Not saying this is gonna *make* you into a leftist, it's just gonna amplify your already existing left-curious tendencies.

If you think that sentence is re-adapted from something I used to say to frat guys in college, you're right.

@tillianisafox @TrismegistusMx @andthisismrspeacock

I think Tris is actually more concerned with the "who watches the watchmen" problem. Their solution is to just not have any.

Personally, I think we should figure out how to select good moderators who we can trust. Otherwise, bad actors will cause harm to a certain percentage of users.

I won't pretend it's not a hard problem to solve though. Anyone who controls your access to information wields a huge amount of power over you.

@ianburnette @tillianisafox @andthisismrspeacock It's a volunteer position that relies on a person with an inherent bias to think that people can't govern themselves. It doesn't matter if you select the best moderators, the job corrupts.

"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely."
— John Dalberg-Acton

"With great power comes great responsibility."
— Uncle Ben (Spiderman)

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever."
— George Orwell.

@TrismegistusMx @tillianisafox @andthisismrspeacock

I don't disagree that power corrupts, but we should design mechanisms to mitigate that rather than throwing up our hands and saying "we can't have the perfect solution, so let's just have a free for all".

I used to help run a WoW guild, which meant managing ~50 people. We had one gay man and two women, and while no one in the guild was explicitly homophobic or misogynistic, the two of them were constantly the butt of jokes.

@TrismegistusMx @tillianisafox @andthisismrspeacock Not because people didn't like them, but because they were different, and therefore interesting. It was really hard to keep things fun for everyone.

It's easy to say "block content you don't like, be your own moderator", and that's easy if you're only seeing the occasional troll, but not if a sizable chunk of society denies your basic human rights.