On 5/31/06, Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com wrote:
But. On the other hand:
If you honestly believe, in this society, that there is no difference between saying "I am a Christian" and "I am a Satanist", you are either being wilfully ignorant, or disruptive to make a point. And it's exactly this sort of wilfulness, disruption, and point-making that gives rise to big problems with those seemingly silly, unimportant userboxes.
There's a difference between "they're the same" and "we should treat them the same".
This kerfuffle is not about anything related to comparative religious studies or social aspects of Christianity and Satanism. It's about consensus-less WP policy being applied starting with the tiny relatively defenseless minority.
If the action would likely result in Tony's being desysopped if applied to say the Christian userbox, then perhaps he shouldn't do it to the Satanist or Zorostrian or other fringe religions, either. Either the policy is ok, in which case a blanket application can be imposed, or it isn't, in which case "getting away with it" by starting with the tiny despised minority religions is blatantly offensive to me.
I kicked up the ANI not because I object to T2; I object to a point of view, selective application of T2. If it were applied globally to the religious userboxes, I wouldn't have objected at all.
-george william herbert gherbert@retro.com / george.herbert@gmail.com