Folks,
while I love legit, informational, open-minded arguments in general, there were a couple hate-speech attacks against a recent, Belgian/Jewish-themed post here that immediately smashed our #1 rule here (“Netiquette”) to bits.

Those came from two individuals in particular (same notorious instance, not gonna lie), and disgusted both myself and my co-mod.

So I want to remind everyone here-- for anyone new to this community, it’s both commonsense and classic Netiquette to suggest that if one wants to argue vociferously, it’s best to do it by steps. Politely, if possible.

Well, no “steps” were followed in those cases. They essentially went from 0-to-60 in hate-speech, and are now perma-banned here for the moment. Still, if they’d like to appeal, they may. I’m not opposed to talking things out, assuming good-faith is involved.

Btw, not sure if this is a side-note or what, but I’m proud to support Pales-people as well as the Jewish. Both Semitic peoples, I consider my friends & colleagues. (and yes, I understand that the entire region is *extremely* complicated, and yes, by no means am I automatically a fan of Zionism)

EDIT: I’ve made some major clarifications in my message above, trying for a more useful, fairer approach. Thank you for reading.