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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Solution to global warming: Censor the skeptics
2013-12-18

Thanks to Robert Stacy McCain and Ace's RD Brewer:

The left really are a buncha fascists. Can't square your arguments with the data? Can't argue your agenda? There's a solution: Silence the opposition!

Read the comments. You get the uneasy feeling that just a little nudge and we have these folks happily arguing for gun confiscation.

F*cking scary, if you ask me.

From TFA:


...The answer was found in the form of proactive moderation. About a year ago, we moderators became increasingly stringent with deniers. When a potentially controversial submission was posted, a warning would be issued stating the rules for comments (most importantly that your comment isnÂ’t a conspiracy theory) and advising that further violations of the rules could result in the commenter being banned from the forum.

As expected, several users reacted strongly to this. As a site, reddit is passionately dedicated to free speech,
Only for one side though
so we expected considerable blowback. But the widespread outrage we feared never materialized, and the atmosphere greatly improved.

We discovered that the disruptive faction that bombarded climate change posts was actually substantially smaller than it had seemed. Just a small handful of people ran all of the most offensive accounts. What looked like a substantial group of objective skeptics to the outside observer was actually just a few bitter and biased posters with more opinions then evidence.
Sounds like the climate change crowd
Negating the ability of this misguided group to post to the forum quickly resulted in a change in the culture within the comments. Where once there were personal insults and bitter accusations, there is now discussion of the relevant aspects of the research. Instead of (almost comically) paranoid and delusional conspiracy theories, we have knowledgeable users explaining complicated concepts to non-scientists who are simply interested in understanding the research.
Amazing, that. Stop opposition and now you have one side talking about climate change...
While we wonÂ’t claim /r/science is perfect, users seem happy with the changes made.
You mean approved users

Read it all. Global warming advocates are the worst of the worst when it comes to free speech.
Posted by:badanov

#6  so Reddit is off-limits forever, A&E over censoring Phil Robertson, let's get it going....pretty soon my DVR will be empty and so will their pockets
Posted by: Harry Hupimble6531   2013-12-18 22:03  

#5  What i've found amusing is that if someone starts on about GW, I simply tell them "I'm sorry, I'm not a member of their religion." They get the funniest look on their face and then start spluttering. And if they try and make claims about 'science' or what they think is science, you just continue, "Please stop preaching your religion to me."
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division   2013-12-18 19:56  

#4   All the junk that's fit to debunk. Of course there is quite a bit about climate change.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-12-18 17:52  

#3  I hardly ever read Slashdot anymore - used to be an avid reader/commenter. Its getting way to progressive and more political than about techie stuff anymore. Used to be a pretty good site for techie stuff. Used to be.

Now it's regulated to my 'Junk' bookmark folder.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2013-12-18 13:13  

#2  There are many sites where comments questioning global warming are routinely deleted. Slashdot is one. Then they get on their soapbox about how the right is anti-science.
Posted by: Iblis   2013-12-18 10:58  

#1  Global warming advocates are the worst of the worst when it comes to free speech.

Nope, they just have a bigger scope than other academics.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-12-18 09:21  

00:00