling the levers and why, and that's the truth of it.

True, when they had humans working for them it wasn't so bad, there was variance in how they responded to the company position and they could think rather than follow a checklist.

I firmly disagree. “The way to stop Nazism is to let them talk more and let more people see a bunch of Nazi stuff” can be judged as nonsense by inspection.

That isn't how this works.

It doesn't start with the most vile filth. It starts with slightly edgy jokes, employs irony, and works slowly towards getting you to believe whatever racist slop they're selling. "The alt right playbook" was a youtube series from like a decade ago that covers some of this. I don't usually like youtube videos, but that one I make an exception for.

And yet the pipeline works because it's an "inside" thing, the more people who see and recognize the dog whistles the less likely it is to spread with people remaining unaware that is is.

I'm happy to just skip the work of bigots, and have mostly blocked the users who routinely post that stuff.

That saif, if we're going to remove credit with intent, i have a request:

let's be clear and cedit "some random bigot", so I'll know i might not want to seek out the artist.

My fear with banning artists who have made bigoted comics is how that relates to older comics. For example I really enjoy those Jucika strips, but given their age I wouldn't be that surprised if the original artist had some opinions that we wouldn't tolerate today.

Regardless of my fear, I'm more concerned with having a space that's welcoming to all people and I'm well aware of the "Nazi bar" problem. So I would come down on having a ban list of bigoted creators that aren't welcome here.

Fuck No. Just downvote and comment about it. If the comic itself is bigoted, then yes, please let the mods delete it. I don't want the fediverse to turn into a highly regulated pile of garbage. This is how bureaucracy creeps in and we have enough of that shit already.

Edit: I like the idea of posting the name so people can filter and call them out.

personally don't care what the content is. if it's good content it'll get upvoted. if it's bad it'll get downvoted.

set Autobot to prune anything with more than 100 downvotes. the end.

let the community figure out what's good and bad. don't put that evil on the mods. they have enough work dealing with shitty comments.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2214080120

How does removing the leadership of online hate organizations from online platforms change behavior in their target audience? We study the effects of six network disruptions of designated and banned hate-based organizations on Facebook, in which known members of the organizations were removed from the platform, by examining the online engagements of the audience of the organization. We show that on average, the network disruptions reduced the consumption and production of hateful content , along with engagement within the network among audience members. The results suggest that strategies of targeted removals, such as leadership removal and network degradation efforts, can reduce the ability of hate organizations to successfully operate online .

mods here refuse to remove racist zionist genocider comments, I'm not surprised they are transphobic too

Please, instead of blocking individual posters, let us have tags. Tags are more reliable. We need to filter the content, not the persons.

Posting something hated universally is subject to be made into the rules, like Nazi stuff. But transphobic stuff is different. People have different values, or if you don't like that, different preferences. Posting something transphobic, as long as it's not harming the society, and only be self-expressing, that shouldn't be blocked. That's his or her right to express the feeling or what he or she valued.

If you think I am wrong, please link to some examples here and I can elaborate if I think it's appropriate. To get on the same page is hopefully the goal.

posting something hated universally is subject to be made into the rules, like nazi stuff

Even that is not "hated universally" (see neonazis and white supremacists). Do you also think we should be inclusive of racist stuff?

as long as it's not harming the society

It is harming trans people, who are part of society.

Ah yes let's censor another community and create yet another safe space instead of acting like adults and simply ignoring content we disagree with.

On this day in the year of our lord 2026 let it be so! Self regulation doesnt stand a chance against the might of thoughtcrime censorship and virtue signaling!

/s grow up people. Don't like stonetoss? Don't read it. Scroll on. Don't limit the rest of us because you never learned to control your own reactions.

I believe having no-rules is a choice that damages the world, when the aim should be to improve it. After all: If you choose no-rules, you're choosing extremism; 3D printed guns might be comics, lolicon, violent porn, and hate groups.

Society is built on moderating the few for the good of the many. Currently the few that need moderation are alt-right billionaires, and corrupt rightwing officials. It's okay for the community to agree with this, and adopt that fact as a viewpoint (which means protecting trans people, and being open to the economic left).

You speak about improving the world, but how can that be your aim when youre limiting the thoughts your chosen few are allowed to think? Censure in thought is blindness in action. You can't grow socially without having your thoughts questioned and your beliefs tested. The only thing you have left after a while is obedience, and obedience is death to true growth.

Testing limits is how people define themselves. You dont know who you really are until you start finding lines you can't cross. Those borders define who you are and who you have the capacity to become.

I was never a fan of furries. Trying to fuck an animal is despicable behavior that should be unquestionably eradicated. Then I pushed my own boundaries because someone I care about took a minute to explain their interest to me. People dont want to fuck animals. They just want to make weird art. And that's fine. But you need to find where that line is for yourself to understand how to feel about new things.

All this is to say that questionable content is essential for personal growth, and eliminating that content from a community does nothing to improve it. So you dont like stonetoss. Fine. Don't post them. But dont force everyone to not post them because you personally dont like it. Just because you've found your line doesnt mean there isnt someone else who still needs to find theirs.

You don't like how a community self-moderates, or the views it goes by, then you're free to construct an alt-right battleground comic strip community as an alternative.

But some of us like to have nice things and nice places, without mistaking furries and beastiality.

You want personal political growth? Go join a political debate sub, or learn philosophy and history. There are places for the battlelines, where you can learn these lessons, and then there are places where we uphold the rewards of the good, the right, and the true.

NOT the edgy. "Edgy" is called that, specifically because it's on the edge of what's socially unacceptable. It's the political battlefront of the Overton window. Well, not everyone wants that everywhere, all the time.

You believe this is the venue for it. I don't want it to be. I'm not on the frontline of some alt-right culture war right now. I seek to be among friends in safe spaces.

If you seek alt-right, edgy comedy, and far-right spaces, you should go do that somewhere else... Or at the very least, if that's not your jam... Then don't advocate on their behalf here.

Its funny how you've latched onto alt right viewpoints as your touchstone. I know I've mentioned stonetoss a few times, as does the OP, but stonetoss doesnt matter. Its not about alt right or hard left or anything in-between. Its about freedom of expression.

Would you have censored Kathy Griffin when she was a media black sheep because it caused too many political discussions? How about blocking any comics with depictions of Mohammed because it deeply offends Islamic people? You know what, let's block any comic depicting nazis or KKK robes because that could be upsetting to some people. Fuck it, might as well ban any political commentary at all because some parties might feel uncomfortable.

I dont give a shit about your pedestal youre trying to build. "The good, the right, and the true" sounds like an SS ubermench recruitment line. You have neither the authority nor the perspective to determine right, good, or true for anyone besides yourself. You aren't looking for a safe space. You want an echo chamber to masturbate your ego.

Part of comedy is the unexpected and the uncomfortable. Its the great bridge that allows socially "unacceptable" ideas to be reframed and relit in a way that fosters discussion and thought. I think you may need to look somewhere besides comics if you dont want to risk being uncomfortable.

Lets see, the hard right are the substrate of economic and political inequalities across the board. So when idiot centrists peddle this "it's not about left or right" crap, they're really just saying they're either completely politically, historically, and sociologically uninformed, OR they're just saying "Yes, I'm a fascist".

So which is it with you? Have you just never paid attention to the history of politics and society, or are you just some rightwing douche posing as a centrist?

Actually, as a native American, I have some inkling as to the effects of politics and society with special emphasis on how silencing minority voices does little to foster growth or equity.

When I say its not about the left or right, what i mean is that its all the same fucking bird shitting all over this beautiful land regardless of which wing youre looking at.

Silencing opinions that do not agree with the party line is fascist behavior. I know you tankies dont like hearing about how friendly father joe was just as bad if not worse than actual Hitler, but thems the beans. Its historic fact.

So build your echo chamber and tell yourself its okay because only you have the right way.

Okay, so you're a dumb ass. Observe:

When I say its not about the left or right, what i mean is that its all the same fucking bird shitting all over this beautiful land regardless of which wing youre looking at.

Oh yeah, "left and right don't matter"? So left and right are equally as likely to be environmentalists are they? Dumb ass much?

Silencing opinions that do not agree with the party line is fascist behavior.

Oh yeah, "left" and "right" are party names are they? No, they're not. They're broad indicators which no party actually accomplishes or lives up to when in power, because to get into power you need to be a corrupt right leaning Capitalist, because that's the ideology of those who fund campaigns and want to avoid taxes and break democracy/laws.

You obviously don't know this, but the current tech bro elite literally want to get rid of democracy because it risks them paying taxes or suffering consequences.

So build your echo chamber

What the fuck do you think ruling class Capitalism is? You're a confused son of a bitch aren't you? Claiming you want to foster equality and, then accusing others of being tankies just for fucking pointing out the ruling classes lean right at heart because it gives them more room to beat people down.

Like, what kind of dumb ass thinks both sides are as bad as each other, then complains that the environment isn't being taken care of? and that we need to foster more equality? OH YEAH, THOSE ARE RIGHTWING GOALS ARE THEY?

No, they're NOT. Fascism is Capitalism's immune system. It's what money does to protect its interests. Most of the overt pollution and corruption is due to moneyed powers. One "side" has more inclination to go against that.

The other side has money and a disregard for environmentalism.

Anyways, thanks for letting us know that you're a dumb ass. Like I said "both-siders" and "everyone gets a say" type "centrists" are really just endorsing the status quo, and right wing ruling class fascism. You endorse the pollution, corruption, destruction, all of it.

how friendly father joe was just as bad if not worse than actual Hitler,

By the way, you're wrong on this too... Because you live in a rightwing Capitalist/Fascist echo chamber, so sophisticated in cultural manipulation, that you've been subtly indoctrinated.

Stalin was a relatively insulated leader, he was horrible in that he didn't really care about the conditions of others as long as he was well fed, and drunk.

Most of the deaths in the USSR were a product of Lysenkoism, rather than ideological Communism. Lysenkoism also spread to China, as Wikipedia states here:

Lysenko forced farmers to plant seeds very close together since, according to his "law of the life of species", plants from the same "class" never compete with one another.[45] Lysenko's ideas and practices contributed to lower agricultural yields in the Soviet Union throughout the late 1930s until his downfall in the mid-1960s.[10] Lysenko's ideas found influence in China for several years, from the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, through 1956, when a genetics conference in Qingdao spurred the resumption of genetics teaching and research in the country.[12] The Atlantic writer Sam Kean contends that Chinese agricultural methods utilized in the late 1950s were inspired by Lysenko, and contributed to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959 to 1962.[45]

Trofim Lysenko lied about his results and crop yeilds to stay in place (and well fed) as the Agricultural Minister, as the famine closed in.

Even if we look at the USSR's Gulag system, they pale in comparison to Hitler's extermination camps. Of the 18 million Soviet citizens that went through the Gulag system, only 1.5 million died. The vast majority walked out of Gulags alive. Comparing that to places like Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobiber (Hitler's 3 major extermination camps), and the horrors of Auschwitz, Mauthausen, or Trawniki... And your statement becomes patently ridiculous to anyone who knows history and has studied these subjects.

Here's a primer on Lysenkoism in the form of a podcast if you want to learn in an easy manner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t05d8MPzfvs

...and what I've said here in no way endorses Stalin, or Stalinism, or claims he was a great leader. I wrote all of this merely to say how incredibly incorrect the claim you've made is. Hitler's regime was far worse, and as anyone whose seen the 2001 movie Conspiracy which was based on the transcripts of the 1942 Wannsee Conference (where the Holocaust was planned), the deaths under Hitler's regime were far far more intentional.

Move along, this isn't a safe space for hate.

It's not a safe space for censorship either. Why should we all put up with that oglaf shit? Because this is a space for sharing comics. Not Ally comics, not Trans friendly comics, not even cherry picked non-discriminatory comics. Its just for comics, inclusive.

of you don't like it, you can leave

The irony that you threw the biggest whiney, snowflake, pussy ass comment saying to ignore things you don't like and move on with your day is 😙👌

Speaking out against censorship is exactly the same thing as saying I should mind my business and move along. Yep. That's why the first amendment is all about "keep your mouth shut and do what youre told to do". I always forget.

Censorship is not the correct word for what you are referring to. That is when someone is silenced. Hateful messaging being the subject of removal is something to be thankful about. It is pure folly to invoke the snowflake argument again at this hour on this platform: One can just skim recent history to learn that the hateful also are the ones concerned with virtue, as if briefly examining themselves amid a storm of deflection. The built in manufactured maturity complex should be a warning sign to consult a doctor, or the hate surely will ruin the last shreds of joy inside. At that point the right to ask why you feel like shit all the time pass by and that tipping point is the pipeline that feeds the oligarchy