par Chris Borst

Dear CMAQ Collective :

I understand that you are meeting this week to debate your editorial policy and what to do about the recent rash of sexist postings. It seems to me that your course of action is clear :

2. Once the relevance of a document is established, the validator will make sure that its content is free of sexist, racist, homophobic or hateful material. Any document thus deemed improper will be rejected.

I’m not sure what there is to debate.

Postings that generically defame all women, and, in particular, all feminists and their allies, are prima facie sexist. Sexism is the oppression of women. These postings are virulently misogynist, hateful and defamatory. They clearly contradict your stated policy.

Now, I see that the usual ploys are being used. Sexism is "discrimination on the basis of sex", so criticism of men is "sexist". The sexists have "freedom of speech" and "a right to their opinions", so chucking them is "authoritarian" and "discriminatory". We are familiar with this, are we not ? The capitalists claim routinely that we are bigoted authoritarians who just hate/envy rich people ("there’s nothing wrong with being rich") or Americans or whatever, who don’t accept that people should be able to follow their own preferences (like buying a Big Mac), and who just want to tyrannize over everyone. "Class struggle" is just something done by the poor against the rich, and only at the instigation of demagogic agitators and the permanently disgruntled. But we know what that really means, and we know how to respond.

Let us be clear : we are radicals, not liberals. We do not consider the freedom of the powerful to run roughshod over everyone else and the freedom of the oppressed to resist to be one and the same thing. Either CMAQ is a progressive, anti-sexist forum, or it is just another forum for the oppressors. This is do-or-die time, folks. This is where you choose a side. Are you, in fact, radical, anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-sexist, anti-racist, progressive, alternative ? Or are you more of the same ? There is no compromise, no middle ground.

When your site gets taken over by the Enemy, and you refuse to boot them off, then you’re done. They win. Pack it up and go home. Sure, it’s fine to allow the odd right-wing post of the "You’re wierd !" or "Die Commie Pinkos !" variety to stand. Nobody takes those seriously. But this is a concerted, overwhelming, sustained attack. You lose all credibility, everything that you’ve worked so hard to achieve, if you don’t resist with all your power. If you want to answer them with a liberal answer, go for it : "This is our site, and we don’t want this kind of shit on it. If you want to post this kind of nonsense, then do it on your own site, or on one of the hundreds of hate sites elsewhere on the web. CMAQ is for radicals, not misogynists."

There is only one valid solution. Delete all misogynist postings. Block all postings from the perpetrators, to the extent that is technically possible. Post a public apology for allowing the sexism to stand for so long.

You have a policy, stand up for it !

Yours truly,

Chris Borst

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Chris Borst