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rebecca wilova's avatar

It bears saying that, from all appearances, and the naivety and earnestness of the words they’re using, that they’re white cisgender heterosexual Christian non disabled males. Conventional apex privileged people, in other words.

Such people tend to really really really don’t understand what harassment, persecution, or hate really are like and what it can result in. Just from what they’re saying.

Because yeah, the problems that you and others are bringing up are definitely not about “dialogue”.

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Dave Cassenti's avatar

I agree. That’s why Substack needs to take a more active role in content moderation as well. It’s much better to be proactive than reactive.

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Dave Cassenti's avatar

I agree that some content moderation is required for Notes, especially since Notes are sent to everyone. However I also believe that we, the users of Notes need to take some responsibility in blocking those who post content that we disagree with.

Just as an example, I blocked a Hitler-wannabe after seeing him post bigoted content on Notes, and start an argument with someone who disagreed with him. Once I did that, I haven’t seen any major speech that I disagreed with.

So, just low a boycott of a store or company, we, the users, need to take some responsibility in our own hands for content moderation, as well as pushing Substack towards their own content moderation standards.

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Noah Berlatsky's avatar

the issue isn't really avoiding speech you disagree with, is the problem. It's that sites can become places where people organize genocides. You want to avoid that!

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Apr 24, 2023
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Noah Berlatsky's avatar

I think there's probably a real ideological component. they also appear to be genuinely ignorant. but yeah, I think the financial incentives create a certain amount of motivated reasoning...

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Apr 22, 2023
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Noah Berlatsky's avatar

I've seen Hamish I think bristle when a suggestion is made that he's in it for the money.

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Amanda Miller's avatar

It seemed like he might actually be open to having a dialogue with you -- do you think you can penetrate his bubble? Is it possible to meet him where he is and plant a seed that would bear fruit, instead of putting him on the defensive to the point where he won’t listen? Thank you!

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Noah Berlatsky's avatar

hah; I'm probably not important enough for him to pay attention to me, alas.

a lot of people have made similar points in a range of ways, so he could certainly engage with someone if he wanted to. will he? idk.

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