Is Aimee Challenor back at Reddit?

A post from a subreddit that probably won't survive the week

Thanks to the person who just sent me this Reddit post entitled ‘The Toucan In The Coal Mine’. It’s a brilliant snapshot of the culture at Reddit, a culture shaped by a small group of very dangerous people, including one ‘Aimee’ Challenor.

Here’s the link to the original so you can check to see if they get banned.

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The Toucan In The Coal Mine

The admins have sent us a warning that they've "seen an uptick in violating content being posted." For transparency's sake, AEO has removed a total of 2 posts and 108 comments since 21 July. In reality, this is about average for TiA rather than an increase, and other subs that we moderate have had similar removal numbers. Content removals are generally arbitrary and inconsistent at best. We actually tallied up the removals, and found an interesting trend:

• 15 were removed for threats of violence

• 5 were removed for racism

• 20 were removed for use of slurs

• 6 were general insults

• 14 were deleted completely

• 50 were removed over trans politics

45% of the removals were about trans politics. The great majority of these comments said "trans men/women aren't real men/women," but others expressed sentiments like trans people being mentally ill, or making women-only spaces unsafe. Some would have been removed under our own rules, however there were plenty that we do not believe are worth removal. Here is a sampling of those posts.

The mod team has posed a specific question regarding global rules to the admins:

When it comes to discussion about trans people/trans identity, is invalidation of their gender considered promoting hate (and in that regard, does this also apply to people who identify as nonbinary, xenogender, or who use neopronouns)?

The admins have consistently refused to answer this, both here and for other subreddits. The sitewide rules are intentionally vague and applied in a selective manner. Not every "trans women are not women" comment gets removed, as you can probably tell. Ultimately the point is, if any identity invalidation is considered promoting hate, we may consider this subreddit on a confirmed death clock, as we do not plan to compromise our founding purpose.

We often hear that TiA "used to be good" back when the SJW sphere was filled with otherkin, headmates, and wild new genders. These all operated under the same basic principle—people are not entitled to identity validation. TiA has always provided the freedom to say no to these ideas. If some kid on Tumblr claims to have YouTube celebrities as their headmates, why should we accept that with any sincerity? Why are we not allowed to question the identities of people who change pronouns more often than they change clothes? It is not promoting hate to question the lived experiences of others. Further, r/TumblrInAction has only become contentious in recent years with the growth of keyboard activism, where any disagreement with dogma is falsely equated with real-world violence. They're the same ones who have been report-spamming, trying to have this subreddit banned for the sin of saying "no."

Like we said in a previous mod post, we will not be compromising TiA's principles in order to "buy time" on Reddit. The platform is being completely consumed by these online activists and so the definition of "hate" has been expanded to the point where choosing not to validate someone's identity is getting people banned.

You may remember the stickied comments on all new posts promoting our Ruqqus guild. Unfortunately, Ruqqus itself recently shut down about a week ago. Now, conveniently enough, we have the admins knocking on our door. We're well aware of coordinated efforts to shut down pretty much every sub which rejects identity politics, usually through mass reporting and harvesting of users' identities. So this is where we're at now: The toucan in the coal mine has gone suspiciously silent. It's probably time to leave.

So we've made another lifeboat on communities(dot)win/c/tumblrinaction. The admins are so averse to this competitor, we can't even link directly to it. If that accelerates TiA's doom, then so be it. We don't have many other options, and there are enough of you that would want TiA to stick around that we feel like it's a worthwhile endeavor to keep this place alive in some form.

For now, it's business as usual, but be aware of your exits in case the sub does go down, whether it be by our hand or theirs. Godspeed.

UPDATE

We've finally received word from the admins regarding our question. This is their response:

Our rules about hateful content, do cover targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, or anyone else based on their identity.

If this canned answer is what we're supposed to go off of, then it means that *invalidating anybody's identity, from dysphoric trans people, to people who use emojis as pronouns, and even to otherkin, is considered "promoting hate" by Reddit. We've asked for further clarification in the meantime. If we're told that any form of identity invalidation is considered actionable, we will most likely shutter r/TumblrInAction ourselves.

The Comments

They've banned GenderCritical and LGBdroptheT and thisneverhappens and what did it accomplish? Gender Critical feminism has reached the mainstream, the LGB Alliance sprung up out of nowhere and 'thatneverhappens' stories are making nationwide news.

Playing this shit off like there's nothing to see just makes Reddit admins look out of touch and, frankly, like they've been bought. If these people would actually address the issues instead of trying to ban and silence their way into compliance this would be playing out very differently for them.

Oh the cat is fully out of the bag in the UK, it didn't miss my attention that r/gendercritical was banned just weeks after JK Rowling decided to say fuck it and point out the obvious, which drew a LOT of eyeballs to that sub.

I remember before r/SuperStraight got axed, one user said "They can ban a subreddit, but they can't ban reality", and that one stuck with me. No matter how much they try to redefine words, rewrite history, deny biological facts, disregard other people's boundaries, and force us all to play along with their fantasies, the truth will prevail. They can't cancel the truth. That's one of the few things giving me solace in these utterly weird times.

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BONUS CONTENT!

I forgot to post about this in my last update. Please add your name to Baroness Nicholson’s open letter!

Women's Rights Network England & Wales - WRNEW @WomensRightsEW

WRNEW is delighted to be supporting @Baroness_Nichol by gathering signatures for her open letter. Please email your name to womensrn.ew@gmail.com

Emma Harriet Nicholson @Baroness_Nichol

Add your name by emailing womensrn..EW@gmail.com with Baroness in the subject line - I will gather the names and forward in batches as they come in via womensrn.EW. Emma https://t.co/UXEmceR9SJ