Please avoid making threats or wishing for violent crimes against any individual

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Out of academic interest, where does repeating the words of the current President of the United States fall on this scale? For example:

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Are people seriously debating about who it is okay to wish death upon? You really shouldn't be doing that at all, because it's just wrong. Just don't make those sort of comments, period.

I agree, but how then, should we address those who support a prominent figure (who is now the President)  who does wish death on others? Should they be given a pass because they're only supporting it at one remove?

Many Trump supporters and opponents alike don't seem to want to even acknowledge that the Orange Menace regularly says things that fit well in the mouth of a war criminal and no where else.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Civility is vastly overrated IMO.

Yea its kinda obvious that that's your opinion.

You're the epitome of "I'm a good person because I'm polite when I say brown people are scary"

Human being are dangerous animals. Human life in the days before there was such a thing as government was, as Thomas Hobbes famously and rightly pointed out, nasty short and brutish. After generations and centuries and millennia of being subject to a strong and many times harsh process of domestication  (similar in many ways to the domestication of animals)  human populations around the world have gradually become more peaceful and civilised. However it is important that that pressure of domestication, what you might call enforced civility, is kept up otherwise the process will quickly start to revert and human society move back towards the nasty short and brutish state.

That's certainly something the strongmen, and those with a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo of the state like to tell us.

But what we actually find when we look is that when people are content - when they're not hungry, not scared for themselves or their loved ones, not in pain - then we all treat each other pretty well.

The enemy isn't the other. The enemy is suffering.

And isn't it just amazing how good people who want to be in charge are at making sure there is fear and want?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Jokes About Shooting Reporters

"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-governor-greg-abbott-jokes-about-shooting-reporters_us_59284da3e4b0df57cbfb53c8"

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If the intent is to stop those "making threats or wishing for violent crimes" all the blue avatars are going to need to be banned, because they obviously condone such behavior.


Cue those falsely claiming that actions of random protesters on one side and prominent politicians on the other make both sides equivalent.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

When Your President Incites Violence …

How do we handle heads-of-state who encourage crimes?

http://warisboring.com/when-your-president-incites-violence/


Seems relevant.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Should joking that someone you're debating should be eaten be a bannable offense?

...not if you refer to oral sex. Just don't be explicit.

Otherwise, suggesting that someone be cast to crocodiles, alligators, a reticulated python, Komodo dragons, bears, Big Cats, sharks, or a pack of starving dogs should be an offense suitable for banning.

OK, I would leave room for al-Baghdadi (leader of ISIS/Daesh) or Assad.

Summary extra-judicial execution is no answer for purveyors of evil like al_Baghdadi or Bin Laden. They should be put on trial, subject to the full weight of the law, and left in prison for the rest of their lives  and get to watch as a the world leaves them and their toxic ideologies on the garbage heap of history.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

Late to the party here, but excellent point.

It echoes a core problem of online discussion in the era of Dump's GOP: how can we possibly have a useful debate, when simply accurately quoting the President of the United States and leader of Republican Party is censored, or is a violation of site TOS? I do not blame various websites for the problem - I blame the Republicans who have collectively enabled a man grossly unsuited for the office he is purported to hold.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Pretty sad The President of The United Sates could not meet basic requirements for posting on this message-board.

That's been true since even before he won. And it illustrates one of the ways in which he is so corrosive: his very existence is an unfit subject for civilized discussion. By becoming an unavoidable topic of discussion, he does vast amounts of damage to our society.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

We've gone from the position where right-wings were doing this, to where Donald Trump was doing it, and now people like TX Rep. Roy are doing it:

'Get a tall oak tree': Rep. Chip Roy of Texas defends apparent pro-lynching remarks

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he had "no apologies" after he made what appeared to be a pro-lynching remark during a congressional hearing on combatting anti-Asian American violence.

"The victims of race-based violence and their families deserve justice," Roy said in his opening statement at the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, adding that he was concerned about the "thought police" stifling free speech.

"We believe in justice. There are old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. We take justice very seriously. And we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That's what we believe," he said. "My concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, free speech, and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys."

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Again, we see that Republican leadership would be unable to meet basic standards of this forum.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mccarthy-slammed-joking-it-would-be-hard-not-hit-pelosi-n1275651

Democrats blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for saying “it will be hard to not hit” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a gavel if he becomes speaker.

McCarthy, R-Calif., made the comments Saturday night at a Tennessee Republican Party fundraiser, where he was handed an oversized gavel by members of the state's Republican members of Congress.

“I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. ... It’ll be hard not to hit her with it," he said, according to audio posted on Twitter by Main Street Nashville.

A spokesman for McCarthy said he was “obviously joking.”

https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1421628453032505344

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

How about posters spreading misinformation about a pandemic, like that masks don't work?

Show me proof that masks work.

I don't care what the CDC says.  The CDC says Obama's party and BLM demonstrations/riots aren't superspreader events, but Sturgis is.  So show me studies that verify the efficacy of masks.  Statements by Dr. Fauci aren't studies.

Wise people accept statistical evidence. Does the abuse of children result in a higher likelihood of children becoming criminals? The correlation is so strong that one cannot deny it.

Does smoking contribute to early death from lung cancer and heart disease? The statistical evidence so suggests.

Does unprotected sex with complete strangers contribute to the spreading of HIV? We all saw the story. 

If I must choose between the well-contemplated statements of people well trained (by well-established criteria) in medical science about vaccines, masks, and social distancing and ideological hacks I will go with the people well trained in medicine who recognize both the difficulty of what they call for and the means of spreading a lethal disease. So it was with AIDS and so it is with COVID-19. The ideological criticism of the medical story about AIDS came at the time from the Left; the ideological criticism of the medical story about COVID-19 came from the Right. I may be old to remember both, but I'd say that I am fair. Using a condom during sex not for pregnancy and wearing a mask when the SARS-2 virus was or is running amok were good ideas at their appointed times.

Oh, by the way -- I do not smoke.

   

Show me the statistical evidence.

Why? You won't believe it or change your mind.