Anti-Religious Trolling On Mumsnet

[DioneTheDiabolist]

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.

I did explain to you on the thread it wasn't a religious thing that made me communicate poorly. I explained I am on the autistic spectrum at the time. I tried to fix the thread title, move the thread and I got so flustered I asked it be deleted. It wasn't what I intended.

It was nice to hear about others lighting candles and sitting quietly on the beach with dogs. The random cup of tea, eating a hot crosd bun, waiting for come dine with me comments were funny because they were unexpected.

I still disagree that the thread title of the Good Friday thread was particularly 'click baity', but even if it was once clicked on and deemed to be a subject on which you have no interest or an intense dislike why bother posting? Surely the 'live and let live' mantra would apply and you just leave others who are interested to chat amongst themselves?

I totally agree that religious belief or any other belief should be subject to challenge, debate and, sometimes, ridicule but there is a time and a place and I don't believe that that particular thread was it.

Also, I too despise the kind of 'Christian' who would make the comments ohfuckaducky and others have had made to them, people who do that are, imo, not fit to be called Christian.

Lottie that's got to be an exaggeration! EVERY thread?

Fuckyducky , yes, and we're both saying that is wrong aren't we?

I think it's reasonable to expect to be able to have a discussion without it being derailed.

I don't go onto the camping board and say 'why do you all go camping, I hate it' or the doghouse 'why do you all have dogs, they smell' etc.

As the OP says, the people who derail don't ever seem to start their own threads with a view to a debate which would be the sensible thing to do. Which is what leads me to believe that their intentions are disingenuous. Particularly when it seems to be the same posters trawling the board.

I agree with the Op. All too often threads on the religion and philosophy board are 'trolled'. Why is it acceptable for people to jump into these threads throwing around insults and belittling people's beliefs? I've seen it many times, no matter what the subject of the thread is whether it's looking for a new religion, a problem at church or needing some comfort. It's wrong

There seems so much religious hatred in this country it's ridiculous. Even on a cultural level people seem to have an insane hate and think they have the right to ridicule others.

Those who say it's no different than people 'pushing' beliefs on you, how do you figure that? People share what they believe because they believe it helps others, because actually religion does do that. Belittling people's faith, on the other hand, is just taking the pee out of someone. Where is the good intention in that?

Where does all the hatred of religion come from? Especially that of Christian faith given we ARE a Christian country and whether you like it or not it is part of our culture and therefore important whether you believe in God or not.

I find it most bizarre, the way things are. People with 'old fashioned' views and morals are deemed as oppressed, sad individuals and fair game to be mocked.

Just why?

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.

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.

I like construct.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

"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.

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

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.

"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.