-19

I'll just post my initial comment in the entirety since what happens is entirely predicted by my first comment.

The topic was trans athletes and, like with any hot button political issues, there are rigidly defined 'sides' that come with a list of things that you must profess.

These things are simply declared as not being open to discussion and if you challenge that declaration, ye power trippin' bastards rear their ugly head. This dogma is unhealthy in any community and the people who enforce it through social pressure, cyber bullying and mod powers are actively harmful.

As to demonstrate my point I continued with the conversation, responding in good faith to the people who attempted a conversation, right up until I was mass banned (which only took a few hours).

The first comment is here if you want to see the entire conversation or think I'm hiding some secret transphobic rants in my comment history: https://lemmy.world/comment/15496985

The Initial Comment

This is an issue that exposes some of the more dogmatic people in the movement.

It is as if there is a list of positions that you’re required to believe and if you disagree with any one of them you’re labeled a heretic (transphobic, in this case).

Sports and the fairness of competition is a complex issue even when you’re just talking about cisgender competitors:

Can a person use performance enhancing drugs to train and then get clean enough to test positive for a competition? It seems unfair, to me, for the other competitors if this is the case.

It isn’t an unfair statement to say that the physical performance of cisgender men is higher than that of cisgender women. This is why we have separate competitions for men and women.

The issue isn’t as simple as a choice between “Transgender people should be free, without question, to compete in any competition” or “Transgender people should not be allowed to compete as their gender”

Framing it in such a black and white manner is harmful behavior, no matter which position you take.

We need to understand how people’s bodies are affected and what advantages of disadvantages are obtained and then base the rule changes on objective data and not appeals to emotion or ideological bullying.

Fabricated Pretexts

The last thing I said on the topic (bold added), as there were already commenters insinuating that I'm secretly a transphobe rather than engaging in discussion, was:

Obviously the people arguing that trans people should never compete are ignorant, I’m not supporting that position. From the point of view of fairness in competition there has to be an objective answer that’s backed by objective tests.

Simply declaring that trans people are beyond reproach and that any attempts to quantify biological advantage are unfairly discriminatory and anyone asking these questions is a bigot isn’t helpful.

I include this because included in the reasons for the bans is: "Transphobia attempting to make excuses for trans exclusion from sports." This is completely misrepresenting what I said and what I believe in order to create a pretext for a ban.

And the power trippin' bastards come in with the sweeping community bans (linuxphones@lemmy.ca, really?): https://lemmy.world/modlog?page=2&actionType=ModBanFromCommunity&userId=12926811

Conclusion

This kind of thinking is harmful to any community.

Labeling disagreement as bigotry is nonsense. Refusing to engage on a topic and using filters and bans to hide from people who don't perfectly align with your ideas is not how you make allies or educate people.

The people that do this are responsible for creating the impression that your communities are hostile and made up of extremists. Attacking allies because they don't fall in line without question is a blunder.

People with moderator powers should be held to a higher standard of responsibility and fabricating reasons for bans and mislabeling people as bigots is the ultimate abdication of that responsibility. These people are not interested in helping a community thrive, they simply want to be the ones with the power to strike out at people that they want to hurt regardless of the damage that it causes.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk (except you, Linuxphones@lemmy.ca, I pray you never learn how to exit vim)

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[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Warning to all: do not start arguing about trans women in sports in this thread. Stick to judgement on the banning please.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 36 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

YDI, you were throwing around talking points that have been debunked so many times that nobody familiar with the subject would believe you're acting in good faith.

I'm willing to believe you, since you went to the trouble of making this post. But that's the only reason why.

So, with that in mind, you gotta understand that waiting for people to play catchup with the science gets old for trans people and their allies that have had this debate a hundred times.

At this point, after more than a decade of this same thing being thrown at trans people again and again and again and again and again, it is not realistic for anyone to spend time dealing with you, or anyone else, that is going to pound the same incorrect pulpit once more.

Now, there's only so far I'll go on this community regarding the debate because this isn't the place. This community can't function as a dumping ground for every debate that gets stopped somewhere else, or it turns into chaos. I've seen it happen, and I've seen the locked threads that come about because folks can't stick to the subject of the mod decision itself.

So, here's the only thing I'll say regarding trans athletes. There is no evidence that a trans person be it man or woman has an advantage in athletics beyond the first year of hormone therapy, and there is significant evidence to the contrary, including the world records in sports where trans people have competed. If such am advantage existed, then it would be expected that trans athletes would dominate their sports. This has not been the case at all. To the contrary, when you go looking, it turns out that it can be a disadvantage because of the way the hormones work.

I won't debate this issue, I won't argue it. This is not the place to do so. The only reason I went that far is to illustrate why the subject is dead to so many people. It isn't a hypothetical; trans athletes have actually competed at all levels of sport, and there is no advantage present. Again, *trans athletes have been competing for years, with no record of having an advantage.

So, when you keep pounding a dead horse, it is not power tripping to shut the false rhetoric down. It would be like me going into an astronomy C/ and talking about the lack of proof that the earth circles the sun.

[-] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 31 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

"Hey guys, I wasn't repeating long disproven transphobic talking points, I was just asking questions and ignoring the answers others gave me, mmmkay?"

You got banned for transphobic JAQing off. Poorly. YDI and any preemptive bans. I keep my flat tidy so it won't become infested with roaches. This is no different.

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

When you're writing paragraphs about how "trans athletes" is an important political debate, then you've already lost. Stop feeding the fascists.

[-] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

YDI, at least in the community of the lemmy.blajah.zone instance. In the other communities, a long ban could be excessive, but it's not easy to judge that the transphobic[^1] post was done in good faith.

[^1]: e.g., two people with the same physical traits, one a cis woman, the other a transgender woman, your reasoning will let the first one practice the sport and will forbid it to the second one.

Editedto clarify that they were community bans (not from instances).

[-] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 3 weeks ago

FYI, prior to me discovering this thread and seeing the OP ignore linked studies to repeat transphobic talking points, there was no blahaj ban. There is one now, but there wasn't at the time the OP made this topic.

[-] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago

Oops! Thanks. I will edit my post to clarify that was a LMZ community.

[-] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 weeks ago

You chose to openly and willingly spew debunked transphobic talking points as well as thinly veiled transphobia. That was your choice. I'm sure that you knew very well that these types of exclusionary arguments aren't taken well on platforms and communities which are protective of trans people or even run by trans people. YDI

Oh and about those preemptive bans, I don't blame them, some of that is an automated part of Lemmy when doing instance bans for remote users, but even the ones where people manually banned you. I don't blame them either, you've made yourself well known in holding and acting on transphobic and trans exclusionary beliefs, why would they want you posting and hanging out in their trans-friendly communities when they already know you're someone to do that kind of shit.

[-] No_Bark@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago
[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)
[-] Diva@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Majorllama@lemmy.world -3 points 3 weeks ago

PTB

I was in this same thread and the same mod also banned me from the same ~30 subs for the same shit.

Obviously my vote here is biased as I am in the same exact boat as OP but I find that banning people from a ton of subs they haven't even said anything in because you didn't like something they said in a community you don't even moderate is fucking insane.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
-19 points (32.1% liked)

Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.

Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.


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All posts should follow this basic structure:

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