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I got banned from my local reddit group

A local pub very recently changed its name to 'Gayz Onley' which seemed to be presented to Reddit as a noble thing to do. I have no strong opinion on the name change, though I suspect it was more of a publicity stunt than anything else.

Since the pub was essentially calling itself "Gays Only", I made the following joke:

Being straight, I now feel unwelcome in this pub. Could we have a clear statement to the effect that this is not a heterophobic establishment?

It wasn't hilarious, but I do think humorous, and a comment on the discrimination that the name implies. I stand by it. It doesn't seem particularly controversial to me. It got downvoted to hell, and commented with the cultivated mindless anger that is so prevalent on the Internet.

I was accused of 'trying to make heterophobia a thing' (ffs!!), of being an incel, a s*x offender (really), as well as the usual tropes that all equate to 'f*ck off'. I felt a strange mix of horror and amusement.

Admittedly I replied to the comments in kind. I'm not a saint. I may have used some bad language, though only when replying to aggressive comments, and nothing I haven't used at other times on Reddit. I don't take these things too seriously. Still, it was altogether too much for some, including moderators, one of whom I may have called a see u next tuesday. I got a permanent ban from the group.

Note from the group moderators when they banned me:

wow your joke made everyone laugh you are so good at that well done

How banal. On the one hand, I don't care much for Reddit. Only my local group was of any interest to me, and even that was > 95% useless crap. There wasn't much to lose.

On the other hand, I am stunned at this stupefied state of the web. It depresses me that it has fallen so far, that discussion is so stifled by people who seem to crave things to be angry about, and that systems are designed to further cultivate their tendencies. It also concerns me that this insanity is so geographically close to home.

And of course there's the obvious asymmetry whereby aggression and vitriol are tolerated, even encouraged, in just one virtuous direction. Any opinion that doesn't gush with the crowd is simply crushed.

Jaron Lanier said (paraphrased) "we need people to stay sane, to help with the fallout from social media madness". I agree with him, but honestly I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Icing on my Cake

This actually made me laugh. I'll take it as passive aggression rather than genuine concern, because I'd be too creeped out otherwise.

A concerned redditor reached out to us about you.

When you're in the middle of something painful, it may feel like you don't have
a lot of options. But whatever you're going through, you deserve help and there
are people who are here for you.

There are resources available in your area that are free, confidential, and
available 24/7:

Call, Text, or Chat with Canada's Crisis Services Canada
Call, Email, or Visit the UK's Samaritans
Text CHAT to America's Crisis Text Line at 741741.

Well yes, I am in the middle of something painful. It's called Reddit! So I nuked my account, like I should never have created it in the first place.

I feel somewhat cleansed. In that one year I was signed up, it was almost never pleasant to use.