>>9373
> The real harm can only come from the people with power over you, like the moderators with the power to ban and to threaten people with banning. That risks kicking you out of a community that you've come to enjoy, and that's far more real. If the trolls seem bad now, imagine them having moderator powers and then perhaps we can comprehend what real badness is.

Therein lies a problem. Trolls seek power and silence. Eventually, if a troll is successful, so many people leave the site that the troll BECOMES the moderator. Then they do have the power. That's the end goal. They want to silence. They want to destroy. That's their only purpose and their true calling. You can't run a successful community with someone who seeks to silence every member until only trolls are left. I've actually SEEN THIS HAPPEN. The only people who were left on a server were trolls who had completely transformed the entire server. How it happened: There were no rules. Because the admin had assumed that everyone would understand not to be a dick to each other, they had no hard and fast rules by which to enforce any bans.

>>9377

>If a fool is trying to push you into a mold, then there is good reason to expect the fool will make you seem to fit. One can hardly expect to reason with a fool. Anything you say to a fool will most likely be misinterpreted, since we are talking to a fool. If we don't like the mold that the fool is trying to push us into, then it is going to be a very frustrating experience. It doesn't drive people away because they are ashamed of fitting the mold; it drives people away because they are annoyed by the experience of talking to fools.

Hence why I don't speak to people who have made comments talking about all women in this very thread. I don't address anything they say and I simply ignore them. They've already shown themselves to be someone I have decided not to associate with and so I will not. While I've seen them paint women with a broad brush, I've determined from their individual actions that they're not worth my time. If one is arguing that women shouldn't be concerned by what anyone says about women and should only be concerned about what is thought of them individually, that doesn't erase systemic issues. These are the same men who think that women need to prove something to them to be considered worthy of respect. I don't waste my time with crap like that or people like that. They may shout into the void all they like but I don't read anything they say. That's one of the aspects of this type of board that you guys say is the "good" part. That people can behave badly and you can just scroll by. I do! But if I had to do that on every single community board, I'd get very very very tired of it. This is why I like being in places where abuse isn't tolerated.

As an aside: The concept of free speech is false. When you are in a private space like a business or a website–there is no such thing as free speech. Free speech is a distinctly American myth. If you say something that is widely regarded as inappropriate, the community you're in has absolutely no obligation to suffer you. Yes. This sounds scary for people who really want to be in that community–wow what if you end up on the wrong side of that? But why would you? Do you not trust yourself to be kind? That's really all it comes down to: Be kind and everything else falls into place behind it. If you cannot do that, then it's time for a good cup of tea with a therapist to work through why that is.

As for everyone else: Yeah. We can scroll past people behaving badly…but we shouldn't have to. I like knowing that people are complex and multifaceted. I like knowing that these dudes who are into gore porn of women getting ripped apart can actually be really sweet and loving people irl. Trolls on gurochan just confirm to outsiders looking in what they automatically assume about those who consume this type of content: that guro-lovers aren't people–they're trolls. Eventually, with enough trolls in a community, rational people will just leave and then all you'll have to entertain you are trolls. If you want that, that's great. But I don't want that, and you don't want that, and nobody really wants that…except maybe trolls.