Countermoderating, Gatekeeping, and How to Earn a Ban

[u/Flack_Bag]

As some of you are aware, this sub has had a persistent problem with users who are unfamiliar with the intent and purpose of the sub. Granted, anticonsumerism/anticonsumption is a bit of an abstract concept, so it can be tough sometimes to tangle out what is and isn't relevant.

Because of this, we have spent quite a bit of time and effort putting together the Community Info/sidebar to describe and illustrate some of the concepts involved. Unfortunately, not nearly enough people actually bother to look at it, much less read it to get an understanding of the purpose of the sub.

We do allow discussion of many different surface level topics, including lifestyle tips, recycling and reuse, repair and maintenance, environmental issues, and so forth, as long as they are related to consumer culture in some way or another. But none of these things are the sole or even primary focus of the sub.

The focus of the sub is anticonsumerism, which is a wide ranging socio-political ideology that criticizes and rejects consumer culture as a whole. This includes criticism of marketing and advertising, politics, social trends, corporate encroachments, media, cultural traditions, and any number of other phenomena we encounter on a daily basis.

If you're only here for lifestyle tips or discussions of direct environmental effects, you may not be interested in seeing some of those discussions, which is fine. What is not fine is disrupting the subreddit by challenging or questioning posts and comments that address issues that aren't of interest to you. If you genuinely believe that a post is off topic for the subreddit, report it rather than commenting publicly. This behavior has already done a great deal of damage as it is, as low-information users have dogpiled on quality posters, causing them to delete their posts and leave the subreddit. For reasons that should be obvious, this is not acceptable. We want to encourage more substantial discussions rather than catering to the lowest common denominator.

As such, any future attempts to gatekeep or countermoderate the sub based on mistaken understanding of the topic will result in bans, temporary or permanent. If you can't devote a little time and effort to understand the concepts involved, we won't be devoting the time to review any of your future contributions.

TLDR: If a few short paragraphs is too much for you, don't comment on posts you don't understand.

[u/PixelatedFixture]

Can we get a section in the info about how hobbies aren't above criticism? Like it's ridiculous the amount of times I see people try to defend consumerism because something is a hobby.

[u/Flack_Bag → u/PixelatedFixture]

I don't think that's really cut and dried enough to make a rule on. Hobbies are such a wide-ranging thing that it'd be tough to nail down where to draw the line. And I'm not qualified to make that decision for anyone but myself.

[u/PixelatedFixture → u/Flack_Bag]

Let me clarify, if someone is accurately describing how a hobby is proliferated via consumer culture and advertising/mass media, let's say for example, Pokémon cards. Pointing out how the hobby itself is not something that arises outside of the creation and maintenance of the brand and it's commodities. That the concept that the retort to a good faith description, of something akin to, "god forbid a man have hobbies" is not a way to engage with someone how consumer culture has influenced or even created said hobby. If you're putting out a reasoned and coherent criticism of a hobby, "let people enjoy things" is not something we should be seeing in this sub, imho.

[u/Flack_Bag → u/PixelatedFixture]

Ah,I see what you're saying.

The tricky part is that we also get people criticizing having supplies for creative hobbies, like art supplies, tools, and equipment. There was a really weird post a while back where some were going after Umberto Eco for having too many books. Some seemed to take offense because they just thought it was clutter. And it starts blurring the line with minimalism at times, when people think that somehow all 'clutter' is consumerist, even if it's pinecones or rocks or old scholarly journals and theses.

Of course, those are very different from collections of mass produced consumer products marketed as collectibles. Those 'hobbies' ARE just turbo-consumerism.

The difference should be obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of what anticonsumerism is, but trying to tangle that specific aspect out for those who don't have that understanding would be near impossible.