Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JackMann" data-source="post: 8802684" data-attributes="member: 7038283">Been following this thread a while, decided to finally register an account.So, the thing is that to some extent, you have to pick whom you tolerate. By tolerating bigots, you're making a space where they can push other people away. Lanasa hates black people, Jewish people, homosexual people, etc. If you allow him space in the hobby, he will do everything he can to push them out. By giving him that space, you allow that to happen.The desire not to exclude is, to some extent, a noble one. And an understandable one in a hobby where many of us have been made to feel excluded. However, that can, and has, been taken too far, and you can end up making the community both less welcoming for those who are truly marginalized, and you can make it dangerous for the vulnerable. I'm reminded of the situation with Walter Breen. Walter Breen was a pedophile. He was a notorious pedophile in the science fiction community. It was an open secret that he had molested a number of children. So in 1963, it was decided by the WorldCon committee to ban him from the next year's convention. This sparked a huge debate. "Sure," people said, "The guy likes to have sex with children, but is that really a good reason to kick him out of the community?" Lanasa is not as dangerous as Breen, but he is someone who wishes to victimize others. And this is entirely a choice he has made. No one forced him to be racist. Anti-semitism isn't an unalterable facet of his character. He has chosen to be hateful. No one is trying to exclude him for things he has no control over. They are excluding him for the decisions he has made and the actions he has chosen. "Excluding the Nazi is as bad as excluding the Jew" is a blinkered take that effectively sides with the Nazi.</blockquote>

Verification