I fixed the community link, I originally had an extra g and forgot the numeral zero in dbzer0. !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com

I see this forum is meant for discussing whether the bans are reasonable. However, I’m not looking for validation or to get into another debate about whether my views are reasonable. So I’d rather not post there.

A top level comment I mean by a reply to your own post like you did here. That’s where the previous and additional long-form context belongs. Don’t force people to scroll past it all in the body text, if it’s not the main point of the discussion you wish to have. The body text should be for information relevant to the post title, or treat it like a long subheading. Think of your first reply to your own as having roughly equal weight to every other comment, it sorts itself among the others depending on how useful people feel it is.

It is not the main point of the discussion, but it provides important context that everyone should see. People who are incapable of reading may easily ignore things they do not like to hear; therefore, letting them decide what is useful or not is not appropriate. For that reason, I believe it is better to include it in the main post, and it is not such a large chunk of text.

This portion of the question you posed, perhaps you didn’t mean it this way, but it implies that this is your opinion and you are asking if people agree with it. The way a question is asked often tells a respondent how the asker feels. A skeptic towards the effectiveness of surveillance asking the same question would phrase it more like: “Do you buy the idea that surveillance prevents terrorism and is good for safety?”

I agree, a question structured like this is certainly easier for most people to understand. I’ll use it in the new post if I have the chance.

If you get the point, allow me to suggest a better presentation that has the questioner start at a neutral position: “To what level, in your opinion, is national surveillance in the name of safety and terrorism prevention acceptable? Does this change between authoritarian governments vs. democracies?” I can explain why this is more conducive to discussion than the other two if you need.

The tone of this version is indeed more neutral; however, I doubt it will give me the answer I’m looking for a direct counterpoint rather than a discussion about levels of acceptance. That said, I understand why this could serve as a more neutral starting point.

Yeah nah, that part is an insult by you, at some in the previous thread, but throwing insults begets insults. The surrounding observations explaining how you came to that subjective opinion doesn’t change that.

My original answer is

Insults are comments like “Okay, lackey.” or “This is fucking stupid,” which contain no actual argument. The statement “among the meaningless comments made by people who are incapable of rational thinking” reflects a factual observation I made to support my argument.

I apologize if I have indeed denied that the statement “among the meaningless comments made by people who are incapable of rational thinking” is an insult.

My point is that it also reflects a factual observation I made to support my argument, as it highlights the contrast between what is meaningful and reasonable and what is not, and is therefore meaningful.

I also agree that “throwing insults begets insults”; therefore, I believe the fault lies with those who started the insults, which naturally provoked my own response.

Hence my suggestion to leave them out if you want better discussion in a new thread, this is also part of the change in approach I recommend. While best omitted entirely, an example of a way to say effectively what you had wrote but without insults, would be “The quality of some of the replies I received were not as I had hoped”.

I completely agree—leaving out the insult can lead to a better discussion and more upvotes. I’m also very grateful to you for helping me organize my thoughts on how to approach this.

When the time comes that I value more about the opinions of those who are both disrespectful and hopeless at reading than the amusement I get from their stupidity, I’ll create a new post even they can follow.