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Original poster

Anti-Religious Trolling On Mumsnet

882 replies

DioneTheDiabolist · 26/03/2016 00:36

I get that not everyone is religious and that some people are very anti-religious (some with good reasons).

But some MNetters are religious, others are simply curious. So how come so many threads are allowed to be derailed by anti-religious trolls? Today a thread about Good Friday was deleted because a troll came on. FFS, it's Easter! Threads about Islam are regularly derailed by Islamophobes. On a thread seeking information on Judaism in the Philosophy & Religion topic, a troll has posted LMFAO. Ok, serious question, why does the Jewish God make all men wear a funny beards? She continues venting for a few posts before eventually exiting the thread saying that she is on drugs because It's Easter, party time.

She is a MN regular, like most of the anti-religious trolls here. I have reported her posts but they still stand.

Trolls are not interested in knowing what other people think or believe. They have no desire to discuss the point of actual threads and rarely start threads of their own regarding their issues with religion or belief. They just derail threads in the hope of driving all talk of religion and different beliefs off MN. And they are succeeding.

Why are MNHQ allowing this to happen? Deleting threads instead of dealing with posters? Allowing blatant anti-religious trolling to derail threads that people may find supportive or informative? Is MN a religion free zone? Because if it is, that's ok. I just think that religious posters should be told. Then they can go elsewhere if they wish to discuss their beliefs.

OP posts:
BertrandRussell · 26/03/2016 11:28

Can I suggest that we just stop talking about the 3 o'clock thread? There is an interesting debate going on beside it- maybe we could focus on that?

lottielou7 · 26/03/2016 11:28

My point, Bertrand about that thread is that the OP asked for people not to derail the thread and they went ahead and did so anyway.

The people wanting to debate could have started their own thread.

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoGrainger · 26/03/2016 11:27

Ha! That was to emotion not you ducky...

capsium · 26/03/2016 11:26

Ohfuckaducky there are many words and phrases that a belief is implicit in: Zeitgeist, aghast, bug, ghost in the machine, high spirits, low spirits, flabbergasted, flibbertigibbet, even the etymology of spirit, in the alcoholic sense, refers to beliefs within alchemy. Also look at the way imagery works to create atmosphere.The thing is, language is a translation of how we interpret the world. This involves beliefs.

BoGrainger · 26/03/2016 11:26

FFS!! LEAVE IT!! Do we have to start going round in a circle AGAIN?? ShockShock

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BertrandRussell · 26/03/2016 11:25

"Here is one thread that isn't about religion but is about spirituality which was derailed and this was years ago. I also posted something about one of my children having spiritual experiences and was accused of being an irresponsible parent and told that my child clearly had schizophrenia. These days she's a model scholarship student with no issues whatsoever, but hey what do I know?"

There were a wide range of opinions on that thread. I suggest people read it before they take what the Lottie says about it at face value.

emotionsecho · 26/03/2016 11:24

The thread title "What are you doing at 3pm today" was in no way goady Ohfuckaducky and I cannot understand why you are insisting it was.

UmbongoUnchained · 26/03/2016 11:22

Yes thanks dawn for deleting those posts on my thread. What an ass hat.

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AllPowerfulLizardPerson · 26/03/2016 11:19

"it's something that would be very difficult to moderate, and a lot of it comes down to the tone of a post."

It should be no harder to moderate than any other issue covered by the Equalities Act.

aginghippy · 26/03/2016 11:18

DawnMumsnet thanks for deleting the troll posts on the Judaism thread mentioned in the OP. They definitely were in the category of out-and-out goady posts.

lottielou7 · 26/03/2016 11:15

I'm just trying to express that this has been going on for so many years that I no longer post about certain things. I am glad that this thread has been started, therefore.

lottielou7 · 26/03/2016 11:13

Here is one thread that isn't about religion but is about spirituality which was derailed and this was years ago. I also posted something about one of my children having spiritual experiences and was accused of being an irresponsible parent and told that my child clearly had schizophrenia. These days she's a model scholarship student with no issues whatsoever, but hey what do I know?

Thread example
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/a1887721-spirit-in-my-house-frightening-my-DD#42674500

'We think a lot of it comes down to respect and common courtesy, though' Exactly

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge · 26/03/2016 11:10

Ohfuck honestly, how could you not realise 'sky fairy' is offensive? It's not used as an 'accurate description' (laughing at the thought of that) it's used to take the pee and always has been

Deity, God and angels are not words loaded with belief. They are names given to things. Widely accepted names. No different to calling a dog a dog, or,if you prefer, using the words 'witch' , 'devil' , 'hell' etc. Do you put those in quotation marks when you write or say them because to do otherwise would be indicating a belief? No,thought not.

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MNHQ
DawnMumsnet · 26/03/2016 11:08

So, back to the OP's questions - is MN a religion-free zone? Absolutely not. We believe there's room here for people of all faiths, and indeed for those with no faith.

We're really sorry if some of you feel that we don't deal with posts concerning religion in a consistent way, and we'll definitely try to address that. We tend to delete comments which we consider to be personal attacks on followers of religion, rather than those on religion itself as it would be very hard to know where to draw the line.

At the moment, our Talk Guidelines state:

No personal attacks
No posts that break the law
No trolling, misleading or deliberately inflammatory behaviour
No trollhunting
No spamming

and go on to say:

We're all for freedom of speech. That said, we'll remove posts we consider to contain personal attacks, to break the law and/or to be obscene, racist, sexist, disablist, ageist, homophobic or transphobic, once they are brought to our attention. We will also delete any posts that we think are just seriously unpleasant.

Perhaps there's a case for adding religious intolerance to these guidelines, but again, it's something that would be very difficult to moderate, and a lot of it comes down to the tone of a post.

We think that 'Deliberately inflammatory behaviour' is a big enough umbrella to cover most instances of anti-religious posting. We do remove any out-and-out goady posts of this nature, once they're reported to us.

We think a lot of it comes down to respect and common courtesy, though. We'd like to hope that people would use the same courtesy when posting messages on Talk as they would use when speaking to someone face to face, on the topic of religion as much as any other.

VertigoNun · 26/03/2016 11:06

Ok I understand.

I thought with it being Good Fiday that was a frame of reference I didn't need to point out and people would know, clearly not and it's a lesson learned for me.

VulcanWoman · 26/03/2016 11:06

I like construct.

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lottielou7 · 26/03/2016 11:01

Every thread I've started has been, yes. Usually when I'm trying to get information and not asking for a debate.

Fucky - yes I get that but in a general sense this has been going on for years on that board.

Ohfuckaducky · 26/03/2016 11:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

VertigoNun · 26/03/2016 11:00

I apologised at the time for the thread title, for where it was posted and tried to sort that out. Even now none of that is good enough for you, you still sound very angry at me.

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