The thread was discussing the case of Quentin Van Meter being allowed to give a talk at the UWA (University of Western Australia). ABC (Australia) link
I protested that Van Meter had a right to host a talk even if they or myself disagreed with what he said. I do not accept everything Van Meter says but I believe he has a right to be controversial and contrary all the same. The standard response was something like "hate speech is not free speech" yadda yadda yadda. Engaging in conversation was fruitless as expected. Closed minds are like that and I have noticed that trans activists are more closed minded than most and are VERY enthusiastic deplatformers. They will not tolerate ANY dissent AT ALL. There are exceptions of course like Blaire White but as a rule transactivism is very strident.
This was my first comment:
I have listened to Dr Quentin Van Meter on the Bettina Arndt YT channel and he is not at all "hateful'. It's cheating to shut someone down by making bald face claims that someone is a "hater". He has different opinions but that is not hate. If he is so obviously wrong then there is no harm in engagement with him and no harm in allowing him to speak. Let the public decide if his opinions have merit. Those who want to hear both sides should not be "nannied" "for their own good". That is such an elitist position. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8_HavG7u9sThat was the general theme of my discussion. After being called "a white cis guy" (because addressing the substance or lack thereof is not a habit of transactivists) I then posited that an outsider far from being disqualified has the advantage of an objective perspective that an insider does not have. This challenge to their thinking obviously means I must be a "troll" and a "loon". A reflex resort when one's position is challenged by disagreement.
The thread petered out and for 3 months that was that. A forgotten exchange. One of many I have engaged in on social media. But, suddenly 3 months latter I received this message.
Why 3 months? The r/transgenderau moderator or someone subscribed to it was smarting for 3 months. before banning me from making comments.
I took up the suggestion of contacting the moderator and we had a short exchange over a few days.
The exchange can be summarised as "you can sprout elsewhere", "I wouldn't shit on your carpet" and "this is not a political space". I challenged these excuses by 1) that wanting to deplatform a critic does indeed make the thread very political and 2) they were themselves "shitting" on the UWA carpet while protesting my criticism and 3) I questioned their commitment to allow critics, myself or others, to speak elsewhere when the evidence shows that transactivists have form for shutting down and deplatforming critics.
So with these points made what was the response? A concession? A reassessment of his position? Oh no, not at all. No, the response was to temporarily ban me from communicating with the moderator for 72 hours. The response to be questioned, challenged and having inconsistencies and contradictions pointed out is #Censorship.
[–]subreddit message via /r/transgenderau[M] sentYou have been banned from participating in r/transgenderau. You can still view and subscribe to r/transgenderau, but you won't be able to post or comment.
If you have a question regarding your ban, you can contact the moderator team for r/transgenderau by replying to this message.
Reminder from the Reddit staff: If you use another account to circumvent this subreddit ban, that will be considered a violation of the Content Policy and can result in your account being suspended from the site as a whole.[–]to /r/transgenderau sentI am struck by the appeal for "for space" while wanting to make unsafe outside space which opposes your position. This is a double standard. You want to deplatform others so your statement "You can sprout whatever bullshit...." is not actually a heart felt sentiment on your part.
