Moderator Announcement: Middle East Discussions

[u/Mxrgan]

To our r/Macklemore community and visitors - 

Over the past week, our small subreddit has exploded from 300 views per day, to 80,000+; along with 500+ contributions daily. With that influx of traffic, came an influx of trolls, bots, and hateful people. We appreciate your patience with us as we navigate this sudden wave of activity.

We are actively monitoring the subreddit and the report queue, and have activated temporary subreddit safety filters to help filter out spam and bots.

As a moderator team, we’ve thought long and hard about how to moderate discussions around Israel and Palestine. Given Macklemore's clear and repeated decision to use his platform to support the Palestinian people and encourage activism among his fans, discussion of the Middle East and related political topics will be continued to be allowed on this subreddit.

We do not believe creating an echo chamber supports this mission. The moderation team will not remove comments simply because they express a particular political position. Good-faith disagreement and discussion are allowed. We'll continue to remove unproductive, and / or hateful posts.

However, the usual rules regarding conduct still apply. Content may be removed if it is:

• Targeting, insulting, or harassing other users
• Promoting violence or harm
• Low effort AI generated
• Spamming

In short: political disagreement is allowed, but harassment, spam, or promotion of violence are not. The mod team will continue to monitor the conversation and apply these standards consistently as the subreddit grows.

Please continue to utilize the report button, and tag us for anything urgent. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.

EDIT: We want to support Macklemore's 100% pro-Palestine, anti-genocide stance. We want your feedback, and if you don't think the above is the best way to go about it, please let us know.

[u/AmpleSnacks]

Hi, since you are asking for feedback: appreciate that you are navigating a tricky situation. I would echo other users here that you please reconsider allowing both sides. It runs counter to your own rule that comments promoting harm or violence are not allowed. If comments are in support of an ethnostate, that is by definition promoting harm and violence. The rules would not be internally logical or coherent. Thank you for your consideration.

[u/protomenace → u/AmpleSnacks]

That's ridiculous. If someone says "I want there to be a peaceful two state solution" how is that promoting harm or violence in any way? This feel disingenuous.

[u/AmpleSnacks → u/protomenace]

Because when one of the states is an ethnostate it is promoting harm and violence. You can say all you want that you desire it to exist peacefully, but to promote its existence is to promote the violence by which it maintains its existence and ethnic majority/superiority.

[u/cactussfruit → u/AmpleSnacks]

Israel is factually a secular democracy, btw. That’s exactly part of the propaganda that’s being shared online.

[u/AmpleSnacks → u/cactussfruit]

Cool. What’s its flag btw?

[u/cactussfruit → u/AmpleSnacks]

What does the flag have to do with anything? 😂

Is Sweden an etho state because it has a cross on its flag? Is Norway? England? Switzerland? Should I go on? 🇳🇴🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇨🇭🇩🇰🇫🇮 Not to mention the flags with the Islamic symbol. But I don’t know enough to say jd they are secular democracies or not. And I think I made my point clear.

[u/protomenace → u/cactussfruit]

For someone who complained about "logical coherence" above, they sure don't seem to care about it whatsoever when it suits them.

[u/protomenace → u/AmpleSnacks]

What's the flag of:

- The UK

• England
  
• Denmark
  
• Greece
  
• Finland
  
• Iceland
  
• Ireland
  
• Spain

Are these not secular democracies?
Is the level of discourse actually this low now?

Edit: blocked me simply for disagreeing and making logical arguments. Why are so many people literally incapable of handling civil discourse and disagreement? Their flag argument was shown to be wrong.

To respond to their reponse - Most of these countries have some form of jus sanguinis. Israel is by no means unique in that. None of these complaints make any sense.

[u/AmpleSnacks → u/protomenace]

Which of those countries has birthright and converting to Judaism to become a citizen? This is why I can’t with trolls. Blocked.

[u/protomenace → u/AmpleSnacks]

Israel is significantly less of an ethnostate than the vast majority of countries in the world. This is again, a disingenuous argument.

You are making an unfounded and insane logical leap to justify a position which has no basis in fact.