We are adopting policies regarding misinformation and fascism.

[Vekseid]

As some of you know, on January 6th, Trump instigated a riot on the Capitol, threatening the lives of Congress and attempting an insurrection.

While six people dying because of someone's lies is tragic enough, reports are this could have been so much worse. More recent evidence suggests that this was actively coordinated, and the goal was to capture, kill, and rape many elected officials.

Another attempted insurrection has been planned, in all 50 states from the 16th and in D.C. from the 17th.

For the past decades, we've enjoyed a rather privileged position to tolerate bullshit on all matter of subjects.

However, this has been costing lives, and now every state and federal elected representative is having their lives threatened.

This is an ongoing attempted coup.

We will be adopting two new policies, to help do our part however small about this. The first is largely specific to PROC, while the second is going to apply to the site as a whole.



The PROC-specific policy is adopting a 'paradox of tolerance' mindset.

• Those who would use violence to overturn democracy do not deserve a voice in it.
• The right to bear false witness ends when people's lives are at stake.

There is no debate with people who believe, as Trump and his supporters do, that violence is a legitimate course of action against proper democratic process.

Supporting Trump at this point means you either do not understand the legal and/or democratic process, or do not support those processes.

In the former case, understanding is but an Internet search outside your bubble away. May I suggest starting with the concept of discovery, rules of evidence, and vote count observation. The livestreams of the vote count that "We can't see" are still on-line, still viewable.

In the latter case, you are committing sedition. We have no right or responsibility to play host to destabilizing the one country where this site can legally run.



For our general policy, we will be tackling misinformation directly.

For some topics, people's lives and memories are at stake. We expect everyone to perform due diligence when speaking on such subjects, and source them clearly. If someone makes a claim and refuses to properly source, please report the matter. Outside of documenting events, Twitter and Youtube are generally not sources.

Except for spreading accusations against people, which is simply good taste, these subjects will evolve with time. We want them to be as clear and specific as possible.

• Accusations against individuals and groups must be clearly and reliably sourced. (In PROC) or does not belong on the site period. We've seen a lot of smear campaigns, including one member making false accusations about murder victims, 'justifying' their murder. Speaking ill of the dead is in general pretty poor taste, of course.
• Covid-19 misinformation. Namely antimaskers, but also false treatments.
• Antivaxxer misinformation. Citing long-discredited studies, or alarmism about chemicals you don't understand.
• Electoral misinformation. There's a reason Trump's lawyers never presented any evidence and got their cases thrown out. Because they never had any.

It is horrific that things have devolved to this point. People who are full of shit need to stop being entertained.

Thank you.