Thursday's Most Active Threads

When it was announced early yesterday morning that WNBA basketball star Britney Griner had been exchanged for Russian arms merchant Viktor Bout, a poster quickly started a thread in the "Off-Topic" forum titled, "Brittney Griner Coming Home!". Undoubtedly, this thread would have been the most active of the day yesterday. However, the thread quickly turned political and, because there was an existing thread about Griner in the "Political Discussion" forum, I locked the new thread and directed posters to the older one. That thread, titled, "Britney Griner deal", gained enough new pages yesterday that it could have topped the most active list itself. The two threads combined easily eclipsed all other topics in activity for the day. Unfortunately, rather than celebrate the release of an American who had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia, many posters immediately focused on the fact that another American held in Russia, Paul Whalen, was not being released. Indeed, the entire text of the original post in the Off-Topic thread was "Paul Whalen staying in jail." The poster did not bother providing any details about Griner who was the subject of the thread. Criticism that Whalen had not been freed continued even after the Biden Administration explained that Russia refused to release Whalen in exchange for Bout. The criticism continued even after Whalen's family expressed support for the exchange. Whalen supporters almost exclusively referred to him as a "marine" or a "former marine" despite the fact that he had been dishonorably discharged from the Corps over a decade ago. Generally, this was a very disheartening rush to unfairly disparage the exchange and, coupled with attacks on Griner herself, present Griner as undeserving and not worth the value of Bout. To be sure, Griner had her supporters who expressed joy at her release and who sought to combat the misinformation being spread about her. Most upsetting were the posts, thankfully few in number, that were blatantly racist or homophobic. I removed such posts as soon as they came to my attention.

Another topic that was dominate yesterday involved "Harry & Meghan", a new series on Netflix about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Meghan, but especially Meghan, have been a frustrating topic for me on DCUM. There is a dedicated crew of Meghan-haters who turn every thread about her into a raging dumpster fire. In response, I have basically prohibited discussion about the couple. Yesterday I deleted at least two threads that were created primarily to criticize the show and which led to easily foreseen attacks on Meghan. When a thread titled, "Harry + Meghan series really well done" was created, I decided to let it stand but to keep a close eye on it. I am allowing discussion of the show, whether positive or negative, but prohibiting going beyond the show's confines. For instance, describing a scene from the show and explaining how it caused you to vomit uncontrollably would be acceptable. However, a post expressing an opinion that is unrelated to the show, even if the opinion is positive about the couple, will be removed. It is fascinating, if discouraging, that there were a host of posters who weighed in to say they have not watched the show, will not watch the show, but still have opinions they want to share about the show. Those posts were removed. A similar number of posters complained, sometimes in multiple posts, that the show was simply an attempt by a boring but publicity-hungry couple to get attention. I removed those posts because I believed those posters would not want to contribute to increasing publicity for the undeserving pair. Even after all the posts I deleted, the thread still reached 8 pages, making it among the most active of the day. The thread includes both positive and negative reactions to the series with quite a bit of attention to the story about how they met. I don't know how long I'll have the patience to continue moderating the thread in the way that I have, so it may end up getting locked at some point.

A thread posted in the "Religion" forum titled, "Restaurant denies Christian group service over its anti-abortion and LGBTQ stances" managed ten pages yesterday, making it among the most active threads of the day. The original poster links to a news story about a Richmond, VA restaurant that cancelled a reservation for a conservative Christian organization due to the organization's anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ stances. The original poster describes this as "This is the biggest discrimination I have ever seen", causing many posters to suggest that the poster is a troll because, obviously, this is fairly low on the discrimination scale. Many of those responding compared this to cases of gay couples being denied services. Indeed the Supreme Court is currently considering a case involving a website designer who refuses to create websites for gay marriages. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, they suggested. Others proclaimed that discrimination in both cases is wrong. There was some dispute over whether this is religious discrimination or political discrimination. Some posters went so far as to claim that refusing services to a gay couple due to religious beliefs is an expression of religious freedom while refusing service to someone who, on the basis of religious beliefs, opposes gay rights is a case of religious discrimination. Basically, in this view, religion can be a basis for its adherents discriminating against others, but not for being discriminated against themselves. Much of the thread is devoted to run of the mill abortion debate which will probably cause the thread to be locked soon since the original topic no longer being addressed.

The final thread at which I'll look today is titled, "Annual PSA to moms with lots of free time" and was posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. This thread might have been more appropriate for the "Schools and Education General Discussion" forum because it is focused on school activities. Essentially, the original poster wants to remind other parents that many parents, including the original poster, are very busy and don't have time to contribute to activities such as staff cookie exchanges or school class parties. She says that she ignores and deletes the email requests that she receives asking to participate and asks that they not be resent. Whining and complaining on DCUM is a tricky business because such posts are rarely met with sympathy, and this post seems particularly whining and complaining. Not unexpectedly, therefore, most of the replies are not supportive of the original poster. Many posters consider this a simple matter of time management at which the original poster is failing. Several posters offer suggestions about how to participate while devoting minimal time and effort. Posters who describe themselves as quite busy explain how they are able to contribute despite their full schedules. Posters who say they have lots of free time assure the original poster that the intention is not to infringe on her free time, but that multiple requests are sometimes necessary to ensure sufficient participation. I haven't read every post in this thread, but I don't think there is a single response agreeing with the original poster's point of view. If she was busy before, things are not going to be improved by devoting her scarce time to reading ten pages of criticism.