I think we need new terminology to speak of those who invoke a low-level understanding of free speech when it comes to quite frankly poor moderation decisions.
At a surface level, the way I've seen a lot of people talk about it only serves to reinforce the perspective that moderation = censorship.
Some observations:
- The word 'Nazi' has lost it's real meaning in wider internet discourse and culture. It is not an effective thing to say or use, even if it is totally accurate. Don't bother, it just switches people off.
- Shaming does not work to someone who does have any understanding of what they are doing and from a position that is not authoritative. If anything, you're only going to make them feel better about their decision.
- Getting angry at the person is only going to push people away. Appeal to basic empathy and focus on the negative effects of moderation decisions on yourself and people close to you.
- Using 'free speech' is pointless. Most people in our societies have been led to believe a very cartoonish version of freedom by our respective nations/societies.
- Being right isn't everything in certain contexts. We have to deliver with tact, and a degree of humour and fun when appropriate.
@mediapathic Yeah, but I think part of it is that culturally, most people have a very cartoonish and unrealistic idea of what free speech and fascism is, and I don't think it helps when the language people on Masto use don't reach from a shared point in understanding.
There's a lot of insider terminology that can feel alienating to an outsider, and looking at discussion on GNU Social places that are resentful towards Masto, it seems like Masto users expect them to know more than they do.
@VacuumForest For me, part of it is about handling the superficial parallelism in leftist and alt-right discourse.
Even though the factuality of claims can often be pretty stark between the two, the kinds of discourse and remarks are strikingly similar. Like, a centrist could just see two 'sides' scared of each other and not want anything to do with each other while berating each other with in-group slang terms in isolation (which in a way is true).
@VacuumForest I'm not saying that just because it's superficially really similar (apart from a few things) it means that both sides have a point, they don't, but unless we are able to communicate that, they aren't necessarily going to be able to tell the difference.
And I'm not saying we can't do dumb shit about other people in our own spaces, but we need some kind of effective communicative approach to those who are undecided or unsure.
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