We recognize that political discussion inherently gets heated. Yet the degree to which both sides are straight-up slandering the other is too far. This is a warning that we're going to start moderating this more strictly going forward. Examples include:

• Calling Trump or Biden a "pedo"

• Calling political candidates "evil" (if you ask me, apart from Christ they're all evil)

• "Your party is ungodly"

• "So and so is a bigot"

• Etc.

Using emotionally loaded or morally condemnable labels to ignore facts and focus on slander as a way to win people's opinions is disgusting.

If you want to argue policies, argue policies. If you want to argue the morality of a policy, great, go do that THROUGH SCRIPTURE and not through your own humanly-fallible opinion. If you want to complain about the institution, party, or other political sect, focus on the why behind it and don't just skip to your conclusion. If you can't back up your moral judgments/condemnation through what the Bible says, bite your tongue or stick to logical argument against it rather than just tossing hate and slander.

Whether you like them or not, all political figures are still real people, loved by God, and warranting of our desire for their salvation and sanctification. If you're going to focus on the person instead of their conduct or policies, going forward I'm going to expect you to keep this principle in mind.

Every now and then I see conversation come up about how using the term "transphobia" or "homophobia" is a form of demagoguery that exists purely to demonize one group of people through extreme-linguistics that aren't accurate to the meanings of the words. They are 100% correct.

From the research I've done on the topic, it's clear that these terms originated for socio-political agenda purposes. To cite the wiki on transphobia, we find that it didn't even exist as a recognized word until 2013 ...

Transphobia is not a phobia as defined in clinical psychology (i.e., an anxiety disorder) ... The words transphobia and transphobic were added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. (Source)

But I think everyone understands that the term "transphobia" is really an extension of the prior term "homophobia," which first entered the Oxford-English Dictionary in 1991 (to the best I can find). The word was coined in the 1960s by clinical psychologist George Weinberg as a genuine phobia for people who had "dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals." Notably ...

In his highly influential book *Society and the Healthy Homosexual (published in 1972), as well as in later interviews (Ayyar, 2002), he acknowledged the influence of the gay liberation movement on his thinking ... Positioning himself solidly within liberationist philosophy, Weinberg suggested that he "would never consider a patient healthy unless he had overcome his prejudice of homosexuality" (1972, p.1). (source)

Point being: the term was explicitly created for socio-political purposes by an activist who at first noticed what was perhaps a genuine phobia, but in a manner that led to an expanding scope of usage since then.

From there, it's unquestioned that the term has become part of ordinary socio-political rhetoric to the point that the dictionary has changed the term from its original use as a genuine panic-based fear to the point that a mere "aversion" to homosexuality now warrants the label.

CONCLUSION

It seems clear the terms themselves are plain examples of demagoguery. However, it's also clear they're here to stay. For purposes of moderation ...

• If the term is used in a generic sense based on its current dictionary definition, we'll probably allow it.

• If it is used in a manner that either directly or by insinuation is clearly designed to insult a person or people group, we will not allow that.

Simply put, "Rule 1" of r/TrueChristian still applies in this space, which is to treat others with respect. The fact that a term is dictionary-defined doesn't change how it's being used. For example, the word "moron" originally had a clinical psychological use for people with an IQ between 51 and 70. Yet I give 99.99% odds that even if you're factually accurate in your use, it's also intended as an insult. So, if you call someone on this sub a "moron," we're going to step in and take action on that. Same principle applies.