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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Okay Zionist.
Never again will I donate to Palestinian causes, post any articles supporting the movement, support a 2 state solution.
You’re right. I’ll be a horrible Zionist who simply doesn’t give a fuck. Keeping kicking all the impure people out of your movement who don’t pass your tests. I’m sure it will help.
Yes.
I hope you can reflect on yourself and why you think it’s okay to be complacent in the genocide of an entire peoples who have nothing to do with me, simply because I said mean words to you?
You clearly hold no strong moral views on the issue and are willing to throw it away in an instant.
Be a better person.
I have limited time, limited money, and I’m poor. There are other genocides and conflicts. There is a genocide going on in Sudan. I can donate time or money to that instead of trying to somehow contribute to reducing the suffering in a region where liberal political activists think my views are “mask off” and that I am “typical centrist shit” and “horrible.”
I’m not a horrible person in every way, although I still have work to do to be a better person. But you don’t want my moderate liberal donations? Great, it goes to helping Sudanese people instead.
I still want Palestinians to have access to a safe place to live, food, and housing. But I don’t like being insulted, and I doubt if I try to donate time or money to the Sudanese conflict people are going to be calling me shit. I feel like both groups of people are undergoing horrific circumstances, so given that my time and money is equal in both situations, there is nothing wrong with me putting my efforts elsewhere.
YOU be a better person, you do better. Peace out asshole.