Quoting Raphael Wegmann wegmann@psi.co.at:
On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 12:39:40PM +0000, Guy Chapman aka JzG wrote:
On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:53:08 +0530, "Relata Refero" refero.relata@gmail.com wrote:
"Even if admins were blocking a specific POV- so what?" Well, here's why that thinking might be dangerous: most banned editors are banned for disruptively arguing their POV, nor their POV. If we ban accounts on the basis of POVs like already banned editors, that would be a severe
error, and
compromise our neutrality, our effectiveness, and our ability to criticize ourselves.
There's some truth in this, but I don't see much evidence that people are being actively banned just for holding a POV, only for disruptively asserting it. I guess our tolerance for pedophilia activism and holocaust denial is pretty low, but the average holocaust denier engages in unambiguously banworthy editing (they are usually not too subtle in their biases).
Apart from invoking Godwin's law, I don't think your Reductio ad Nazium argument helps the discussion. No matter how outrageous the POV is, nobody should be banned for merely holding it.
This isn't a Godwin's law situation. He didn't compare people to Nazis and he didn't say that their POV was somehow intrinsically less worthy of respect. The above is an empirical remark. Please don't distort what people are saying.