This is a long post I already regret writing. But what the heck.
The problem is the cult-like tendencies. Politics and religion have a tendency to devolve into dogma and open hostility towards heresy. You end up with lists of acceptable beliefs. Discussion them is seen as just as bad, or worse than disagreeing outright. It is absolutely mental that Era has reached a point where people's private voting choices will get them permanently banned from the community. That is untenable. That is the complete collapse of all pretense of a functioning community. That is "let's expel the Catholics to create our perfect Protestant Utopia"-tier stuff.
That is what cults do. They isolate themselves. They expel the unbelievers, "unbelievers" expands to encompass everyone who disagrees with increasingly tangled dogma.
Gamers can be giant babies when their precious videogames are criticized. Whether that's criticizing game mechanics or arguing that a game's character portrayals are sexist or demeaning or whatever. Gaming communities have fostered uncritical consumption -- preorder now! But on the flipside, what happens in a dogmatic community is that people do not discuss issues such as sexism. They merely nod their heads at the dogma. If someone makes a thread on Era saying, "I think this is racist," people who say, "No, it is not racist, and here is why..." get banned. It happened repeatedly with Cyberpunk. It has been happening for years.
And trolls have fostered it. Like this thread which was created by a known troll. He pulled this kind of ban-bating trolling for a long time, and everyone who pointed out he was a troll had their posts removed and were banned. Era loves banning people who back up their allegations with links.
And their posts are always nuked to prevent users being allowed to decide the merits for themselves.
Tawna and the Nitro Squad are characters that were introduced in the latest content update for the game. Each character has a set of skins and one of the ones for Tawna is pretty insensitive in my opinion. One of her skins changes the fur color of Tawna to a much darker tone and is called...
www.resetera.com
It happens all the time. Disagreeing is not allowed. Polls have been defacto banned because people throw a tantrum when they see polls results they don't like.
Era does not have a conservative community of any stripe. American, British, Australian, New Zealand -- nobody This is glaringly obvious in every single thread about a celebrity who says something "conservative". Insults, mockery, putdowns. Nobody dares step out of line. Almost everyone in the short-lived conservative Era community thread is banned, including the moderator who oversaw it.
Era is actively hostile towards black men from America who are not Democrat voters. It is considered acceptable to call them the n word and to call them c**ns. It is considered acceptable to call women deeply misogynistic terms if those women voted wrong.
Era does not have a religious community. They were all banned, pushed out, made virulently unwelcome. Being openly religious on Era (which encompasses billions of people) is asking to be banned.
This ties into Era's unspoken demand that people all over the world support the American Democrat party or be banned. The issue of single issue voters comes up. People who reluctantly vote for a party over an issue they really care about. Anti-abortion people are the go-to example. It's a deciding factor for millions in the US. On Era, instant permaban for any user who says anything negative about abortion, from what I've seen. Even saying you reluctantly voted Democrat despite their platform on abortion would instantly get you banned by someone like Morrigan who has a massive bee in her bonnet about anti-abortioners being "misogynists", and thus immediately gives them permanent "Misogyny" bans. That's the kind of top-tier, spirit of the ToS realized through moderation transparency that everyone loves from Era.
Era needed to own up and say, "We are a community with these very hardcore, dogmatic beliefs and we do not welcome anyone who questions them. You will only support these political parties, these political stances, you will not be a practicing member of any of these religions, etc." But Era projects this false image of being a place of respectful discussion, civility, and definitely not a cult oriented around American politics. There's a jarring disconnect between the "welcoming bonfire" bullshit and the actual site culture. Worse, people who join Era expecting to be able to discuss issues of sexism in the gaming community, harassment, etc. instead find a bunch of users totally okay with harassment as long as the victim is acceptable, and where you can't actually discuss harassment. The amount of harassment that Era is fine with, and the people who get permabanned for "false equivalency" when they call it out is bizarre.
GAF has issues. But you will not be permabanned from GAF for disagreeing with the "Off Topic" types when they lurch over onto the gaming side. You can say, "I don't think the US election was a fraud." You can say, "I'm American and I voted for the Democrats despite my reservations because I think their economic plan will get more people through this crisis." You won't be banned for that. But the merest RUMOUR of not being a US Democrat supporter on Era will get you banned. Invariably. That is a cult. No normal community behaves that way. And this current meltdown has been brewing and brewing for years as the extremism that has come to define Era grew more and more hostile. The intersectionalism was always a sham. A vicious, petty, backbiting sham.
TaySan
, if you consider my head to be his parents' house), but Resetera is a site which inarguably has a symbiotic relationship/history with GAF, and the longer you're outside of Era, the more you can acknowledge "the other site" as the neverending circus it is. Almost like a soap opera. We're commentating on, and shooting shit here like we do in every other thread.
