We encourage well-informed, well-argued, and sometimes lively debate, but resentment is another matter. A lengthy thread on Lambert’s posts about speeches by RFK Jr., who at the time blasted the Democratic Party and endorsed Trump. Too often I slipped into defensiveness and nastiness.
On a few occasions, we’ve had to completely shut off comments for periods of time to let our readers know that we are committed to civility in the comments section. We’ve already lost one of our longest serving moderators due to toxic comments about the Gaza conflict. The campaign is expected to intensify after Labor Day, but we’re not even in the middle of it yet and the temperatures are already too high.
I will not allow the partisanship so successfully stoked in the political world to corrupt this comment section. Tribalism and partisanship are the antithesis of critical thinking. In fact, they are designed to silence critical thinking.
So if these fights over food don’t stop immediately, we’re left with three options:
1. Suspension of US election coverage
2. Block comments for long periods of time or don’t allow comments on posts about US politics
3. Mandatory moderation for new behavioral violations, including:
– Supporting or defending a particular candidate. This includes saying who you plan to vote for or criticizing the reader for being too soft on another candidate (this is different from pointing out errors or poor reasoning).
– Pushing talking points like “Harris is a Marxist” or “Trump is weird”
Implementing 3 would require moderating all comments, or deleting comments (and threads, if they grow into them) made by readers who are normally in good standing.
So please take this message to heart and think twice before posting any extreme comments.
