I want to start out by saying that this site should remain a free speech platform. It has a duty to remain a free speech platform and it's certainly okay and even recommended to be an edge lord. However some real and legitimate extremists exist in real life and we have an ethical obligation to interact with them in a certain way. Some things on the site remain in this area where they are taken too seriously. If I say the N word for example, there is a good chance I get banned. It's just a word. It hurts nobody. Neither does it hurt anybody for you to take an extreme or crazy position in a debate or in a forum post.
So we are in this absolutely fucking insane position as a site where trolling gets treated as a serious offense while genuinely concerning things are overlooked. I am by no means advocating for less freedom of speech, but for us as a community to behave more responsibly towards serious situations. I am not going to name names or get too specific but this is a small site so people likely no who I am talking about or what I am talking about.
I want this also not to be about specific situations but the attitude of the community as a whole. 2 important takeaways before I start.
1. Stop taking non serious stuff seriously
2. Start taking serious stuff seriously
Example 1
Recently a debate challenge was issued. Somebody was asking for their opponent to talk them into suicide. I accepted the debate afraid of who might take the debate if I didn't. I started the first round by giving resources to suicide prevention advocates and then proceeded to ignore the instigators request to talk him into suicide.
This is serious. somebody could end up dead. It doesn't get much more serious than this. There was an opportunity here to maybe get the person the help they need. Instead of site leaders PMing the guy and seeing what they could help him with. Instead of removing the debate before some immature kid or sociopath could accept it and try to talk the guy into suicide, what happened was that a mod informed anybody who might accept that they would not be crossing any lines by accepting the debate and talking the instigator into suicide.
There are at least 3 active mods on the site. So at least 3 people who can step up and say . Maybe we should do something here for this guys own good. There are lots of community members here and not very many have reached out to the individual to see if they could just be a shoulder to cry on. I understand the site isn't really built for that, but where is the humanity? Where is the empathy for a person that is likely experiencing a very tough time in their lives.
This community has already experienced one suicide and yet we are going to miss some red flags here and just let it go.
Example 2
Again I would like to emphasize that extremists should be welcome here. We want them here. Ultimately pretty much every form of extremism is due to cognitive biases and logical fallacies that the debate community should be well equipped to handle. So when an extremist makes an argument in a debate, what is the role of their opponent's? What is the role of the judges?
Their opponent's role is to put up the best fight they are capable of, to pursue the most persuasive case they can. The judges role, besides being a fair judge is to use their RFDs to outline the weaknesses of the arguments of the extremist even if they think the extremist won. If the extremist won than you point out his and his opponent's flaws and then you award the extremist his point. It's simple he gets the opportunity to become a better person and you fulfilled your duty as a human being who loves society.
To my surprise I come across a debate where one person is defending muhhamed having sex with a 9 year old. There is nothing wrong with defending this position. The debater defending the position did nothing wrong. Their argument was essentially that 9 years old should be considered an adult and the child was not being molested because technically 9 years old is old enough to have sex with a grown man.
Pro in the description of the debate defined the terms in such a way that having sex with a 9 year old would be considered pedophilia even if some culture considered 9 years old the age of an adult. So this is essentially a concession by con. Con admits that it is pedophilia though he has provided an alternative definition after he already agreed to the original one.
Later on both sides agree to tie the debate. The debaters don't get to decide what the judges do though. It's a great opportunity to actually come out against child marriage. But why is this important?
well normally it wouldn't be important. If you think it is a devil's advocate position. However in the debate con has made it clear that he legitimately thinks sex with 9 year olds is fine. He isn't trolling. He is very devout Muslim who comes from Pakistan.
Why is this important?
Devout Muslims in pakistan have resisted every effort to create a minimum age in marriages . In Pakistan about 20% of girls marry before 18 https://www.dw.com/en/why-underage-marriages-are-still-prevalent-in-pakistan/a-63860202 . About 5% total are married before the age of 15 and many of those girls are as young as 5 years old.
So we have an individual on the site who is defending a child marriage who comes from a region of the world where there is at least a 20% chance he marries a child, but if you consider his faith and his status in society and his political positions it is likely closer to 50% he will marry a child.
This is an excellent opportunity for the judges to award him a loss because he technically lost prior to the agreement to tie. It is also an excellent opportunity for the judges to point out how morally reprehensible it is to have sex with and Marry children.
Instead they just all conspire to tie the debate and in the comment section instead of expressing moral outrage at con who may reconsider marrying a child, who may urge those he loves to not marry children if he is persuaded, instead they merely type in the vote "tied as agreed upon"
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Between this and the mental gymnastics done to support the terrorist attacks against innocent Israelis on this site I am not sure I can be here much longer. Maybe I fulfill my debate commitments. Maybe I fulfill a few other ones and then leave, but I might just go. It was nice knowing a lot of you . This time really is different though. I want to be a part of a debate community. However I don't know that I can continue to see the moral decay of the site and it not effect me on an emotional level. I am on discord on the sites discord server. friend me if you want and message me if I decide to drop off the face of the Earth. I may get back to you, I may not.
