We, the admin team, decry all forms of settler-colonialism, and we recognize that Zionism is a pro-settler-colonialist position.
Therefore we propose that should no longer be accepting of any Zionist accounts on our instances.
Please upvote for agree, downvote for disagree.
Note: we only count votes by instance members of dbzer0 and anarchist.nexus, plus a few vouched-for external users.
Hi mateys, I’ve kept things simple in the above text, for brevity, but in fact it took the admin team quite a while to get to this stage. We have discussed the policy change extensively, and a variety of different perspectives emerged. I will attempt to sum them up below as best I can:
-
The “this isn’t that complicated” school of thought goes something like this: If someone is consistently posting comments that mirror Hasbara talking points (e.g. justifying the genocide in Gaza, consistently painting Palestinians as terrorists and Israel as the victim), then they should be instance banned. It’s just not acceptable for Zionists to be allowed on our instances.
-
The “slippery slope” / “purity test” school of thought is that banning people for having an “unpopular” political opinion would potentially mean banning half the fediverse, if more and more of these policies were enacted over time. To attempt to mitigate this we are keeping the scope of this rule as narrow as possible, and I also don’t think many of our users will be affected. Also, we typically don’t have frequent policy changes, and I have no reason to expect that to change moving forward.
-
Another important discussion point was “how do we decide whether someone is pro-Zionist or not?” We can’t always be 100% sure of someone’s true intentions, we can only go on what they have posted and that is subject to interpretation. I don’t feel there is an easy answer to this one, except to say that we would have to be pretty certain before issuing a perma-ban.
-
The “geopolitics don’t matter” school of thought is that trying to be on the “correct” side of every issue is kind of pointless because nothing that happens in lemmy chat forums will ever make an ounce of difference in the real world. Don’t bother moderating users over political/ideological differences, just let people argue if they want. While I can totally empathize with this sentiment, I can also see the case for taking a clear stance on this topic in accordance with our values and the overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause among our users. Personally, I am advocating in favor of the resolution.
Please add your comments below if you want to provide your own thoughts on the topic, or have any questions.
expiry: 7
I fixed it for you so it more closely aligns with your ideology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism
Thanks! I thought I was more afraid of trans kids committing suicide… but you’re right… I actually did mean that “subhuman” language! Who cares about trans kids dying as the population becomes more conservative? Thanks for correcting me!
Can’t (also won’t) argue with this logic.
did you really just use the “think of the children!” argument to justify bombing innocent kids?
you can’t make this shit up.
Yes, that was literally what I said. I literally typed “Oh, won’t someone please think of the children… so we can bomb innocent children.” It’s what I wrote… LITERALLY. Good job, reading comprehension A+
yes, that is what you said. don’t get sarcastic about it after the fact. your justification for supporting a genocide is hand wringing about what might happen to trans kids if you don’t. you pulled a “think of the children” to justify murdering children.
you are absolutely a horrible person and should be ashamed to have said something so incredibly vile and hateful.
Literal things I have typed prior your response above:
“International organizations have correctly labeled what has occurred a genocide and these organizations are not biased and are telling the truth.”
“My belief that Israel protects Jewish people does not mean that I support conservative Jewish people in Israel committing war crimes. I support the ICC and I support Israel existing and I support Palestinians having a safe and nice place to live without being treated horribly.”
“There are also Palestinian people who died as heroes documenting the genocide.”
Thanks for labeling me as a horrible person! As an LGBT+ person who has received a lot of hate in my lifetime, it’s always nice to get more. If you read through my post history, you would know I’ve dealt with a lot of depression, so just thanks for adding onto things!
Also, you may want to ask yourself if alienating someone slightly moderate (someone in favor of the ICC, in favor of a Palestinian safe and nice homeland, and in favor of international characterizations that certain acts constitute war crimes) is good for your movement… or if you are making your tent and your movement smaller and weaker? I don’t actually like being called a horrible person and am probably less likely to advocate for Palestinian restitution and rights and ICC prosecutions after this, not because I don’t support it, but because I’ve experienced enough hate in my life, and don’t like being called a horrible person. If the movement to support Palestinians has no place for me because I think Israel should exist, or if the movement has a place for me but I’m going to be called horrible, I am unfortunately already depressed and miserable enough and will engage less… and will be alienated. Do you realize you’re having that effect? Do you care?
Honestly, fuck you you illiterate moron. If I’m a horrible person, you’re a damn idiot who can’t read. I am someone who actively wanted ICC prosecutions, who considered doing activism work supporting the ICC regarding this, but you know what? Fuck you, fuck this movement, fuck this instance, I don’t want to be treated this way, ban me, kick me out of the movement, keep your political movement nice and exclusive. I am way less likely to do anything regarding this movement at all, including supporting the ICC in any way. If I’m so horrible, then fuck you, I won’t advocate for ICC prosecutions or support this cause at all, apparently I’m not welcome and want genocide… that’s literally what I am saying, right?
You were never going to “do anything for this movement” in the first place, so I don’t think anyone is going to miss you now that you’ve taken off the mask and shown your true colors.
I’ve donated money to organizations working on behalf of Palestinians, it wasn’t a huge impact, but it was technically not nothing… but you’re right… no one is going to miss me, no one will notice the donations going to Sudanese instead of Palestinians… I never had a mask on. This is who I am. I use Tor Browser. I have no reason to censor my thoughts, no motive to lie. This username “lefthandeddude” is not linked to me at all, not associated with me in any way, and not in search of of impressing others.
Keep making your movement more and more pure and smaller and smaller and alienating anyone impure… Maybe it will be an effective political strategy?
That’s real great, Mr Hackerman. But you said you were a Zionist. You’re not part of any movement we’re aligned with. You’re the ideological enemy of all anarchists, and anyone who wants to liberate the land of Palestine from its European colonial settler state. Our movement won’t get smaller if you’re gone, because our movement opposes the existence of all who support ethnocultural supremacist states. You are everything we are struggling against, and we will not ever stop fighting.
Long live the global intifada!