I greatly enjoy educated discussions with other people on the Internet. Sadly, there are damn few websites that host informed discussions; most discussion websites contain endless repetitions of schoolboy name-calling. Twenty years ago I participated in discussions on a website called Daily Kos, which had a decided left-wing slant, but was nevertheless capable of hosting some lively discussions. Sad to say, over the years, the more moderate commentators drifted away and the place was taken over by extreme leftists. It seems to be a general pattern that such websites always degrade, leaving only the nutcases. This is largely because the nutcases abuse the moderates so brutally that the moderates leave in disgust.
About four years ago I chanced upon a website called Medium.com, and it seemed to have a stronger system for keeping the conversation civil and informed. I participated in discussions there for about a year, but I left in disgust when one of my comments was deleted by the moderators. There was absolutely nothing in that post that violated the many rules against uncivil behavior. The objection was political, not social. In a discussion of Native American rights, I asked whether Native Americans were morally right to keep their children on the reservation. Preserving their culture is certainly a desirable goal, but was it right to preserve their culture by depriving their children of the educational and career opportunities available to other Americans? Are children the chattel of their parents? Does a child have a natural right to the full range of opportunities available to other American children?
The authors of the original article were outraged (two Native Americans) did not answer my questions; they were outraged that I would dare to ask them. They demanded that my post the expunged from the website, and the moderators complied. I appealed the decision, but my appeal was rejected. I departed Medium.
A month ago, I decided to give Medium another try. It does have some excellent articles, and I hoped that the moderators had matured. I participated in the discussions energetically. I checked the forum rules; they were the standard “Don’t be an ass” rules. But I slipped up when some fellow responded to one of my comments by declaring that I must be moving my lips as I typed. I responded by citing a source providing facts that demolished his position and calling him a nitwit for not being aware of such simple facts.
That was a violation and I was almost immediately sent an email admonishing me that I had violated the rules and warning me that continued violations would result in my ejection from the forum. The email did not cite the actual violation, but I was pretty sure that it was over my use of the word “nitwit”. I bit my lip, chastised myself, and resolved to be more careful.
A bit more than a week later, I received another email declaring that I had violated the rules again, and warning me that one more violation would result in my ejection from the forum. This took me by surprise; I had been keeping my nose clean and was unaware of any transgressions on my part. The email from Medium gave no hint as to the nature of my violation, so I sent an email requesting further information about what I had done wrong. There was no response.
So I resolved to be even more careful, and I kept well clear of the lines. I went out of my way to project a cheery tone and phrase any objections in the softest language. Yet a week later, I received a third email announcing that I had been ejected from Medium for violations of its rules.
I was flabbergasted. What could I have written that might have violated their rules? I racked my brains but could not think of anything I had written that could possibly have been construed as uncivil. The puzzle plagued me for days.
Then the light bulb lit up. I had noticed that Medium had a decidedly left-wing slant. The authors and commentators all universally agreed that oil companies were evil and were entirely responsible for climate change. Nuclear power was dangerous, overly expensive, and unreliable and we should abandon it entirely. Solar and wind were the only way to go. There were plenty of stories of abuses against Native Americans and LGBTQ people. As for blacks — well, the website teemed with ghastly stories of the evil crimes committed against blacks. Moreover, America was still a profoundly racist society, most if not all Americans were closet racists, and reparations to blacks were unquestionably a moral necessity.
Now, the responses to such articles were mostly a matter of heads bobbing up and down in agreement. “You nailed it!” and “Every American should be required to read this!” were common responses. But there weren’t any objections.
Now, my politics are generally to the left of center, but not because of any tribal association with the left. I am very much an independent thinker, and I approach each issue by carefully studying the facts before drawing my own conclusion. I withhold judgement if I don’t think that I have enough facts, and I will change my opinion if I realize that the facts I was relying on are in some manner incomplete. For example, I strongly advocate the heavy use of Small Modular Reactors, a new nuclear technology with lots of promise. I am absolutely certain that we already have a perfectly good disposal site for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but it was cancelled by the Obama Administration as part of some political horsetrading. In general, I support free trade and oppose restrictions on international trade. I have long felt that we should greatly reduce our military spending, but the invasion of Ukraine caused me to reverse position; I now think that we must increase military spending to support Ukraine.
Intellectual integrity is my highest personal value, so I feel a responsibility to counter falsehood regardless of its political implications. Since there was a freshet of left-wing nonsense flooding over Medium, I found myself posting lots of comments pointing out flaws in the logic or factual basis of some articles. I found myself most active against some of the more extreme claims by blacks about the supposed racism of whites. I kept pointing out that a society that is fundamentally racist would never elect a black man to be President; nobody ever attempted to rebut my point.
I was the only person offering objections to any of the most extreme claims made on Medium. Another fact struck me after I was banned from Medium: I never saw a single conservative article. Not one.
So I put two and two together:
1. Medium has only left-wing material.
2. I contradicted some of that material.
3. Medium never explained its reasons for ejecting me.
These three facts lead me to conclude that I was banished from Medium because my politics to don’t fit the requirements of the website. It appears that my Diogenes-like search for an honest website must resume.