Yeah dude I'm not silencing you. Spells are just a way to respond to posts creatively.

MW is an isolated test chamber with no intrinsic meaning applied to race - I'm not any more advantaged than you are when on this site. If we limit the use of spells to protect only certain users from being "silenced", that is...wait for it...the inherent meaning of privelege

Also Orion I understand you think certain things are bad (white people are bad according to this thread if I'm not mistaken) but it seems more like you're just shoehorning things you don't like into random subjects.

Like if someone hated toucans shouldn't they approach the subject with "toucans are bad because xyz" instead of "let's talk about kitchen sinks. kitchen sinks are shaped like curved BILLS which is a symbol of a toucan's BEAK therefore toucans are bad"?

IDK I'm probably incorrect and everyone should probably disregard this post and it's nobody's job to educate me... I'm just confused at this approach.

i'm going to respond to this seriously (because i think you are being serious)

i wouldn't go as far as to say that white people are bad. there is, however, overwhelming evidence (even from science!) that white culture (their habits, beliefs, consumption etc.) is bad for a few things. the environment being one, for example. i do think that without help from other races, white people are more or less hopeless. that is not to say that brown/black people are inherently better, but that there are qualities/ways of living that we have that can be of benefit to the world. our cultures are, after all, much older than white culture, and whilst this by no means makes old knowledge better than new knowledge, we are currently at risk of losing a great deal of the total human knowledge due white supremacy and white culture (which has happened historically on colossal scales and still continues to this day through different means).

if i say things like 'white people are x,' i'm doing it deliberately to show you what it feels like. now imagine someone saying 'white people are x,' and then that person along with thousand others invading your countries; rewriting the geography of your country; changing its name; forcing you to use their language; shipping you off to their own country without ever seeing your family again; forcing you to build their buildings, farm their crops, raise their children; raping you, your sisters and your mothers, your land; burning your books, destroying your idols, destroying your homes; paying them less than you or not at all; and killing you. imagine them doing all this for generations. because white people are x.

you may be thinking 'but i didn't do that.' that's true, you didn't. but someone did. and white people benefit from all this. always. this is part of your legacy and heritage, and no, you didn't ask for it. but we aren't at a stage where we can say 'this is all in the past' or 'we should all move on.' it isn't in the past and there are places where a lot of these things are happening today (Palestine, Syria, Iraq etc.).

and contrary to your thinking that i'm shoehorning a critique of white people into a topic about the Big Bang theory, i think it's very valid to bring it up. they are both tools to discredit and invalidate other worldviews. the weight of a white person censoring my words in the historical and contemporary context of racism, saying that my beliefs are based on narcissism, or because I have taken drugs and thus lack credulity (despite psychedelics having been used as entheogens by my ancestors for generations). i think it's very appropriate and even necessary to bring up race in order to fully understand what just happened and why it shouldn't happen again.

Science is supposed to be a method of forming hypotheses not an unquestionable religion. Doesn't really make sense when people say "science says this" or "I fucking love science" when science is more like "well, I did an experiment where every time I dropped an egg off a roof it broke. I hypothesize that naked eggs generally cannot be dropped off roofs of buildings without breaking." I guess that is oppressive but only to eggs in this scenario.

the prevalent methodology of any given epoch will always be perceived as a disinterested 'method of forming hypotheses.' ironically, this in turn becomes the 'unquestionable religion.' just look at this thread, for example. do you really think that in the middle ages, Christianity, when it was the absolute way of knowing the world, meant anything even remotely similar to what it does today?

a problem with white thought is that it thinks that dropping eggs off roofs = oppression and killing brown people = oppression are comparable things.

This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2016 at 6:22 PM by T-man.

Yeah that's cool and everything, but we're not gonna punish others to protect your fragile sensibilities. As far as I'm concerned you are both entitled to your opinion and there's no cause for moderator action unless it escalates to personal attacks and slurs.

I'd lock this thread now as I can see no good coming from it, but I wouldn't want to suppress a brown voice.

My problem here is that we were talking about the origins of the universe, and it just turned into the same tired race argument we've had a dozen times. This beef has expired

let's talk about Global Warming Now as in Stop Making Florida More Uninhabitable than it already is

I don't think locking threads is necessary either until we reach that same point (personal attacks and slurs)

That would be a good thing to add to my proposed Moderator Code of Conduct - when to lock a thread

let's talk about Global Warming Now as in Stop Making Florida More Uninhabitable than it already is

You mean that Chinese propaganda? Pass.

If you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm. I, T-man, do not think global warming and climate change are a fabrication by the Chinese government.

i'll expose some things that were posted in the Slack group chat for some reason and respond to them here. i thought we were all about transparency but here we have it. this is our moderation team, everyone:

spritey [7:01 PM]
Just so we're all clear:

There's no reason to undo spells on the basis of race-based "silencing". Spells when used properly can "silence" anybody, equally. I say only undo spells such as autocorrect if the added content actually breaks a rule

as far as i'm aware, racism is against the rules and it has been for a long time.

spritey [7:04]
Excusing certain users from certain spell effects based on race would be unnecessary and would cause real-life underprivileged users to actually be given extra privileges while on the forum - and MW isn't in the reparations business

this is such an incredulous post, it's almost like you WANT members to remain underprivileged.

t-man [7:08 PM]
I think Oracular's notion is ludicrous to be honest, but I'm a smelly white so what I think holds no water

LOL at least you're honest.

spritey [7:11 PM]
It just seems to me like race isn't important on a site where you're playing a character and your actual appearance is only revealed at your discretion

as much as i'd like to believe, Minus World doesn't exist in a bubble. remember that time you said that reality is a tangible space we all exist in? is Minus World now exempt from this reality or what? i know white people desperately want to forget about their white guilt but it doesn't quite work like that. if there was a time where race wasn't important, white people have certainly made sure that it does today.

spritey [7:26 PM]
At the end of the day I don't want to be a forum where feeling disadvantaged is reason enough to be given an extra advantage. Because that's not a fun game

Racism - the Game.

you're actually getting really worked up about being called out on your racism huh? i'm sorry that it is upsetting your experience of Minus World, but my experience of your racism doesn't just end at 75 XP comic sans sticky notes.

yoshin [7:32 PM]
yeah orion's shit makes no sense when we have no way of knowing someone's race

it isn't about knowing someone's race, and even if it was, you know that spritey is white and you know that i am brown. even other brown and black people internalise whiteness and use it to shut down other poc. no, it is about the inherent vectors of power whiteness carries and we should be actively trying to combat that. like i said, i know white people desperately want to pretend to not be white but there's no shirking away your responsibilities on this one.

This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2016 at 6:41 PM by God.

Yeah that's cool and everything, but we're not gonna punish others to protect your fragile sensibilities. As far as I'm concerned you are both entitled to your opinion and there's no cause for moderator action unless it escalates to personal attacks and slurs.

another classic racist tactic - calling the result of responding to massive cultural and ancestral genocide 'fragile,' but somehow your white friend getting upset at the thought of not being able to use a spell on a mario message board the way he'd like to isn't fragile.

i'll expose some things that were posted in the Slack group chat for some reason and respond to them here. i thought we were all about transparency but here we have it. this is our moderation team, everyone:

spritey [7:01 PM]
Just so we're all clear:

There's no reason to undo spells on the basis of race-based "silencing". Spells when used properly can "silence" anybody, equally. I say only undo spells such as autocorrect if the added content actually breaks a rule

as far as i'm aware, racism is against the rules and it has been for a long time.

spritey [7:04]
Excusing certain users from certain spell effects based on race would be unnecessary and would cause real-life underprivileged users to actually be given extra privileges while on the forum - and MW isn't in the reparations business

this is such an incredulous post, it's almost like you WANT members to remain underprivileged.

t-man [7:08 PM]
I think Oracular's notion is ludicrous to be honest, but I'm a smelly white so what I think holds no water

LOL at least you're honest.

spritey [7:11 PM]
It just seems to me like race isn't important on a site where you're playing a character and your actual appearance is only revealed at your discretion

as much as i'd like to believe, Minus World doesn't exist in a bubble. remember that time you said that reality is a tangible space we all exist in? is Minus World now exempt from this reality or what? i know white people desperately want to forget about their white guilt but it doesn't quite work like that. if there was a time where race wasn't important, white people have certainly made sure that it does today.

spritey [7:26 PM]
At the end of the day I don't want to be a forum where feeling disadvantaged is reason enough to be given an extra advantage. Because that's not a fun game

Racism - the Game.

you're actually getting really worked up about being called out on your racism huh? i'm sorry that it is upsetting your experience of Minus World, but my experience of your racism doesn't just end at 75 XP comic sans sticky notes.

yoshin [7:32 PM]
yeah orion's shit makes no sense when we have no way of knowing someone's race

it isn't about knowing someone's race, and even if it was, you know that spritey is white and you know that i am brown. even other brown and black people internalise whiteness and use it to shut down other poc. no, it is about the inherent vectors of power whiteness carries and we should be actively trying to combat that. like i said, i know white people desperately want to pretend to not be white but there's no shirking away your responsibilities on this one.

Epic post, mind if I cap it?

awww look at those low rates

Also, we didn't say anything in the Slack that we didn't also say in this thread, so what was even the point?

This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2016 at 6:57 PM by Yrrzy.

we should just pre-emptively ban everyone except orion tbh

god was me missing out on the hotel mario reference really that bad

This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2016 at 6:59 PM by T-man.

we should just pre-emptively ban everyone except orion tbh

What if we did the exact opposite?

Also, we didn't say anything in the Slack that we didn't also say in this thread, so what was even the point?

just thought it would be useful to show other people the kind of passive aggressive tone you guys use behind closed doors (heaven knows what else you say on more private channels of communication). i hope it isn't too much of a problem for you guys.

What if we kept that lizard king from playing with the doors

This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2016 at 7:08 PM by T-man.

Also, we didn't say anything in the Slack that we didn't also say in this thread, so what was even the point?

just thought it would be useful to show other people the kind of passive aggressive tone you guys use behind closed doors (heaven knows what else you say on more private channels of communication). i hope it isn't too much of a problem for you guys.

Passive aggressive? Because some of us don't agree with your sentiment?

we should just pre-emptively ban everyone except orion tbh

believe it or not, not everyone on this forum is racist, and i truly believe that a lot of the ones that are aware of their white privilege and know that it must be removed in order to build a better world we live in want to try and mitigate the effects of this as much as possible and listen to people that can help them achieve this. i have made racist posts on Minus World in the past and i have learnt from (white!) people who have pointed this out to me.

also i don't get where the idea of banning people even come from. so many passive aggressive mods online tonight.