1mo ago

guy repetitively referring to russians as "orc"s

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death - Lemmy.World

I'm new to moderating on Lemmy.World since I only have this account as a community I moderate is on .World. This user has persistently been using "orc" to refer to Russians and a user who defends Russian driving. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orc says it's an ethnic slur but https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1811354/i-will-not-call-russians-rushists-or-orcs-that-s-dehumanising-interview makes it out slightly more nuanced as a dehumanizing pejorative.

The comments' not receiving admin action has got me wondering. Is this time for some sort of ban? Does this violate the instance rules?

9 comments

Russians are orcs though.
- I do not find it comfortable to dehumanize such a large group of people, especially the ordinary citizens who may well be trapped under their regime. The context here is completely unrelated to Russian soldiers, who are guilty but also definitely not mindless anyways.
Yes it is a slur (a type of dehumanizing pejorative), but they are unpopular right now so most people are ok with that slur.
The real question is do you want to moderate it in your community?
You will get push back, the trolls will say you are supporting the slur group, and will try to make it into a big thing.
Personally, if you have a community rule against slurs and you enforce it, I'm ok with that.
- trolls
  
  I would say troll is not a slur, its based on behavior a attribute that people can control, rather then geography or race.
- It's not a community rule, but I was under the impression that it fell under the instance discrimination rules.
  
  You are the moderator of your own community, I don't think its fair to expect the instance admins to moderate your community. They should only have to step in if your not doing your job.
  As far as this specific slur goes maybe its not on their radar, maybe they don't think the fight is worth it right now, or maybe they just give you the tooling to enforce your own level of uplifting environment.
  You can set the tone and expectations for your community however you like.
  
  It’s not a community rule, but I was under the impression that it fell under the instance discrimination rules.
  Orc is anyone who fights on Russia's side in the Ukraine war and more broadly the people who support the war. It's usually not racist because it A) does not refer to every single person of Russian ethnicity and B) also includes people from other countries who went to fight for Russia voluntarily.
  If it is a racist slur depends how it's used.

9 comments