A short essay on Freedom of Expression
As a moderator, I see things all the time that I disagree with on a personal level. Yet, when we are discussing them due to a complaint, I will often
defend the posters right to that expressing of an unpopular opinion.
But there is a dimension here that many seem unwilling to step into too deeply. Morals. To be moral. To act moral. To speak in a moral manner. And the
concept of moral behavior will vary from person to person, and culture to culture. As well, there is a wide generational gap on the meaning of
morals.
But in the end, you have to take into consideration the morals of staff as well. Were this place run by web bots, there might well be some T&C set up
that could be clearly defined. ( And no doubt most of you would finda way to trick the little devils in short order.
)
As humans, we make moral decisions every day. Do I get to work on time, or stop and help that old lady on the freeway change her tire? Do I spend an
extra hour at work benefitting the company I love or leave now and make my daughters recital? Do I vote this way for reason X, or that way for reason
Z? And moderators make moral decisions as well.
When a thread is debating, without heat and rancor, it almost never sees a mod unless they are there in the debate. But when the the heat goes up,
like firemen, we are on the scene. It's the job we volunteered to do in an effort to keep this community alive and well for years to come.
And when we arrive, we have to make decisions, in the best interests of the
whole community, yet within the T&C. It sometimes doesn't matter
if the fire was started innocently, we still have to decide how to best contain the blaze. Because if we fail, then ATS will burn in the combined
anger of a thousand egos.
There's a part of the T&C that is not often mentioned, so I'll quote it here:
8) Right of Community Management This is a privately owned discussion board community. The Owners and senior moderator staff reserve the right
to take action against any member who is deemed to be devoted purely to disruption, whose actions represent behavior contrary to community
building, or whose content is contrary to the core ideals of AboveTopSecret.com.
*Bolding is mine*
So you see, by the wordingof the T&C the senior staff is charged with making certain moral decisions for the good of ATS, and to take those actions
needed to follow this portion of the T&C. Deciding what is "community building" is a moral judgment, and senior staff and owners set this tone in
their examples on the board.
So the question then becomes; is such behavior as verbally dragging a corpse behind the vehicle of a post, and claiming the right of Freedom of Speech
to do it, really community building, or is it another way to show contempt not only for the dead, but for any like opinions held by all the living
propponents of the deceased here on ATS? And since such posts belittling the dead are offensive to a majority, just as pedophilia and necrophilia and
some others, does it go against the core ideals of ATS on those grounds as well? Moral decisions again.
As much leeway as possible is given. Posts are made by staff asking for calm and civility. Posts are deleted and even warnings handed out, all in an
attempt to restore order to the thread; to keep the conflagration from spreading. Even threads that 98% of staff find offensive are given this chance
for life, if those participating will do so in a civil and intelligent way. But as anything in life, emotional responses tend to outpace thoughtful
ones. Especially when politics are concerned.
In the end, staff has to decide when the sludge is too thick, and take action based on the varied morals they have, to best further the goals and aims
of ATS. Is it perfect? No. Does it infringe on some aspects of Freedom of Speech? Yes. But we all know that if some moral decisions aren't made, time
to time, then we'll lose all the good things about ATS. Like a lovely garden gone wild, soon there will be no fruits and vegetables, only weeds and
thorns.
(Feel free to substitute the word "ethics" in place of "morals" where needed to avoid any spiritual overtones, as the two are practically
interchangeable in modern usage.)
NGC2736
For somebody who has been around ATS for so long you
sure have not changed your ignorant rhetoric over the years. 
