A Proposal of a Friendly Protest

[jasper_]

Recently it has come to our attention that the r-slur is no longer considered hate speech. As such, we are looking for anyone who is willing to join our peaceful protest against this decision. If you are interested in joining, please contact me or Stormy (@Cookie Kat).

Stormy: Starla#6166
My contact: laney#7740

 

[Cookie Kat]

If there are any staff who wish to discuss this privately, you know where to find me ^^

 

[jasper_]

Same here as well

 

[Cookie Kat]

Forgot to add if anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to message either me or Laney!! This is meant to be a PEACEFUL protest so rest assured there will be no flame wars or spamming. We will be commencing said protest within Manacube's guidelines.

 

[rew]

wait its actually not?????? LMAO POG!

 

[Cookie Kat]

This is so not pog on so many levels... maybe I'll just leave Manacube for good :)

 

[Blurpyfied]

Honestly here is my opinion on it. "Retarted" or " the r word" as you like to call it, I get why they moved it to disrespectful manner, but I feel like it was a bad decision. Someone with Autism on the server could be called that, and not know it means. They could be getting harassed, bullied, and or have something going on in real life, that's really bad and just play games to get away from it. I would honestly say if it was used it a disrespectful manner, put it as a Hatespeech mute/disrespectful one or combine both of them into one so like 3h hate speech and 3 hours disrespect and that would be 6 hours for Hatespeech/disrespect.

Hopefully I gave the staff a "good idea" but this is just my take on it.

 

[Cookie Kat]

Honestly here is my opinion on it. "Retarted" or " the r word" as you like to call it, I get why they moved it to disrespectful manner, but I feel like it was a bad decision. Someone with Autism on the server could be called that, and not know it means. They could be getting harassed, bullied, and or have something going on in real life, that's really bad and just play games to get away from it. I would honestly say if it was used it a disrespectful manner, put it as a Hatespeech mute/disrespectful one or combine both of them into one so like 3h hate speech and 3 hours disrespect and that would be 6 hours for Hatespeech/disrespect.

Hopefully I gave the staff a "good idea" but this is just my take on it.

Disrespect and hate speech are similar in some ways, but different in many others, a lot of it depends on the context and what people consider to be disrespectful as opposed to hateful. I believe the r-slur is hateful because it holds a negative connotation towards people who have real intellectual disabilities. It's used to harass people with intellectual disabilities, and many of these individuals have expressed discomfort. A person's worth shouldn't be based on their IQ- sometimes I wonder if us people who have disabilities have bigger hearts than able-bodied people because of the crap we have to deal with in our day to day lives both online and in real life.
Edit: also want to note that "mental retardation" was a medical diagnosis historically but was changed to intellectual disabilities. The diagnosis itself historically was used to deny individuals certain rights such as a proper education. People who had "mental retardation" were often picked on in school and even excluded... we really need to think about what kinds of language we are using, and what kind of impact it has on individuals. Using the r-slur promotes derogatory language that excludes certain people just because of their "low IQ." Also, some people will use it on people who don't even have low IQs- I've seen how people who have autism are often all lumped together and called "retarded." However, some individuals with autism have higher IQ than neurotypical people, so you can't call them stupid.

 

[SuchDesire]

shut up retard

 

[Blurpyfied]

Disrespect and hate speech are similar in some ways, but different in many others, a lot of it depends on the context and what people consider to be disrespectful as opposed to hateful. I believe the r-slur is hateful because it holds a negative connotation towards people who have real intellectual disabilities. It's used to harass people with intellectual disabilities, and many of these individuals have expressed discomfort. A person's worth shouldn't be based on their IQ- sometimes I wonder if us people who have disabilities have bigger hearts than able-bodied people because of the crap we have to deal with in our day to day lives both online and in real life.
Edit: also want to note that "mental retardation" was a medical diagnosis historically but was changed to intellectual disabilities. The diagnosis itself historically was used to deny individuals certain rights such as a proper education. People who had "mental retardation" were often picked on in school and even excluded... we really need to think about what kinds of language we are using, and what kind of impact it has on individuals. Using the r-slur promotes derogatory language that excludes certain people just because of their "low IQ." Also, some people will use it on people who don't even have low IQs- I've seen how people who have autism are often all lumped together and called "retarded." However, some individuals with autism have higher IQ than neurotypical people, so you can't call them stupid.

Oh Stormy, you hit me there, took the words out of my mouth.

I myself have people who have Autism around me, my brother, a child my age who lives up the street. It's really easy for people with autism to have friends though with normal people like me, you, adults etc. It does get a little annoying at points, but I can't ignore it. There is many things going on in life people try to get away from when playing games, I would like to name them but it's a long list.

I really just hope they change back to how it was before putting the r-slur as Hatespeech, or at least some explanation from a mod as to why it was moved to disrespect.

 

[JustSoDank]

I think that the real basis should be context rather than it always being disrespect or always being hate speech. There's a huge difference between someone saying "that's so retarded" in reference to something and actually calling someone a retard or retarded.

Personally, I have no problem with people saying "that's so retarded" (or something along those lines) if it isn't directly referring to a person. However, seeing as it's something that bothers quite a few people, I think it makes the most sense if players received warnings for it and then a punishment if they don't stop. That being said, I don't think that punishment should be hate speech if it wasn't directed.

In terms of a direct use of the word, I definitely agree that should be qualified as hate speech. I definitely don't think players should be able to get away with using the word in context, and they definitely need to "cool down" for a while after the fact.

I think the most important thing really is just context. Calling someone a "retard" holds a much different weight than indirect uses of the word, and I don't think someone should be punished for hate speech instantly for saying it indirectly, but definitely think someone who uses it in context should be.

 

[Cookie Kat]

I think that the real basis should be context rather than it always being disrespect or always being hate speech. There's a huge difference between someone saying "that's so retarded" in reference to something and actually calling someone a retard or retarded.

Personally, I have no problem with people saying "that's so retarded" (or something along those lines) if it isn't directly referring to a person. However, seeing as it's something that bothers quite a few people, I think it makes the most sense if players received warnings for it and then a punishment if they don't stop. That being said, I don't think that punishment should be hate speech if it wasn't directed.

In terms of a direct use of the word, I definitely agree that should be qualified as hate speech. I definitely don't think players should be able to get away with using the word in context, and they definitely need to "cool down" for a while after the fact.

I think the most important thing really is just context. Calling someone a "retard" holds a much different weight than indirect uses of the word, and I don't think someone should be punished for hate speech instantly for saying it indirectly, but definitely think someone who uses it in context should be.

I definitely don't think that people SHOULD get hate speech mutes for saying something along the lines of "that's retarded." At most, it would be a warning or a mute for disrespect. I totally agree with what you said about context- though it can cause issues with people borderline abusing it- finding ways to say the word in a context that isn't "offensive." Not sure if this makes much sense- I just feel that people should avoid using it at all because it's not necessary, but I'm not going to stop people from using it generally, as long as it's not directed at a person.

 

[jasper_]

We will not give up

 

[Cookie Kat]

I think the bottom line is for me- I prefer you don't say the r word, but I won't stop people, but if people are gonna use it in a disrespectful/hateful manner, I won't hesitate to act upon it. I hope that Dacon and the admins will reconsider the decision they have made, and if not, a good explanation as to why it was changed to disrespect, like noah pointed out. After speaking to some mods, it seems that they don't even really know why- I haven't been able to get a straight answer... they're just following what they've been told, but for me as a player? I won't shut up about this one I'm sorry it's kinda just gone too far...
Edit: I know for a fact that there are mods out there who full-heartedly agree with me...
Edit 2: I also realized that it could be breaking the rule of being respectful- if someone asks you to stop, you stop.

 

[rew]

Why would they make it not hate speech? thats so retarded !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remove r word

 

[SuchDesire]

Why would they make it not hate speech? thats so retarded !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remove r word

fr I hate when people call me a retard its so retarded man