Thread derailment

[Temporaryusernamefortoday]

Wondering if I am the only one that’s noticed more and more thread derailments. I’m not talking about TRA taking a TWAW stance but an individual being deliberately obtuse or missing the point of an individuals posts to create an argument about a tangential element. It just seems rather insidious and designed to prevent proper conversation.

This is not a TAT but a thread about a phenomenon.

If someone can’t deal with questioning of their views, perhaps it’s they who should log off, rather than telling other people they shouldn’t challenge absurd statements?

That’s nonsense. No one thinks they shouldn’t ever be challenged. That’s what the one note ploppers think, not the regulars.

At least one poster here, if not more, as said they thought this part of the site was aimed at people with GC views as they have nowhere else on the Internet. That explains why people who challenge those views are seen as derailing. From the outside, when you read these discussions, it doesn't seem like they are derailing because this board is advertised by the site in the way it is. It seems like a debate.

However, it makes more sense why the GC people see is as derailing if they think this is akin to a Marxist Socialist board where people with a specific viewpoint are invited to congregate.

No if you're getting "wound up", irrespective of your views, you need to log off.

Yes, like the people you’re talking about who don’t like robust questioning. People can decide to log off, or not, as they see fit, of course.

It’s the reality of Mumsnet, and wider society that its gender critical in the broad sense. It’s also an established feminist community which was one of the only spaces online to permit the reasonably free discussion of this issue. Not really seeing what your problem is?

And again you are quite disingenuously reading your own projection of what people mean by derailing threads, into what they are saying. Many derailers are trolls. It’s an effective tactic.

The problem is that if you're so entrenched in your views that you cannot see the wood for the trees, then your robust questioning is just a biased interrogation where you essentially derail a thread trying to see if you find the poster acceptable or not. Again, that plays into the idea that this board is a place for GC feminists and so people have to feel you out to decide if you are One Of Them or an Enemy.

Mumsnet have said this board isnt for GC feminists, it's to discuss issues related to gender and sex. Therefore this interrogating of posters by GC members is derailing at least some of the time in their mistaken belief that people with other views are not as welcome here.

Yes, I agree that interacting with derailers is often disruptive and that’s why many derailers do it.

But that's your opinion. As outsiders/new members to the forum, it actually appears as if many of the GC posters are displaying troll-like behaviours. The recipes mentioned above being a very good example.

I’m sorry if you don’t approve of posters here showing up the absurdities inherent in believing men are women, but I guess that is why this belief has gained such power, because people don’t interrogate it.

I think you have to let go of this idea that this board is GC. The board is neutral. That's how the owner intended it to be and she's clearly said as much. I admit it has been confusing because they haven't moderated that way, clearly. But unless they've publicly stated elsewhere, everything I've found has categorically denied that this board is intended to prioritise GC views.

Yes, it’s entirely my opinion. That’s what people do on discussion boards, no? Share their opinions?

It’s a GC board in that the majority of posters here lean that way. Not by decree. HTH

You see this type of hyperbole is indicative of your bias. I'm saying that it is a neutral space where all views can be shared, including GC views. I'm not saying that all views except GC views should be shared. I am commenting on what the site said the board is intended for.

It seems like unless you feel GC views are supported by the site more than any other views, then it is anti-GC.

So I don’t have to “let go” of anything. Most posters here don’t believe men are women. The end.

Why do you think I am disagreeing with what the board is for?

You share it as if it is fact completely oblivious to the fact that in many situations, regardless of one's personal views, the GC posters appear to be more trollish than anyone else.

Go and chat to TRAs about whether they see it as a “neutral space”. Reddit would claim to be a neutral space, and Twitter. They aren’t, either.

And that's fine. It doesnt change the board's intention. And if the site is moderated fairly, it won't stop an influx of new posters who have different views.

Well seeing as posters posting here didnt know it was a neutral space, that isn't surprising.

I don't think the fact most people in a party room are wearing blue makes it a blue party unless the host says it is.

Of course. But in my opinion (just to be clear), those people don’t have particularly good arguments because all of it is absurd. So I don’t think they’re going to be arriving in droves to have those arguments, and it’s not really what currently happens. That’s just the reality of how an established community works, online and off.

The reason people derail and troll and plop down one line TWAW posts and run away is that most arguments in favour of “trans rights” trumping women’s sex based rights are shite. So they only turn up to recite mantras and disrupt, generally.

Maybe not. Especially if the site has been known not to operate with the neutrality it states. But you know if a million anti-GC posters arrive here, it will just be like Reddit or whereever where your views will be in the minority so it will feel as if you are shouted down.

I do think some of you should seek clarification from staff about the board description etc if you think this was sold to you as something it is not.