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Am I permanently banned from Discord?

Started by October 11, 2017 03:19 PM
4 comments, last by jpetrie 7 years, 1 month ago

Hey guys, I just got banned from Discord by @Promit

First off, the direct reason why I got banned was because I, out of frustration, copy-pasted a link of the global IQ average. I did this because @Promit kept asking me about it, in fact "giving me an ultimatum" (as he put it himself), in spite of me already having linked it once. This was after a heated debate about work hirings and racism in employment, which led to talking about race and how education, IQ and other things affect the outcome of employment.

Secondly, he told me to stop talking about the issue and I did, upon which he then continued the debate and baited me. And yes, I should've kept my mouth shut and just let him rant away, but I didn't. Because I was upset about the fact that he defamed me by calling me a racists and literally starting a fight.

Yes, I am perfectly aware of the fact that The Bell Curve is a controversial book (even though people like Sam Harris and others have claimed that the content is completely uncontroversial among neuroscientists) and that IQ factors in only minimally in determining a person's qualifications for a job. But I have made no other claims. This is an vile, defamatory assumption made by @Promit based on how he interpreted the pure semantics of my statements, believing it to be alt-right nonsense.

Let me be perfectly clear that, when I judge people's merits, I judge them based on their actually individual, demonstrable qualities. I don't give a rats ass about their gender, color of skin or what have you. It's NOT MY FAULT that scientists around the globe have agreed on the fact that IQ varies between people. It's NOT MY FAULT that IQ is a scientifically valid concept, and not considered pseudo-science by consensus. And ALL I DID with this data was to point out the simple, logical fact that, if a given test groups average IQ matters, then we should probably look deeper into it. Instead of pretending that it doesn't. I don't even have an opinion as to whether IQ matters or not, BUT EVERY GODDAMN psychologist that I've ever talked to have told me that it is.

Yes, I accept responsibility for taking this too far. But if people here believe that @Promit was without blame here, then you have my resignation from this community. Otherwise, I hope you'll have a hard talk with this guy and, if need be, revoke his moderator access. Because quite frankly, I'm disgusted by him at this point. This was basically him bait-and-switching me into going apeshit on him.

To @Promit:
Congrats, you won "slow clap". Might I suggest that you link the whole transcript as is, and show it to other moderators, and that you actually discuss it, instead of reacting emotionally and personally, like you did. Notice how I did virtually nothing but defend myself against accusations, here.

To Discord:
I suggest that you guys get a mute button in cases where people are, in emotional moments, prevented from speaking for, say, 1 hour (or 1 day). Yes, I know it's not your job to babysit people, but afaik I got a fairly clean Discord record and I honestly think it's overkill to perma-ban people who has a different opinion than a moderator (if that was even the case, which it wasn't in this situation - because I HAVE TO DAMN OPINION on the matter). Yes, I've been stubborn in the past, but I like to think that I've always shut up when moderators have put the foot down. And I'm aware of my issue and try not to even enter these debates.

Thanks.

1 minute ago, Madolite said:

First off, the direct reason why I got banned was because I, out of frustration, spammed a link the the global IQ average. I did this because @Promit kept asking me about the data, in spite of me already having linked it once. This was after a heated debate about work hirings and racism in employment, which led to talking about race and how education, IQ and other things affect the outcome of employment.

The reason you were banned was that you were:

  • Pursuing an avenue of argument based on repeatedly asserting facts without providing backup or justification, and responding in a belittling fashion when asked to provide those facts (or simply ignoring those requests); this is not arguing in good faith, and is not appropriately respectful of the other members of this community.
  • Taking overtly racist positions in your arguments. I should not have to explain that racism is not something we tolerate here.
  • Yes, the last straw was your extremely childish, rude attempt to spam the channel with a link to a website about global IQ averages. This would not be enough to ban you on its own, but in along with the above? Yes, you were banned.

Your ban will not be permanent, it will be revoked in ~8 hours or so (since we can't make bans expire automatically in Discord). 

We're not going to bring the argument itself into this thread. I will not lock it (yet), but I will instead issue a warning to everybody that any attempts to engage in, or to continue, the actual substance of the argument (basically anything the original post's third or forth paragraph) will be removed.

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(Moved to CSI.)

Just now, jpetrie said:

The reason you were banned was that you were:

  • Pursuing an avenue of argument based on repeatedly asserting facts without providing backup or justification, and responding in a belittling fashion when asked to provide those facts (or simply ignoring those requests); this is not arguing in good faith, and is not appropriately respectful of the other members of this community.

True, I responded in a belittling fashion because I, in the moment, thought @Promit accusations of me being racist, just because my statements happen to semantically coincide with how some Alt-Right bigots defend their racism. I was trying to explain to Promit how "the cause behind a statement" and "the statement itself" is two different things.

I will, however, take responsibility for my tone of voice and refrain from this in the future.


  • Taking overtly racist positions in your arguments. I should not have to explain that racism is not something we tolerate here.

I disagree. I didn't take any position at all, during this discussion. I simply shared a piece of fact, a piece that may very well, as @Promit pointed out, be incorrect. But it's still a factual claim, one that either has a source or not. I provided the short-hand source by linking the Bell Curve book and this link: https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country (first result in google).

But to clarify and reiterate, I'm not implying here that Google and Wikipedia are valid sources, nor am I disregarding your point and my reasons for being banned. Those are fine, as long as it's not permanent.
 

  • Yes, the last straw was your extremely childish, rude attempt to spam the channel with a link to a website about global IQ averages. This would not be enough to ban you on its own, but in along with the above? Yes, you were banned.

Let me clarify what my whole goal was, on Discord, at that point. I was trying to address a deeper underlying problem with racism, one that is critically important to understand if we're ever going to get rid of racism in society. Now, I could explain what that deeper problem is, but I feel like today is not the right time. Suffice to say that, claiming that one isn't racist or claiming that one is against racism, does NOT exempt people from being racists themselves (albeit in less obvious ways).

Either way, 8 hourse is fine by me and I will certainly be more careful in the future. But just remember that, when you accuse someone of being a racist (or a rapist, or bigot, or anything, for that matter), you tend to get a reaction.

Anyways, thanks for the quick reply.




 

As I said, I am not interested in an attempt to re-hash the debate.

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