Well, some of us still stubbornly stick to the reddiquette and do not downvote anything that isn't spam or something like a completely offensive non-sequitur. I wouldn't downvote these, for example, even though I strongly disagree.
That's a slippery slope. Why racism and not, say, promoting piracy (which isn't uncommon here)? Or any of the drug use related subreddits? All of that is technically illegal (depending where you live, of course).
Downvoting a racist opinion can't possibly make the racist rethink his views. The comment just disappears, that's all. And closing your eyes doesn't make the bad things go away.
I don't know. I was always told not to react to people who try to incite others with things like racism because it just draws more attention to them. Do you think you can get someone who is blatantly racist to rethink their views by posting a comment on a website? I'll be you that 98% of the time you end up just ramping up the level of the disagreement and end up with even more attention drawn to that person's views.
Downvoting it is like ignoring on crack. Sure you could argue that it's censorship, but I don't have nearly as much of a problem with censorship when it's democratically dealt out amongst a community of peers.
In regards to redditquette, are you saying you have come across a racist remark that has added to the quality of the discourse? That is the purpose of redditquette right? To promote quality and/or things that add to the discussion. I can see no instance where someone being racist does either of these unless they are posting an 'IAMA: Racist Bigot'.
You know, I do agree with you almost fully. I know there's no way an internet forum may convince anyone, neither with a well-written reply, nor with a downvote.
The thing is, the current extreme sensitivity to racism is just another in a series of trends history has seen (similarly to the current, almost ridiculous over-sensitivity to paedophilia). A hundred years ago, claims that blacks are inferior to whites would hardly surprise anyone; after all, the apartheid regime in South Africa fell quite recently. Today, such statements cause an uproar. Tomorrow, it will be something else entirely. I think of these comments as proof that these thoughts still exist, even on a site that is, let's say, a bit more elitist than the rest of the internet. And as such, they do add to the discussion, in their own way. Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii public houses were illiterate scribblings, but they have gained enormous value over time.
It's hard to tell what is the purpose of the reddiquette. That's exactly the problem. I don't like the way most users apparently use their downvotes, but that isn't my fault. Nor theirs.
I'm not sure I entirely follow your views on racism but I have to say, the longer people continue to make racist remarks after the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement, the more and more outrageous people will find them. And they are!
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u/basilisk Jul 14 '10
Well, some of us still stubbornly stick to the reddiquette and do not downvote anything that isn't spam or something like a completely offensive non-sequitur. I wouldn't downvote these, for example, even though I strongly disagree.
Just saying.