[Thymeclock]

Recently I was banned from this forum for a week because I said some comments in response to others on this list that were being provocative and inflammatory, and who were allowed to do so with the tacit approval of the administration. The only reason I was given by a moderator upon my being banned and silenced was that I should “be nice”.

Is being “nice” a requirement on this list? What does “be nice” mean? Who is the judge of what “niceness” is? I suspect that being less than “nice” is anything that displeases a moderator acting as Nanny. Only Nanny the moderator knows whatever his arbitrary definition of what niceness is: there is no objective standard here other than it being anything that displeases Nanny. IMHO, that is what is imposed in places like China, where those in authority use censorship and intimidation in a forcible attempt to keep everyone in line – particularly anyone who might say anything that might be an embarrassment to those in authority.

The moderator previously suggested to me that I am a “troll”. Indeed I do have a personal commitment to insisting that I have the right to respond in a civil way to provocative statements made by others. So does responding make me a "troll"? If I had never contributed anything to this list other than to be provocative, and if it amounted to nothing more than that then that might be plausible; but if you were to review ALL of my posts and their content you would find that is not the case at all. It is remarkable that a moderator labels only the respondent as being a “troll” here, but never the provocateur.

I cannot be “nice” to suck up to anyone’s arbitrary idea of “niceness”, nor would I ever want to be “nice” in that way. I cannot and I will not submit to any nebulous demand for it.

To those who run this list I suggest that you reconsider the arbitrary policy of banning and silencing members based upon a lack of “niceness” as it is fundamentally untenable. The command to “be nice” may be effective with gullible young children who are easily cowed and intimidated. But if you continue the attempted intimidation of adults, treating them as if they were children, it will have consequences.