Hi Everyone.

I just wanted to chime in with my two cents regarding some of the back and forth between BE and ELS recently.

I don't really want to get too deep in the weeds, but I've been made to feel uncomfortable by some economics sub regulars in the past. For instance, /u/commentsrus and I had a disagreement a year ago in which he called me a "drama queen," yet insisted it had nothing to do with my sexual orientation. I found the claim of ignorance dubious, but I let it go then and there.

Anyways, given that commenting was so uncivil, I sort of shifted to lurking instead of interacting at that point for the most part. Although I did go out of my way to chronicle the last argument between ELS and BE users.

I simply want to make one point, and then I'll go away and you can delete this thread, or bury it, or make fun of me, or whatever you all would like to do.

It appears that you have at least two minority users in /u/r4ndpaulsbrilloballs and /u/seruko who are saying they do not feel comfortable in your subreddits. They may be ridiculous and over the top about it, but that appears to be the thrust of the major complaint.

It also appears to me that you have a user in /u/HE3-1 who has at least publicly promoted the abolition of civil rights and suggested that religious minorities be legally discriminated against to a Jewish user, and who told an African-American user that he "should be put down for the betterment of humanity," and that he "should be taken out back and shot."

Now, regardless of any other accusations or over the top language, you have some concrete evidence of a user advocating discrimination and threatening minority users with violence.

Maybe there's no direct connection there. Maybe /u/HE3-1 just wants businesses to have the legal right to discriminate based on race and religion, and his desire that an African-American user be murdered is completely separate and unrelated. I personally find that possibility unlikely. I suspect instead that such a person is probably bigoted at his core.

It is not that shocking. There are bigots all over reddit, and the economics subreddits are not /r/coontown.

Still, what disturbs me more than anything is that the users of this subreddit in general seem to be taking the side of the user who wants to legalize segregation and who cannot stop himself from making death threats against the side of the users who say they feel uncomfortable here because of their minority status.

So I think the mod team here really has some soul searching to do.

The fact that this issue has come up repeatedly for over a year means there are at least some perceived deep scars here.

Maybe it's time to ask yourselves:

"Are we the baddies?"

And maybe it's time for a Rule VII that suggests something like Rule 1 in /r/politicaldiscussion.

Keep it civil. Do not personally insult other Redditors, or post racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory content. Constructive debate is good; name calling is not.

Just for personal reference to /u/commentsrus, I do not hold a grudge against you. I still think that a politer way to deal with the situation would have been to say, "I'm apologize, the insult was not meant that way, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," rather than to get defensive and say, "Prove I knew you were gay when I called you a "drama queen!"" Reacting like that comes off as mean and unrepentant.

I think maybe /u/besttrousers could learn something from that lesson as well in any future interactions he has with ELS. Apologizing for perceived or unintentional transgressions is not a sign of weakness. It actually diffuses situations far better than demanding the aggrieved party provide proof to establish mens rea beyond a reasonable doubt like a rabid defense attorney.

I think /u/ponderay may have been right. It's clear to me that something should probably change before I just end up making yet another /r/subredditdrama post out of all this again.