Thoughts on the Ban…

pepperapb:

For those that don’t follow the MTG side of things, this might not interest you as much: Long story short, some folks have been harassed, others have been banned because of it.

Now, I have been seeing the usual ‘they did nothing wrong’ posts here and on twitter. So I’m going to make things a touch more clear here:

Jeremy of MTGHeadquarters/unsleevedmedia/thequartering was hit with a perma-ban in all things Magic for harassment. This is very good news. For too long, his brand of garbage has been deeply rooted in just about every corner of really every fandom if we are honest. For Magic, this means LGS, Protour/grand prix, Twitch chats, Twitter, Amino, and here in our little corner of the net. He is one of many, but it’s a solid start. Wizards, as well as our community as a whole have put up with the garbage enough and it’s time for everyone to get with the program of ‘inclusivity’ or just get out. Getting a perma-ban is really the least that can happen to the sort of crass, garbage spewing, super negative, red-pill swallowing, alt-right/nazi sort that Jeremy is.

In short, good riddance.

As for Travis Woo. Even setting aside his ‘thought experiment’ about Hitler (please read as much sarcasm as you can into ‘thought experiment’), and even ignoring his racist slurs against Japanese people, and even accepting his word that he didn’t know what was going on in his little ‘Magic for Bad’ facebook group (which, seriously? You named it that, what did you freaking expect would happen?), there is an important fact that remains: He was creator and mod for that group, and as per his statements it was months ago the ‘First pick draft’ ladies thing happened. My dude? You are still responsible. You DO NOT turn of your alerts for a room you create/mod. That shows a lack of respect and an ignoring of responsibility. And on top of that, rather then deleting it, he just locked it.

Look, I get it in some cases, you are worried about these toxic people finding new homes… thing is, they will only learn (if ever) by being shunned for their actions. If every group does this, kicks out of or closes down ever room that these jerks are hanging out in, while informing them as to the why, even if they are thick, they are going to eventually start to think that maybe the problem is with them. Not all of them, mind, but more then you would expect would start to come around.

Some of these jerks are just brats that were never forced to grow up (ironic consider many of them think folks like us are the babies because we ‘can’t handle a few words’).

Leaving them to just fester without appropriate action can actually cause the issues to be come worse not better.

And the cherry on top was his active stating on twitter about ‘disavowing’ the actions of folks like Jeremy and his own facebook group. My dude, again: You DON’T GET THAT LUXURY. Your room, your responsibility. You accept responsibility, you accept the mistake you made, you make apologizes as appropriate, and you SHUT THE DANG THING DOWN. He did not do these things. Part of me feels like if it were just this one thing, that -maybe- a year ban is a bit much… But then you bring back in his history, and it almost doesn’t feel enough.

Be happy, Travis Woo, that you got just a year with option to appeal. Your history puts you into a precarious position

Four others tied to these issues were also banned for 4 months, but I have no further info on them, so not going to go on any longer on this part…

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Now, all this said: Things everyone should take from this:

1) “They are just words” is not a justification. “Just a joke” isn’t a defense. And “They did nothing wrong” is just a flat out lie. As far as Jeremy alone goes, even if you discount the tweets in the Professor’s video, there where long enough clips of Jeremy’s actual voice and statements that a clear case can be made. If you honestly still think he did nothing wrong, then there is literally no convincing you and no point in continuing any conversation.

2) Creating a place the like of “Magic for bad”, even as a joke, has large potential for harm. If it was meant to be satire, remember that satire is not an easy thing. Far too often, even well meaning satire can be used very easily for awful. A satire, poorly aimed/understood is no different from the real thing. A room like Magic for Bad should have either been sharply modded or never created in the first place.

What we need is more places of honesty and respect rather then more places of sarcasm and “satire”. Sarcasm and satire only work in small doses, and are even harder to create and spread on the net due mostly in part to who many social media platforms are text based. Sarcasm especially can get lost without the right tone behind it. A place of honesty and respect will build a stronger, healthier community then one based on jokes that are assumed everyone understood (and that is giving benefit of the doubt that said ‘jokes’ are not just being an asshole and using a BS defense)

3) Putting an emphasis here: We, as a community, on tumblr, twitter, at your lgs, on twitch, at protours and grand prix, need to respect and hold each other accountable. To raise the standard and to continue make the world around us that much more welcoming.

We are all human. We are all deserving of at least the most basic of respects. And Magic, as a game and a culture, is not the property of one aspect of this community, but for the whole.

IMPORTANT:

 If you feel the need to defend the named people above, or people like them; if you honestly think that the Prof’s vid didn’t have any evidence, if you think we are all ‘snowflakes’ or some garbage like that, and especially if you are some alt-right, red pill, nazi, unfollow me.

No, I’m not joking. I have zero time for you. This post is not a debate, it’s a statement of history and purpose going forward. We, as a community on tumblr and twitter, came together over the last week plus. Many of us declared a standard of respect and acceptance. We raised a banner around each other.

Tolerant of all but Intolerance.

A paradox, but one necessary for society to grow in a healthy, vibrant way. And Harassment is a form of intolerance. It’s someone saying ‘no, you don’t belong’. I’m sorry, no. People like Jeremy are like brats in a crib, crying that other kids are getting toys too. Stop being a brat. Share. Be welcoming or get out. That simple.

A cosplayer is doing something because of passion, because of love.
A spike can even show compassion for a timmy/tammy
White, Black, Yellow, Red, and any others, all are human
And let love be love, let people be who they are, even if it doesn’t make sense to you.

It’s that simple, and it’s not hard.