Two questions there (and this is answered with my "official" hat on - my personal opinion differs, as you can imagine):

Nope, not at all - generally I try to limit personal insults, etc, but in these sorts of cases a bit of leeway is required. It's perfectly natural for people to become annoyed at bigoted posts, and I have no problem with people expressing this annoyance.

The only disclaimer (general disclaimer, this isn't something Ethel's done) I'll add is that it's not okay to respond to bigotry with bigotry - so try to stay away from anti-white statements, using neurological conditions as insults, and similar things.

One of the hardest things to do as a moderator is try to seperate "offensive" from "annoying". As long there's no bigotry involved, those sorts of posts are extremely annoying, but not something that any sort of official action can be taken against. If there is, please report it - there's been some recent developments that mean taking official action has become a much easier prospect...

Also, if it happens often out of context, I'd consider it to be a form of harassment - and that we can also take action against.

That being said, if someone's telling you you'll burn in hell, feel free to respond as stroppily as you like. *grins*

As it relates to bigotry, yes. In general, no. But if you tell someone out of context that they're going to hell, expect them to get annoyed about it.

Is that the same thing as "whoever is merciful to the cruel is cruel to the merciful?"   That is what one columnist wrote at the end of a piece about Israelis fighting terrorists.

Therefore, I logically conclude from this:

1.  No compassion or support for the supremacist to speak or be heard
2.  Forget about "freedom of speech" and "censorship is unAmerican"
3.  Admonish the supremacist always.
4.  The only question is how to admonish the supremacist, what language we are using, if it is overly harsh, uses the word Nazi, other loaded words?
5.  Can we avoid using loaded words and state the position without them?

Example:

Your above statement reflects Christianity's central belief that negatively denigrates the behavior of a group of people in the United States and around the world.  It is in violation of a cardinal rule on this blog system that no group of people must be denigrated or oppressed.  It might or might not reflect your own personal opinion, but simply stating the fact of a religious belief on this system is not allowed if it bothers some of our readers.  Because of this, we ask that no person or people initiate or respond to religious debate on this subject.  Please do not discuss this subject again.  If you discuss this subject again you will be suspended for 24 hours.


Good statement.  No name calling.  Says why we must not debate this, either bring it up or reply to it if anyone brings it up.  Promises a penalty if broken.

Or.....


Moderator in PM: Those white male statements got to go.  Are you a white male?

Yes.

Moderator:  It certainly is confusing.  The culture seems to say it is OK to put yourself down if you are a man, if you are white, even if you are a Christian.  Of course the culture would never tell a woman, an African American, or a Muslim to do that.  But we do have white guys on this board and they are Aspies, and self esteem is a problem on this board.  It is a problem that the culture has taught YOU to put YOURSELF down, and to put your PEERS down.  We can't let you put your PEERS down of course.  You have to stop doing that- the other white guys have feelings.   I know if you think about it a minute, you will understand.  Can you promise me this won't happen again?

1) Yes - not on this forum.
2) Freedom of speech does not apply to a privately owned website. And in an international forum, whether or not something's "Un-American" is irrelevant.
3) Only if you want to.
4) I said earlier that I have no problem with people expressing annoyance at bigoted posts as harshly as they like.
5) If you want to, but it's not required.

To clarify, the above two "moderator" statements above were the sort of free-association thing GuessWho does from time to time, and the statements in no way resemble any statements made by myself, CouldBe, Gareth, or any other moderator.

  Insert appropriate disclaimer here.  

How did my suggestions go over?

Not at all.  Just remember that your freedoms stop where others' start... we all have the right to follow whatever religion we like, as long as it doesn't lead to hurting ourselves or others, without being told we're wrong, deluded, primitive, or unsaved.  

Personally, I AM unAmerican.  I'm also unBritish, unCroatian and unHatian, to name a few.  I've not travelled much  

What suggestions?  That we're a bunch of anti-American censorship freaks?  yeah, that went down REALLY well.

Especially as AFF is a British-owned site, so technically so long as no-one insults Lizzie we're all good and still with our heads attached.

I am happy to see Max the Bear fight the forces of evil, and I had a boss at the Census Bureau who probably was eager to fight the KKK and lingering inequality.  But she went too far and became seduced by Power of the Dark Side.  She was only happy to see me fail and eventually leave, not succeed as a team member.  My existence threatened her self esteem.  (It was a petty question over education vs. pay grade but she was still working on a degree I already had, and that somehow escalated to a war over white class privilege over African Americans.  No one chooses his or her gender, race, or skin color or what social class he or she is born into.).

Let's not spend our energy fragging each other here too.

I want to suggest a response for the next homophobe too.

1.We don't.

2.Please - don't.

Yeah. Else we'll get Prince Charles and his flappy ears about yer.

Oh God, I've already been here long enough to have lost the energy to care. Apathy....strangling....weak....no light....

LOL! Ethel, even at your stroppiest, I love you!

That is not what I meant Ethel.  After watching Sicko I regarded Canada and Britain quite superior civilization compared to America.
I'm waiting for King George W. II to go back to Texas.

Chris, I have no idea what has yanked your chain on this White Males thing, but it might help if you just start a thread on it and not keep posting about it all overr the forum. That way people who want to read what you have to say on the subject can go to that thread and those who don't can skip it.