I’ve told this story on Lemmy a couple of times since being banned from Blahaj Zone, and I’ll tell it again.
I once posted a meme to a Blahaj community I moderated in which someone named Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net was attacking a trans person. It was a political meme, and I’ll try to avoid saying what the political viewpoint was so that this thread doesn’t get derailed. But as part of the meme, Obvious_Troll was being transphobic, and the reader was expected to agree that transphobia is bad and Obvious_Troll is… an obvious troll. The username wasn’t actually important to the meme, I was just including a picture of a Lemmy comment and had to include a name, so I made one up.
Ada then messaged me to say that the post would be removed unless I redacted Obvious_Troll’s name. Ada said that Obvious_Troll is a real, trans lemmy user, and I’m not to attack them. There is nobody on hexbear named Obvious_Troll, I made that username up.
Read bottom to top:
So Ada defended a fictional transphobic troll, deciding they were trans for some reason. The troll’s username was not the point of the meme, the point was what they were saying. So I made up a nonsense username to support the point of the meme. I don’t think anyone would choose the username Obvious_Troll unless they wanted to be seen as a troll. As near as I can tell, Ada defended Obvious_Troll because they were from Hexbear, and Ada seems to think every Hexbear user is trans. Even a made-up one who wants to be seen as a troll and who harasses trans people. Why did Ada hyperfocus on the instance name, and not notice that the username was ridiculous? I don’t know. I don’t understand it.
Blahaj is intended to be a safe space for trans people. And Ada’s intention with asking for redaction of this fake made up name was, somehow, to protect a trans person. And that’s good. But it’s really weird that Ada thought the way to protect trans people, is by defending fictional transphobic trolls.
EDIT: So, the discussion got derailed not by politics as I expected, but by Ada claiming Obvious_Troll is a real person again. Here’s the original post in which Obvious_Troll is being transphobic and the reader is supposed to agree that transphobia is bad:
To be fair, blahaj zone is a bit of a mess. Let’s not forget people trying to navigate the insane user insisting that their pronouns were goddess and going mental over claiming that people who didn’t capitalize properly were misgendering them.
At some point, you have to set limits as to what you will tolerate. I understand that an all inclusive instance would be reluctant to do so. However, you’ll end up with MAGAts doing shit like this for fun, just to see an entire instance bend over backwards to try to accommodate, and you will get genuinely insane people doing the same thinking that they are doing nothing out of the ordinary.
Interestingly enough, while I am not part of the lgbtq+tia community, I am a staunch ally and even I feel as though bz is a place I want to steer far away from.
Moderating that instance must be fucking exhausting.
One of the users on My discord server says someone is lying about Me. I assure you, My pronouns are not goddess. I do not appreciate being lied about, I do not appreciate being misgendered, I do not appreciate being called insane, and I do not appreciate you spreading rumours about Me across the fediverse. I have reported your comment for harassment and I expect you to leave Me alone from now on.
Quit making fake nonsense up. That story didn’t happen. And recognising that a fictional character is fictional is not a question of tolerance, it’s a question of basic functional ability required to live in the world.
That story didn’t happen.
Then what is this? https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/14491263
It’s not someone insisting that their pronouns are goddess. It’s someone insisting that Their pronouns are capitalised. If transphobes are going to attack random people for existing, they should at least put in the bare minimum effort to be factually correct. Otherwise they deserve to be laughed at and called stupid liars.
So I’m a transphobe for relaying an incident that actually happened now?
Or am I a transphobe for suggesting that guardrails are a good idea? I’m not suggesting gatekeeping pronouns or gender, but I would put forth that claiming one’s gender as “goddess” and that their pronouns must be capitalized and if you don’t you’re misgendering them has about as much validity as some maga asshole saying that they identify as an attack helicopter.
Of course inclusiveness is important, but it is also important to have a firm foot on reality and recognize ridiculousness for what it is, and possibly more importantly, call it out.
Unfortunately, in the trans community, it has veered towards an “all things are valid” approach, however while that is great sentiment to have, it breaks down the moment someone abuses it in bad faith, whether it be a maga asshole, or someone claiming that they are a goddess (and should be recognized as such) and that their preferred pronouns MUST be capitalized or it’s you misgendering them.
Four years ago, I realised I was goddessgender, and My goddess-mother suggested I try out capitalised pronouns.
To be fair, blahaj zone is a bit of a mess. Let’s not forget people trying to navigate the insane user insisting that their pronouns were goddess and going mental over claiming that people who didn’t capitalize properly were misgendering them.
That was something indeed
This community is to catalogue drama, not start it.
The whole thing is a mess
It’s entertaining though, and that’s the important part.
I once posted a meme to a Blahaj community I moderated in which someone named Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net
Hexbear was defederated from Blahaj Zone long before you were active here, so your recollection is flawed.
If you’re talking about the person I think, then that account is from aussie.zone, where they still have an active account, which would be unlikely if it was simply a troll account.
If it is the person I think, then they were accused of being a troll because they used pronouns that many people found challenging.
I’m not going to gatekeep pronouns. If someone trolls, I’ll respect their pronouns even as I ban then
If you’ve got an issue with that, blahaj.zone was never the right space for you. If that’s “fedidrama” for you, then blahaj.zone was never the right space for you.
We’re talking about a fictional username that OP made up, you do understand that right?
As near as I can tell, Ada defended Obvious_Troll because they were from Hexbear, and Ada seems to think every Hexbear user is trans
There are no hexbear based accounts on blahaj.zone and have not been for a long time.
Yes, it was a meme. It was fiction. There wasn’t really a user called Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net, they never existed. They don’t have an account on aussie.zone because they’re imaginary. There was never a debate about their pronouns because I made them up. They only existed in the meme you asked me to censor their name from.
So you “ironically” posted a transphobic meme, in response to nothing in particular, and the drama is that it was moderated?
I’ll stand by my original comment. If you take issue with that, then blahaj.zone was never the space for you. I would do it again
The meme was about how transphobia is bad. You asked me to censor Obvious_Troll’s name because I was framing Obvious_Troll’s transphobic opinion as bad. You decided the fictional transphobic troll is actually a real trans person I was attacking, so you asked me to censor their name. Come on, I explained all of this in the post body which you keep quoting, and there’s you in the screenshot clearly stating that I’m “encouraging dumping on that person”, who is the fictional transphobic troll. I can understand you not remembering something that happened a couple months ago, but I explained it all in the post, and you can see it. Can you… do you lack the ability to tell the difference between facts and fiction? Is that what’s going on? I’m just bewildered by this conversation. It’s like you’re only reading one in every 10 words and just jumping between random conclusions.
person
Instance. Ada’s message says instance. It’s even in your screenshot.
That’s after I said the name was fake. Ada started out thinking Obvious_Troll was a real person, and only realised they were fake when I said so. Then she changed her request to censoring the instance instead of the person. You need to read the screenshot bottom to top, because Lemmy puts more recent private messages at the top. I know it’s annoying.
I reread your message again, and it makes sense that even if the username is made up, it’s better to not mention a specific instance in this kind of posts.
You made a reasonable request.
It’s as if the entire interaction was fictional, and you didn’t realise.
What? Aussie zone? Pronouns? What? Am I witnessing a stroke?
I made the troll up. They don’t exist! There is no account with that username. What are you talking about?
I remember that user too, they indeed seem to be a real user
They’re not. I made them up for a meme. I created a meme where someone said a bad opinion, and I gave them the fake username Obvious_Troll because I wanted the reader to think they were obviously a troll. If Obvious_Troll is real, can you give me a link to their profile? Any of their posts?
I’m talking about the aussie.zone user with the specific pronouns. I just read a thread from a while ago about their pronouns, you are actually in that thread too.
I can’t find the meme you mention in the OP as it has been removed, but it might be that Ada thought you were speaking about that person and asked you to remove that mention.
We’ll probably never know as you’ve been banned and your posts removed.
I still have a copy of the meme. I didn’t want to post it here because I didn’t want this thread to be an argument over politics, but I see we’re already derailed with Ada claiming the meme actually happened. This is the meme:
See? The username is Obvious_Troll. This has nothing to do with any aussie.zone user. The troll’s pronouns are not a topic of discussion in the meme. As you can see in the screenshot of my conversation with Ada a month ago (actually probably two months now, that’s an old screenshot), we were talking about a Spider-Man glasses meme. This is that meme. The person in the meme doesn’t exist.
Ok, now I recognise the scenario you are talking about, I’ll respond with specifics.
These are the messages I sent you, when you reached out to me asking to set up a community on blahaj.zone
Despite these messages, after you created the community, the second post you made to the it was a meme targeting hexbear.
tl;dr, The conditions were clear. You agreed to them. You then ignored them. The only drama here is of your making
You were acting in bad faith when you reached out, and you’re acting in bad faith now
This post isn’t about the instance the fictional troll is from. I made a post with a transphobic troll in it, and picked a username, instance, and post name that fit with the message. I picked a silly name for an obvious troll, a silly post title for a post about abstaining over Palestine, and a silly instance for the troll to be from. I didn’t really think any deeper about the association than “Troll needs an instance, I’ll pick the one known for having trolls”. And when you asked me to redact the instance, I did, and the post remained up until you deleted the community. I always followed the rules and did as you told me on Blahaj. This post isn’t about the instance redaction, that has always been a non-issue. This post is about you seeing a meme about a fictional transphobic troll and assuming they’re a real, trans, person. Which has now happened twice! Why do you keep assuming every transphobic troll you hear about is trans? It’s weird.
So to clarify, at the time you made your post here, the drama was that I briefly thought a faked screenshot was real?
I said the user didn’t exist five times in this post. I just counted all the times I said “fictional”, “fake”, or “made-up”. And then you left a comment saying Obvious_Troll is an aussie zone user, the transphobic troll uses neopronouns, and I’m transphobic for calling them a troll. Multiple people told you that Obvious_Troll doesn’t exist, and your response was that I must be mistaken about Obvious_Troll not existing, because you defederated from Hexbear. What??? Why do you keep insisting this person is real, and why do you keep insisting they’re trans? What quality of this fictional troll telling trans people to kill themselves repeatedly convinces you that they’re a trans person?
EDIT: Sneaky, sneaky. Editing your comment after I replied, so it would look like I didn’t answer your question. If you want me to answer a new question, ask it in a new comment. Don’t go back and change history to make yourself look better.
Interesting, thanks for sharing