babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
This may be the worst comments section(Disqus administered)I've ever seen on this site
October 17, 2016 - 7:49pm
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/rabbleca/how_free_speech_was_used_as_...
This was a discussion of what happened at a Halifax Pride meeting, in which straight people took over the meeting to prevent the adoption of an anti-"pinkwashing" motion proposed by a LGBTQ Arab group.
In reaction to it, a Holocaust denier and a supposed "class struggle" supporter have tried to tie the question of dissenting about Israeli treatment of Palestinians to their revisionist(denialist) views on the Holocaust.
I've tried to stand up to them, but they won't stop.
Could really use some anti-fascist reinforcements here.
Having looked quickly through the thread, I will admit that I am impressed by your stamina Ken. But there is not enough time in this life to deal with Holocaust deniers - this is a case for quick and incisive moderator intervention, IMHO.
Or are there different rules of behaviour in the comments sections of Babble blogs?
Do you have a link to the actual article? I read it a few days ago, but can't find it again, as it is off the main page.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/nora-loreto/2016/10/how-free-speech-was-...
There do indeed seem to be different policies, or at least different people enforcing or failing to enforce any rules at all...for some reason, they've turned thr blog comments sections over to Disqus, and Disqus is notorious for not enforcing any particular rules over posts on the weekend.
As to my "stamina"...I have three grown stepchildren of Jewish ancestry. So I have to make sure this shit isn't left unchallenged. And I'm astonished that the mods haven't stepped in as of yet.
It is important to contact the mods about this, if not they have their hands full with stuff on this board. Turning the comments over to Disqus was a disaster - there are people banned here who are active over there, including rightwingers who are against medicare (though they are careful about how they frame that) and climate change deniers, among other things such as antisemites and other racists, homophobes, garden-variety misogynists etc.
I flagged every post, have pm'd one of our Babble mods, contacted the Rabble site admins.
Will now contact Disqus directly.
BTW, lagatta, I tried to send you a pm about this. Did you get it?
No, for some reason it wasn't flagged, so I didn't know I had a new message. I have it now, and certainly agree. The troll at Karl Nerenberg's blog about Trump's lies about the Canadian healthcare system was BOASTING about he had already been banned here (he was also a climate denier, a poor-basher and perhaps other nasty things). I flagged him all over the place as counter to rabble policy - one post where he called me a "communist" seems to have been deleted. At least he used a small c - I don't give a shit whether I'm called a socialist or a communist, but of course he is is not referring to the "commons" or even the Communist Manifesto but insinuating support to totalitarian régimes such as North Korea of all places... Ecosocialism draws on various strains of socialism, antistalinist communism and anarchism, somehow I don't think that is what he meant.
Lots of things are "socialised" or put in common in capitalist states anyway - roads, schools (at least to some extent) police and military, sewers, fire departments... I've never heard those people complaining about highways.
The issue is being dealt with. Thanks for the heads up Ken!
Thanks Meg. We know that the mods have a lot of work just with us babblers - without others who are wilfully flouting Rabble's Rules of Order...
Thanks for fighting the good fight Ken. I had read the original posting when it first went up and there was only a single, non-denial, comment below. Didn't realize we had sewage leaking in.
You're welcome, Meg. I just hope this leads to the Rabblearchy beginning to reconsider the decision to have Disqus run the blog comment threads.