A link to the original post.

And a screenshot of said post along with top comments:

Rules listed as broken:

• Rule 4 (chiliedogg): "No imperialism, conservatism, reactionism or Zionism, lessor evil rhetoric. Dismissing 3rd party votes or ‘wasted votes on 3rd party’ is lessor evil rhetoric." (Note: they mean "lesser-evil" rhetoric, as in an appeal to "vote for the lesser evil" in a first-past-the-post system.)
• Rule 6 (me): "Be civil in comments and no accusations of being a bot, ‘paid by Putin,’ Tankie, etc. This includes instance shaming."

"Homophobia"

Addressing this upfront because it makes no sense: I can't tell where the "homophobia" claim came from. None of my three comments in that thread (shown below) contain anything even pertaining to sexuality, so I was baffled seeing this.

Grasping at straws, my only guesses are that @BrainInABox@lemmy.ml:

• (Charitably) Doesn't know what the word "meatpuppet" means and didn't bother to take three seconds to check. (In case you don't want to check, it's a person with no agency of their own controlled by somebody else as a front.)
• (Less-than-charitably) Didn't think I'd retain the evidence and wanted to throw a little libel into the mod log, as a treat.

Comments

Note: the article I linked to in the hypertext "Putin's meatpuppet" was a current news story from the Associated Press titled "Trump strikes deal with Putin to get diesel in sharp reversal of US policy weeks before midterms", wherein Trump struck a deal with Russia to buy 500,000 tons of diesel, with even more in the future.

Note 2: NoneOfUrBusiness' comment changes between the first and second images due to a ninja edit, which I point out.

Context: the OP, K1nsey6, is one of three moderators of this community and thus makes and enforces these rules.

chiliedogg's comment

chilliedogg isn't even criticizing third-party votes. They're literally just still calling Democrats the "frustratingly slow option" (the exact phrasing of the post) while (correctly) calling Republicans the "we're gonna piss in your mouth and poke you in the eye with needles" option. This challenge alone to the post – the act of simply saying the US' fascist far-right are worse than the post claims while not arguing the assessment of the Democratic Party in any way – is enough to warrant a comment removal.

That is, the act alone of making Republicans seem considerably worse than Democrats – without any reference to third-party voting or even directly advocating voting for Democrats – is treated as a Rule 4 violation, which significantly bolsters my point below that what I was saying was true.

This is an obvious abuse of Rule 4, even accounting for the vague and repressive way it's already written.

My comments

I never stated or even implied in this thread that got me banned that the OP was paid by anyone, a tankie, a bot, or was otherwise doing this as some sort of larger operation coordinated with others. I stated that the OP was acting in the interests of Republicans, whose de facto party leader has been acting in the interests of Vladimir Putin. Co-moderator BrainInABox's response to criticism of the Republican Party above is obvious evidence of this.

The rule is used as a catch-all to remove criticism of the community's function as propaganda useful to authoritarian regimes like Russia, where the "etc." is a baked-in "remove any criticism whatsoever if I feel like it" clause. The community is functionally an island of lemmy.ml – if that connection wasn't obvious by the link to "Audiobooks Read by Dessalines [lemmy.ml administrator]" in the community's sidebar.

And if you think the part of the rule that I violated is "Be civil in comments", well boy, do I have a screenshot for you:

And a link to that exchange.

For context, again, K1nsey6 is a moderator, and notably, this comment is over two days old. Moreover, the comment below Doc_Crankenstein's was removed, so this thread clearly wasn't somehow sacred or missed by the moderators. A moderator read a comment where they were told "No shit sherlock [...] I'M FUCKING AGREEING WITH YOU!" then asked if they could "not be a cunt for like 5 minutes [...] instead of arguing with your own imagination" and then called a "fuck face" with basically nothing else of substance and either thought that didn't violate Rule 6 or didn't care.

So I'm going to venture a guess that if this passes as "civil", my pretty plain statement that K1nsey6 is running interference that helps Republicans should be considered downright pleasant and affectionate. (But in reality, it's pretty obvious that the fact they agreed with the moderator, regardless of civility, is what saved them.)

Edit: K1nsey6 replied to one of my comments in that thread a couple minutes after I posted this. This is their personal interpretation of "Be civil in comments":

Conclusion

I believe I deserve to be unbanned and my comments and chiliedogg's comment reinstated. Even under rules designed solely to stifle legitimate criticism, our comments weren't doing anything wrong.

What I'd like most, though, given it seems like the moderators designed the space expressly to power trip, is to bring this abuse of power out in the open, because this is clearly the norm for this community. They don't actually care about what their rules say (e.g. "Be civil in comments"); they exist as "rules for thee, not for me" in order to remove whatever they want.

I compiled these screenshots because I had a sneaking suspicion some excuse would be conveniently found to remove them and wanted a means to be able to defend myself from a one-sided narrative. Although I'm especially glad I did because I didn't in my wildest dreams think "homophobia" would be one of them. In the charitable interpretation (above), it's extremely sloppy, and in the uncharitable one, it's disgraceful and abusive libel.

It really feels like you intentionally tried to skirt the edge of that rule by writing a comment which would be interpreted as if you're saying one thing while technically saying something more defensible.

I'm gonna say BPR. The mods of that community have to work overtime to keep it clean; they don't have time to deliberate over whether you technically didn't quite break the rule

you were pretty much violating rule 6, especially when you consider that latestagecapitalism is just an echochamber of hating on the current system.

It really feels like you intentionally tried to skirt the edge of that rule by writing a comment which would be interpreted as if you’re saying one thing while technically saying something more defensible.

I was not. I do not believe they're paid, a bot, or otherwise part of some mass-coordinated scheme.

What I was saying and believe simply was defensible, and I don't think that's a technicality.

especially when you consider that latestagecapitalism is just an echochamber of hating on the current system.

By that argument, I don't understand why @chiliedogg@lemmy.world's comment was removed. Not only did it hate on the current system, but it outright objectively hated on the current system more than the OP. It kept Democrats at exactly the same level of contempt but showed even more contempt than the OP did for Republicans.

The mods of that community have to work overtime to keep it clean; they don't have time to deliberate over whether you technically didn't quite break the rule

The mods of that community have to work overtime to keep it clean

To the standards of their own rules they clearly don't, given "Be civil in comments" is the first component of Rule 6, yet they neglect to enforce it whenever they feel like it and can't be bothered to even follow it themselves.

They're not "keeping it clean"; they're just doing whatever they want in a way that strictly protects an in-group and strictly binds an out-group.

echochamber of hating on the current system.

Like most communities on social media these days. Don't expect to show how useful a car can be in something like fuckcars.

They didn't even try to justify it with me.

I wouldn't be suprised if fuckcars would allow a car positive post if it was specifically about carpooling in rural areas where busses would have a maximum of like 10 people during rushhour

Don’t expect to show how useful a car can be in something like fuckcars.

I actually do expect to be able to give pushback in communities like !fuckcars@lemmy.world. In a crosspost from fuckcars to !micromobility@lemmy.world, which allows reasonable debate (ironically, until writing this, I thought I had written that in fuckcars), I controversially argued that a misdemeanor charge for a motorist who struck and killed a bicyclist was appropriate (it's more nuanced than that, but seriously try to imagine a more contentious surface-level statement that isn't just rage-bait). So you can see that I have no problem giving controversial pushback when I think something is wrong.

fuckcars' five rules are "Be civil", "No hate speech", "Don't harass people", "Stay on topic", and "No reposts". I've never gone to fuckcars to give pushback on something and had any inkling that if I "show how useful a car can be" I'll have my comment removed, let alone be permanently banned.

Yeah, they should probly just remove the 'be civil' part

I'll do my best to explain their perspective as someone who mostly shares it. Since 2016 there have been a lot of memes and commentary from liberal Americans insinuating that putin and trump are in a homosexual relationship. This is largely seen by the left (various kinds of anarchists and communists) as homophobic because it wields sexuality as a rhetorical weapon. Yes, trump and putin are homophobic and I can see how calling them gay would be funny because it might get under their skin but we shouldn't contribute to the culture of calling people gay to hurt them.

This got a lot worse when liberals decided republicans were "Russian assets". Depicting trump as the servile sexual partner of putin became popular as a more specific form of humiliation. Not only does it imply trump is serving the "evil foreigner" but it also, again, uses sexuality and violations of heteronormative gender roles as a point of insult. This is homophobic.

The mod saw your use of meatpuppet as engaging with this rhetoric as it implies subservience and, to a small extent, sexuality (because of the meat part).

The argument that you intended all of this is admittedly loose but latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world has very sensitive moderation. This is primarily because it is an explicitly leftist community that critiques capitalism and the role of liberals within capitalism on a majority liberal server. They run into a lot of people who do not fit in the ideological framework of the community and ban those people in order to preserve the culture of that community.

Is it power trippy? Yeah, a bit. The goal is to get you to disengage so you won't be a nuisance.

I saw that thread. I said to myself "that's bait" and kept scrolling.

PTB.

Democrats are conservatives, reactionaries and fascists depending on the representative while the republicans party is reactionary to fascist while Trump the extremist nazi whipping his more sensible underlings into gear fueling the ice death camps.

I've made rural context car positive posts in fuck cars multiple times and they tend to get a fair number of upvotes and few downvotes. The context and approach definitely matters.

Strange. For some reason, in Voyager's mod log, I can see "Reason: Rule 4".

There are far too many mods on Lemmy who monopolize the comm they are a mod of and then stifle any discussion that is contrary to their own agenda. Between that and the constant stream of Reddit reposts lately I am starting to spend a lot less time on Lemmy.

The mod saw your use of meatpuppet as engaging with this rhetoric as it implies subservience and, to a small extent, sexuality (because of the meat part).

I have never, ever seen 'meatpuppet' being used as a homophobic slur.

It isn't used as a homophobic slur and it wasn't my point that it is or that you were using it that way. The point was that the mod percieved you as engaging in common rhetoric that IS homophobic. It wasn't about the word itself, or even you as an individual. You were banned because of where the type of argument you were using comes from and to preserve the specific social milieu desired by the creators of that community. Yes, it is overzealous, but it is also their prerogative. I do wish they were more explicit about it however.

What I'm looking for when making mod decisions about that sort of thing is if the user is engaging in whataboutism, trying to make their rural experience out to be less niche than it is. Or in other words, if they try to argue against a transportation solution being applied to the urban 80% just because it doesn't make sense for the rural 20%.

commenter’s note, Velma isn't TheTechnician27@lemmy.world.
ComradeSharkfucker is addressing TheTechnician27 when using “you.”

It’s a tankie comm and only exists because ML wanted an outpost on .world, you’re better off not using it.

Yeah, those views are as ridiculous as the few vocal true believers who think every rural location can be served by trains and don't understand rural folks do have uses for large trucks in rural areas. Those large trucks shouldn't be driven into urban areas of course!

Good ol' K1nsey6 at it again.

I don't know about the mod tools. Are they able to change the reason in one location or another?

I'm not really sure why this would be happening either. Sometimes federation can be a problem with mod tools, so maybe the fact a lemmy.ml account removed your lemmy.world comment made something go awry. Mod tools in Lemmy are kind of cursed, and I prefer to only use them for basic functionality.

The mods of that community have to work overtime

Lmao, please! Maybe they should consider holding a strike until their "working" conditions improve? Or at least demand a raise? 🤣

I meant that as an expression, in the way you might say it about a CPU doing GPU work

Sounds like the wrong people are doing the job.

How so

the way you might say it about a CPU doing GPU work

You don't put a CPU to do GPU work. It's the wrong thing for the job. You give that job to something better suited to the task. You're basically saying the mods are the wrong people for the job.

I know we're all autistic here but goddamn try taking things less literally

You misunderstand me. I am not taking you literally. I am not taking you seriously either.

Okay

My intial thought was PTB since it seems like an uncritical reaction.

However I also am also seeing a thread on MWOG from other users.
https://piefed.ca/c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works/p/1006758/meanwhile-on-late-stage-capitalism

So I am inclined to believe LSC is getting targeted and don't really have much judgement to cast at them. MWOG has a superpower of making me not care about an issue. If there's a thread about this there, then you're almost automatically fishing for a YDI, even if it isn't you making MWOG posts.

I mean that's that whole reason lemmy was created

I assume you are referring to .ml… I suppose you are indeed correct about that…

Brain is pretty well known to show up to threads to be inflammatory. Them judging civility is quite a joke.

This is crazy, this is now the third thread I've seen talking about LateStageCapitalisms horrendous excuse for mods.

I made one earlier that got locked down because the mod in question (u/GodlessCommie) came in and posted a bunch of hateful bullshit.

Then I saw another one earlier.

I love to see it. These russian trolls meddling in our election getting called out.

K1nsey6 is now kicking arguments in threads as well. Bless the little turds.

EDIT: well shit, k1nsey6 on my voyager, Godlesscommie on the web interface. It's just the same turd.

Oh nonono i do not buy that logic train at all.

There's also a world fediverse comm thread doing the bi monthly attack ml.

You do realize who you're arguing with, right? https://pawb.social/post/35592585

My fault

yea... i find myself tagging bad mods and blocking them and their communities more and more. a lot of major overpolicing that I hadn't noticed in the years before. granted, lemmy's mod tools aren't good so maybe it results in eventual mod overreaction? but there are just absolutely poopy mods too.

BPR?

Bait Provoked Reaction

There is nothing sexual about the term "meatpuppet," and I think it might say something about you if you take it that way.

I got the same thing, rule 4 is about no "lessor [sic] evil" talk, or wasted votes. It's a weird mentality because the U.S. has fairly limited use of ranked choice/instant runoff, so when you live somewhere without preferential voting, and you choose someone who isn't likely to win, it's functionally equivalent to not voting at all. Sadly, in that case it is better to vote for a Democrat than a third party, because doing otherwise gives more power to those who treat voting Republican like a religion.

They want to stop people voting Democrat because they're either delusional & don't understand the basic maths, or they're trolls that want Republicans in power. It doesn't matter which, the outcome is the same.

It's not libel if you already have no reputation to like lose. BPR. And seriously r we gonna get a daily YPTB attacking one of the sole leftist comms on LW until the midterms are over? You do realise nothing any of us nerds do on Lemmy is gonna make the slightest difference to the outcome? Everyone is well aware how mouth foamy y'all get during this period. It's exhausting for the rest of us to watch y'all turn into McCarthyists every couple of years.