keiths
Posts: 2195
Joined: Jan. 2006
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petrushka/midwifetoad:
| Quote | | If it's incorrect, but represents a person's sincere belief, it qualifies for Lizzie's version of protected speech. |
You're confused about the actual issue here.
This dispute has nothing to do with whether Swamidass violated the rules or whether his statements are "protected speech" at TSZ. For one thing, he made his statements at Peaceful Science, not at TSZ, so the TSZ rules do not apply. Second, it isn't just sincere statements that are protected at TSZ. Insincere statements and outright lies are also protected. They're not desirable, of course, and Lizzie doesn't encourage them, but they aren't prohibited by the rules. It's easy to see why. The endless moderation kerfuffles are bad enough as it is. Just imagine what it would be like if the the moderators could guano statements merely because they considered them to be false!
So the rules -- for good reason -- don't punish false statements, whether deliberate or not. Yet they do punish people who truthfully point out another commenter's dishonesty.
Dishonesty hinders discussion and makes it less productive. It's a good thing when dishonesty is pointed out publicly, because that's generally unpleasant for the dishonest person, and it tends to discourage future lying. (Alan clearly didn't enjoy having his lies pointed out in this thread.)
People who truthfully point out dishonesty are doing a service to TSZ. The rule punishes them for it and thereby encourages more dishonesty. It's a bad rule.
You seem to like the rule. But in any case, whether or not you happen to like the rule, it's irrelevant to the current dispute. I did not accuse a fellow commenter of lying, so I did not violate the rule. I did not accuse the commenter 'swamidass' of lying. I accused Joshua Swamidass of Peaceful Science of lying. The fact that he made his real life identity easy to discover was his doing, not mine. I did not link the two.
My original OP did not violate any rules. I modified it anyway, removing the accusation of lying. The moderators still refused to publish it, and Alan suspended me for 30 days, despite the fact that I had violated no rules.
Abuses don't get much more blatant than that. Alan knows he can't defend his behavior, so he's running away from the discussion.
Edited by keiths on Sep. 13 2018,09:25
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And the set of natural numbers is also the set that starts at 0 and goes to the largest number. -- Joe G
Please stop putting words into my mouth that don't belong there and thoughts into my mind that don't belong there. -- KF
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