Good day all, in response to the increase in transphobia we’ve experience since the For Women Scotland v Scotland Supreme Court decision, seemingly a mix of genuine malice and people tripping up with a topic they’re unfamiliar with, I’ve taken the initiative to write some guidelines on how to engage in the topic and clearing up some common misconceptions.

https://guide.feddit.uk/politics/transphobia.html

I’m not all that happy with them, I want something more comprehensive but my time has been pretty taxed lately and I don’t want my perfectionism to stand in the way of having these out. If there’s any issues, glaring omissions or whatnot, then please let me know or make a pull request here.

  • flamingos-cant@feddit.ukOP
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    3 days ago

    A conservative forum is a forum run by conservatives for conservatives and limits itself to conservative positions, feddit.uk is demonstrably not this. Feddit.uk is not many things, it’s not a conservative forum, it’s not a socialist forum, it’s not a biking forum. It’s a general purpose discussion forum that can touch on topics like conservativism, socialism or biking. This is a descriptive not prescriptive statement and I don’t see how a reasonable person would describe this place differently. I’m not going to list all the things this place is not as that’s an infinity long list.

    Again, this place has always had rules on what isn’t allowed, including ‘no transphobia’. Polite bigotry is still bigotry, do you think we should allow race realists if they mind their Ps and Qs correctly? There are many who feel their bigotry — weather that be racism, sexism, homophobia — isn’t ‘unreasonable’, but even tolerant Britain doesn’t let them inject these believes wherever, social spaces like pubs and community events still limit what can take place in them. I don’t see why we should be more accepting of transphobia just because it’s more socially acceptable at the moment.

    ‘Philosophical discussion of trans issues’ is such a non-statment, say what you actually mean instead of hiding behind such meaningless rhetoric. The only things these guidelines ask you to do is not promote fear or hatred of trans people and that you aren’t allowed to say that a trans person’s gender identity is less valid than a cis person’s. These aren’t unreasonable asks and I wonder what reasonable ‘philosophical discussion’ this excludes, unless you’re just looking for ‘civil’ ways of calling a trans man a woman.

    • rah@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      A conservative forum is a forum run by conservatives for conservatives and limits itself to conservative positions

      Says who?! It can mean whatever you define it to mean. You’re just making stuff up, you’re no authority.

      It’s a general purpose discussion forum that can touch on topics like conservativism, socialism or biking.

      This is not the way you presented feddit.uk before. You seemed to be explicitly excluding conservativism.

      I’m not going to list all the things this place is not as that’s an infinity long list.

      Of course but I would point out that social conservativism is the dominant political philosophy in the UK so it would be odd and in fact misleading not to be up front about excluding conservativism in an instance that advertises itself as a general UK instance. Hence my concern.

      Polite bigotry is still bigotry, do you think we should allow race realists if they mind their Ps and Qs correctly?

      Most definitely. How else could such views be shown up for what they are using sound reason and subtle but devastating wit, as is the British way? (As opposed to sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and shouting “LA LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU UR DUMB I’MA BAN U”.)

      even tolerant Britain doesn’t let them inject these believes wherever, social spaces like pubs and community events still limit what can take place in them.

      I’m not sure what you’re trying to say with this but I would note that with one exception, all the racist people I’ve had the misfortune of encountering have been in pubs. And moreover, I wouldn’t want to spend time in any pub where any kinds of ‘certain’ discussions were outright prohibited.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jssqYTMf9E

      I don’t see why we should be more accepting of transphobia

      Debating isn’t the same thing as accepting.

      The only things these guidelines ask you to do is not promote fear or hatred of trans people and that you aren’t allowed to say that a trans person’s gender identity is less valid than a cis person’s.

      It seems you’ve changed your tune:

      1. In response to the question “The instance is never an appropriate context and any such discussion whatsoever is prohibited?”: “Yes, …”

      2. “It’s about protecting a vulnerable minority. … I don’t want this place to be a contributor to these statistics and I’m going to prioritise the safety of our trans users over some notion of neutrality.”

      And also, to be clear:

      3. In response to the question “if someone created a linguistic philosophy community on feddit.uk and in that community members held a discussion on ‘a trans person’s “I’m a man” as less than a cis person’s “I’m a man”’, is that prohibited or not?” which is about discussion of whether a trans person’s “I’m a man” is less than a cis person’s “I’m a man” and doesn’t necessarily imply saying anything one way or the other: “no [yes] as that’s pretty clearly …”

      I wonder what reasonable ‘philosophical discussion’ this excludes

      There’s plenty. Wouldn’t it be great if we created a place where such wonderings could be explored honestly without concern over being banned? What a pity that instead there’s a place of dullness, with rules motivated by fear.

      • flamingos-cant@feddit.ukOP
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        2 days ago

        A conservative forum is a forum run by conservatives for conservatives and limits itself to conservative positions

        Says who?! It can mean whatever you define it to mean. You’re just making stuff up, you’re no authority.

        It’s almost like I was saying what I mean by conservative forum.

        It seems you’ve changed your tune:

        1. In response to the question “The instance is never an appropriate context and any such discussion whatsoever is prohibited?”: “Yes, …

        It certainly looks like that when you cut my response off.

        I’m done with this discussion, you’re not engaging in good faith and what you want from this place stands at odds with what the majority of feddit.uk’s users want this place to be. There has always been action on bigotry, you failing to notice doesn’t mean this place was ever some free speech absolutist debate club.