Thanks, I couldn’t find it.

I’m going to drop a bit here. Normally, I don’t take bait like this, but I think it relevant to the overall question of whether or not the posted event was power tripping in that it goes to evaluation of the person making the post, in the context of their pronoun proclivities.

Neopronouns are a pain in the ass. They aren’t a bad thing in and of themselves. They make people think. That’s good by itself, but unfortunately, they don’t work beyond being an interesting and compelling thought experiment. They’re never going to be respected because of how the brain works with language patterns. Well, but in English anyway, your could probably get them working in Esperanto, or other languages, but since each neopronoun needs integration and conjugation as it arises, you can’t make it part of early language development in English without also screwing up normative language acquisition even more than English already does.

Drag knows this. Drag may or may not agree, but drag has to know this because it’s evident across the board, in almost every situation where it comes up.

And that is where this post becomes one where the mod accused of power tripping, isn’t.

See, there’s this thing called shit stirring. It isn’t the same as rage baiting, or trolling, though it overlaps some, and very commonly overlaps with sealioning. And that is what drag does a lot of, shit stirring.

Now, as I said before, I don’t think the ban was about the specific comment made in this case, but as a result of repeated shit stirring by drag. Drag may not consider it shit stirring, and may have even convinced themselves that it isn’t. But drag has a long habit of making targeted posts that are worded in just the right way to claim plausible deniability of trolling, but are very obviously going to stir shit.

Why? No clue. Could it be some fundamental disconnect where drag just doesn’t get Edgar they’re doing? Maybe. I’ve met people that stir shit and think they’re just having a conversation.

Could it be that they think they’re doing something socially motivated? Maybe. I’ve seen people play word games and sea lion with a seemingly genuine intent the make people think. Alas, it ends up eventually failing because it’s a dick move. Nobody is going to be able to consistently nail every attempt at it. So they’ll end up just being a dick here and there instead. They lean too hard into the bit and it flops.

Could it be a troll akin to what has been done before, where by pretending to advocate for neo pronouns, the troll is actually making a mockery of trans people in general? I kinda doubt it myself. Drag does tend to advocate for trans rights overall, so it doesn’t add up to a malicious troll. Which is separate from whether outi not neopronouns hurt that cause or not (which isn’t part of this, but I’ve seen it pointed to in some drag-related drama).

This might give the impression that I have beef with drag. This is not the case. Until a post like this comes up, I don’t really think about them at all. It’s one of those internet things that’s curious, but effectively meaningless outside the forum it occurs on.

I think the idea is interesting, and it’s made me think harder about neopronouns than I otherwise would have. Didn’t change my conclusions, but that’s tangential.

However, drag, the ban was deserved, just not for the specific comment you made. You’re dead right that what you said was not a call for violence. That it took that long for the ban to happen is surprising, but it really shouldn’t have happened with “calling for violence” given because it’s a bullshit reason. The rest of that ban reason is perfectly valid. You do have a long history of stirring shit, intentionally, or through some lack of social and language awareness. The why doesn’t matter when your written words are still the same as someone would use if they were doing it as a bad actor rather than some naive or tone deaf person with the best intent.

Seriously here, no hate, I’m just telling you that if your goal isn’t shit stirring, that you are way off in your understanding of how English, public discourse, and basic manners work.

What in the world are you talking about. Everything can be tracked here.

I’m leaning toward it being mangione, but I also think the substack post could have been posted by the FBI to pad their evidence. The gun, money, and note found on him would be easily planted by the cops. I don’t value police testimony in this situation at all, given the “faraday cage” they described and their long, long history of planting or exaggerating evidence.

Especially because it’s not exactly hard to find people who talk shit about the health insurance industry and “like” quotes by the unabomber. I am not personally capable of violence, but I’m sure I’ve said “the industrial revolution and its consequences” in response to kafkaesque advanced capitalism or news of yet another climate change marker.

They look similar and mangione fits the vibe of the shooting, but I do think that the FBI could probably find 2-3 more people with the same vibe who look similar if they really had to- it’s a big country full of people with grudges against insurance and he’s not too distinctive looking.

Oh, someone definitely planned for that fact. But drag isn’t quite sure who. Either Luigi took the fall on behalf of the CEO shooter because he agreed with him and wanted to protect him, or the cops combed social media to find a fall guy with similar appearance and views. Maybe a combination of both. The only sure thing is that the story the government is telling us doesn’t make sense. The guy perfectly planned an assassination with an exit strategy, and then showed a fake ID to the cops and started shaking when it didn’t clear? The feds are lying about something.