censorship

[bionnaki]

In the thread Poll: Israel: Illegitimate State ? (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=355767), posters were asked and polled of their opinion of the legitimacy of the state of Israel. And as such, posters stated their opinion. Following that cue, I stated my opinion without any intention of trolling nor offending nor attacking anyone on a personal level. I simply stated my opinion of Israel. I wrote:



Israel rests on stolen land and Zionism is morally equal to Nazism. That is my position.


I do believe and can demonstrate with historical accuracy that the land was in fact stolen. And I can demonstrate that the ideology of Zionism is morally equal to Nazism.

This not an attack; this is a critique of an ideology.

If I were to have written instead "Stalinism is morally equal to Nazism" I do not think I would have my post censored. But of course, providing a critique of Israel that goes against the mainstream sentiment regardless of its logical merit and politically-correct knee jerk reactions always seem to prevent any sort of positive discussion (which will always and should always include unpopular critiques).

So, I ask my post to be reinstated and moderators/administration to moderate discussion objectively and fairly.

[bionnaki]

edit:

If I were to have written instead "Stalinism is morally equal to Nazism" I do not think I would have had my post censored. But of course, providing a critique of Israel that goes against the mainstream regardless of its logical merit will always be responded with a politically-correct kneejerk reaction. This type of censorship prevents any sort of positive discussion and creates a chilling-effect. Discussion of such matters should always include unpopular critiques otherwise we are not seeing all sides of the issue. That is how we move foward.

[bionnaki]

And I should state that what I wrote fits entirely into the context of the thread - a thread in which popular and unpopular opinions of Israel were polled. I have never stated my opinion in other threads in which the word "Israel" has happen to come up; doing so would be inappropriate and flamebaiting. However, the thread was designed and intended to discuss such opinions of mine.

[matthew]

I will let another Admin give the final word on this. I am directly involved in the controversy so I choose to recuse myself from the final resolution here.

That said, here is my reasoning for jailing the thread and issuing the infraction.

Comparing anyone or anything to the Nazis is never productive. Period. This has been true as long as communication has occurred on the internet. In fact, there's a name for the phenomenon: Godwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law).

Your post came across as so final in its judgment and so harsh in its tone that there was no way anyone could have responded to it in a logical manner. In addition, the Nazi stigma is still extremely strong and gives rise to great and powerful emotions. Virtually no one wants to be compared to the Nazis.

By the way, you will notice that I did not give you an infraction for your next post in the thread (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2144654&postcount=89) equating Israel's actions with ethnic cleansing. While I find the comparison rather ridiculous, it could be discussed and argued against without the emotion that the Nazi tag was sure to have...this is evidenced by BLTicklemonster's reply to you (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2145016&postcount=90).