Hi all,

First up, Rule 1 has been updated from "No Misogyny" to "No Sexism." Apparently we're big enough now that we need the rule to also cover misandrist drivebys and brigades.

With that out of the way, I'd like to explain a problem that's been bothering me and solicit some feedback.

There is a really great post explaining the larger issue here. It pertains to everybody, but especially to anybody in spaces like this subreddit. The tl;dr is that A) we live in a disinformation age, and B) race and gender issues are two of the main levers that are being used to tear apart western societies.

That isn't a conspiracy theory; it's pretty well documented at this point that there are state sponsored trolls whose job is to fan all sides of those flames. While the Russian government has failed to build its own people up, it has figured out well enough how to tear others down. Because a lot of the conversation happens on social media, and because bots (including chat bots) are becoming more sophisticated, that disinformation and demoralization campaign is becoming increasingly more effective.

So here's the problem for us: I think it remains important for a space like this subreddit to exist. Misandry is real, lots of people are blind to it, and none of that changes just because liars exist. But at the same time, social media spaces related to gender issues are very vulnerable to becoming useful idiots for the propaganda machine. Meaning if some professional troll or another useful idiot posts misandrist bait, and someone here gets worked up about it, you've now taken the bait and played directly into their hand. I don't want that for myself or any of you.

The linked post above contains a good example. There was a video of a feminist woman pouring bleach on a man in the subway because he was "manspreading." Perfect content for this sub, right? It was a total fabrication. Pure propaganda manufactured to demoralize and seed distrust among westerners. There was video evidence and everything... now imagine how much easier it is to run bots that make misandrist comments and even upvote each other's comments. A misandrist comment with 1000 upvotes could easily just be 1001 bots, you know? You ever wonder why the people you meet in real life tend to be much more reasonable than some of these terminally online sociopaths?

I've literally had people message me to say they feel depressed after reading this sub. Demoralizing people was never the point of it. Buying into disinformation propaganda was never the point of it.

So what the fuck do we do? How does one keep actual misandry in check while not becoming another useful idiot in the disinformation age? Obviously this is a much larger and deeper problem than our little sub can solve, but we should at least make an effort to not contribute to it.

I'm leaning toward implementing a Low Effort rule much like there is at LeftWingMaleAdvocates. Basically if a post consists of "look at what this douchebag said," then it should be removed. Misandry in television shows and movies and games would still be fair game. Misandry from real people like professors, journalists, or celebrities (ugh) could still be posted. But any of the random shit from reddit and TikTok that can't be traced back to actual, verified people should maybe be banned from this sub. What do you all think?