Your Steam Name: Asriel lemon Boi
Your Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:59556302
Your Character Name: Julian Grease
Which Staff blacklisted you: @Kn1ght
What were you blacklisted from: Advertisements.
Blacklist Reason:
Use of Homophobic/Inappropriate Language in an advertisement.
Unblacklist Reason:
I will begin this by stating that regardless of whether or not this blacklist expires before this is reviewed. I still would like it removed from my record. Based on the principal that I think the punishment, while not harsh, is unwarranted. Before going into the specific reasoning of why I think this blacklist should be lifted, I will began listing the possible rules that it is believed I may have broke.
1. Please do not post anything which is inappropriate in a friendly community setting. This includes excessive profanity and sexual/illicit content. Hateful, threatening, provocative or vulgar content is not accepted in this community. This also includes content which infringes copyright or breaks the law.
2. Discrimination (i.e racism, intolerance) towards other members is never allowed.
3. Be courteous and respect your fellow members. To be clear, personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behavior is unacceptable. If you take particular issue with another user and are unable to reply in a civilized and constructive way to their posts, you should ignore the user.
5. If you feel another user is attacking or being aggressive towards you, report their message to staff. Do not respond publicly. This simply continues the back and forth that derails topics and makes them uncomfortable for other users. If someone attacks you and you respond with an attack, you will be facing disciplinary action regardless of who started it.
3. Do not take matters into your own hands. The staff is here for a reason. Their decisions are final. Do not disrespect or test their patience. Take it to the appropriate forum board if required.
6. We do not tolerate derogatory slurs towards any group of people, such as racism, homophobia etc., within the community - especially Out-Of- Character. Your in-game character may be offensive to a certain degree HOWEVER, once players feel uncomfortable you have to stop immediately. Be observant and considerate. Things like the N-word and other ethnic slurs are never acceptable - neither Out-Of-Character nor In-Character.
So getting to the reason. The situation began with me running for mayor. I will not be able to provide exact quotes, but chat logs being pulled should suffice. One of my opponents decided to use the fact of me being attracted to guys as an adequate political attack strategy. While I don't think it is effective, to each their own. The ad was roughly, "Julian is gae don't vote for him." I decided that a correct defense strategy against his arcane way of thinking would be to embrace it, announce it publicly, and continue campaigning. So my advertisement was "I am a fag, vote for me." This strategy works because many people in this community don't have what is generally considered a "normal" sexuality. Also most people don't genuinely believe negative things towards gay people. Nearly instantly I was pulled into the sky with a physgun and facing accusations of breaking the rules. While the specific rules were not quoted to me in the sit. I assume the ones I listed above are an adequate representation of what was being thought.
So pointing to global rule #2. I was not discriminating against anyone. It was merely an announcement of my sexuality to the citizens that just witnessed somebody criticizing it. I never said anything bad about gay people. I never implied anything negative. By itself. The word fag has a greatly negative connotation. This is because it is generally used in an offensive context. But because of the flexible nature of language. Words may be interpreted different based upon the emotion being expressed as it is being presented, and the context that it is being presented. The whole reason certain words are banned from being said, is to prevent certain frequently targets groups of people, from being hurt. If the word is used in an empowering context, it is no longer discrimination. An example of this is present in academia. Classes that teach about racial discrimination and Jim Crow laws, actually use "the n-word" in their teachings. It is considered socially acceptable because it is being used as a tool for empowerment. To teach people that they are wrong. A word means whatever it is assigned to mean. I feel in the context of my situation. I was embracing a word with a negative connotation, and applying it to myself. Because it is true, and I believe in it.
Pointing to global rule #3. Nobody was being attacked except my opponent's political campaign. Which was done, just by entirely restating what he just said. Which was true. Pointing to general rule #3 and global rule #5, which are essentially the same . I believe that guy had every right to say what he said about me being gay in an ad, and I believe I had every right to defend myself. Their should be 0 staff involvement and this entire situation should have been dealt with entirely in RP. Pointing to general rule #6. As I stated previously. The word fag has a bad connotation. Hence why I was embracing it for my ad. It is a powerful way of saying what was true. But by embracing one of the most negative terms for gay people, I removed the power of the slur, and from my opposition. I doubled down on his ad and showed people that I don't care what he has to say. It is considered a "derogatory slur" by most people. But as I stated before these rules were put in place to protect frequently targeted and criticized groups from harm. They weren't created to prevent these groups from having their history of discrimination suppressed and their empowerment reduced. As for global rule #1. It is profanity. But only in a context that attacks that group. If it is being used as a tool to school some guy that doesn't like gay people. It changes it's meaning entirely. There is nothing that harms this community by talking about equality.
To put a close on this whole thing, and to end it on a positive note. I am sorry if there is anybody that I offended throughout this whole ordeal. I am also sorry to anyone that had to read this wall of text. I am sorry for pushing this situation down a path that made kn1ght intervene. I will refrain from making political statements in the future, because as I have noticed it stirs up a lot of drama in the community. Regardless of whether or not it is valid.
Time of Occurrence: 9/10/2019 or 9/11/2019. (I am unsure if it was past midnight.)
Additional members involved/witnessing: None. I spoke to @Nifae about it briefly.
Your Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:59556302
Your Character Name: Julian Grease
Which Staff blacklisted you: @Kn1ght
What were you blacklisted from: Advertisements.
Blacklist Reason:
Use of Homophobic/Inappropriate Language in an advertisement.
Unblacklist Reason:
I will begin this by stating that regardless of whether or not this blacklist expires before this is reviewed. I still would like it removed from my record. Based on the principal that I think the punishment, while not harsh, is unwarranted. Before going into the specific reasoning of why I think this blacklist should be lifted, I will began listing the possible rules that it is believed I may have broke.
Global Rules 1, 2, 3, and 5.
1. Please do not post anything which is inappropriate in a friendly community setting. This includes excessive profanity and sexual/illicit content. Hateful, threatening, provocative or vulgar content is not accepted in this community. This also includes content which infringes copyright or breaks the law.
2. Discrimination (i.e racism, intolerance) towards other members is never allowed.
3. Be courteous and respect your fellow members. To be clear, personal attacks, aggressive messages, and passive-aggressive behavior is unacceptable. If you take particular issue with another user and are unable to reply in a civilized and constructive way to their posts, you should ignore the user.
5. If you feel another user is attacking or being aggressive towards you, report their message to staff. Do not respond publicly. This simply continues the back and forth that derails topics and makes them uncomfortable for other users. If someone attacks you and you respond with an attack, you will be facing disciplinary action regardless of who started it.
General Rules 3 and 6.
3. Do not take matters into your own hands. The staff is here for a reason. Their decisions are final. Do not disrespect or test their patience. Take it to the appropriate forum board if required.
6. We do not tolerate derogatory slurs towards any group of people, such as racism, homophobia etc., within the community - especially Out-Of- Character. Your in-game character may be offensive to a certain degree HOWEVER, once players feel uncomfortable you have to stop immediately. Be observant and considerate. Things like the N-word and other ethnic slurs are never acceptable - neither Out-Of-Character nor In-Character.
So getting to the reason. The situation began with me running for mayor. I will not be able to provide exact quotes, but chat logs being pulled should suffice. One of my opponents decided to use the fact of me being attracted to guys as an adequate political attack strategy. While I don't think it is effective, to each their own. The ad was roughly, "Julian is gae don't vote for him." I decided that a correct defense strategy against his arcane way of thinking would be to embrace it, announce it publicly, and continue campaigning. So my advertisement was "I am a fag, vote for me." This strategy works because many people in this community don't have what is generally considered a "normal" sexuality. Also most people don't genuinely believe negative things towards gay people. Nearly instantly I was pulled into the sky with a physgun and facing accusations of breaking the rules. While the specific rules were not quoted to me in the sit. I assume the ones I listed above are an adequate representation of what was being thought.
So pointing to global rule #2. I was not discriminating against anyone. It was merely an announcement of my sexuality to the citizens that just witnessed somebody criticizing it. I never said anything bad about gay people. I never implied anything negative. By itself. The word fag has a greatly negative connotation. This is because it is generally used in an offensive context. But because of the flexible nature of language. Words may be interpreted different based upon the emotion being expressed as it is being presented, and the context that it is being presented. The whole reason certain words are banned from being said, is to prevent certain frequently targets groups of people, from being hurt. If the word is used in an empowering context, it is no longer discrimination. An example of this is present in academia. Classes that teach about racial discrimination and Jim Crow laws, actually use "the n-word" in their teachings. It is considered socially acceptable because it is being used as a tool for empowerment. To teach people that they are wrong. A word means whatever it is assigned to mean. I feel in the context of my situation. I was embracing a word with a negative connotation, and applying it to myself. Because it is true, and I believe in it.
Pointing to global rule #3. Nobody was being attacked except my opponent's political campaign. Which was done, just by entirely restating what he just said. Which was true. Pointing to general rule #3 and global rule #5, which are essentially the same . I believe that guy had every right to say what he said about me being gay in an ad, and I believe I had every right to defend myself. Their should be 0 staff involvement and this entire situation should have been dealt with entirely in RP. Pointing to general rule #6. As I stated previously. The word fag has a bad connotation. Hence why I was embracing it for my ad. It is a powerful way of saying what was true. But by embracing one of the most negative terms for gay people, I removed the power of the slur, and from my opposition. I doubled down on his ad and showed people that I don't care what he has to say. It is considered a "derogatory slur" by most people. But as I stated before these rules were put in place to protect frequently targeted and criticized groups from harm. They weren't created to prevent these groups from having their history of discrimination suppressed and their empowerment reduced. As for global rule #1. It is profanity. But only in a context that attacks that group. If it is being used as a tool to school some guy that doesn't like gay people. It changes it's meaning entirely. There is nothing that harms this community by talking about equality.
To put a close on this whole thing, and to end it on a positive note. I am sorry if there is anybody that I offended throughout this whole ordeal. I am also sorry to anyone that had to read this wall of text. I am sorry for pushing this situation down a path that made kn1ght intervene. I will refrain from making political statements in the future, because as I have noticed it stirs up a lot of drama in the community. Regardless of whether or not it is valid.
Time of Occurrence: 9/10/2019 or 9/11/2019. (I am unsure if it was past midnight.)
Additional members involved/witnessing: None. I spoke to @Nifae about it briefly.