Update Note [August 2016]: Until further notice the comments have been suspended. The following guidelines will still apply when comments are reinstated. Please see this post for further details.
1. I will consider removing anyone who posts under Anonymous or similar name. Although posting under a made-up name is equally anonymous, it at least requires more creativity. The anonymous commenter most often disguises hir identity in order to hide the fact that s/he is really someone from a conservative and/or liberal site/organization that I have mocked in an entry. Consider the supposedly reasonable Anonymous in the comments section of this post and the lengthy reply that I ended up writing - something I want to avoid in the future because, chances are, these Anonymouses generally parachute in to add their oh-so-brilliant insights in a rather dishonest manner (i.e. they don't read any other posts that might answer their "profound" complaints), and then never read the response. However, knowing that sometimes the commenting section defaults for some peoples browsers on "Anonymous", if you write your interwebs handle underneath, that's okay.
2. Any reactionary/retrograde/oppressive comments will be removed. Thus, anything that is explicitly/implicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, etc. will be deleted. What do I mean by implicitly? Well, leaving aside the fact that this might sometimes be a hard call to make (I recognize that), there are times when I'll be able to make the obvious call. (For example, if you use the word "misandry" in any of your comments as if it is a concept that possesses a real social dimension rather than patriarchal mystification, then the comment will be deleted. The same goes for the use of offensive/problematic term "reverse racism.")
3. If you keep posting comments forcing me to continuously reply you will be deleted. I'm all for debate but I also recognize that, if you're like me, you want to have the last word. That might be a great academic quality, and demonstrates your interest in theoretical discussion, but this is my blog and so I get to have the last word. Start your own blog if you want to write an essay about why you disagreed with one of my posts. Even better, link that disagreement to mine and we can have an interblog dialogue.
4. If your politics are conservative/liberal/libertarian and you feel the need to post a comment "correcting" me for being a misled communist, please don't. I know all of your arguments and most of them aren't as unique as you might think. No, they really aren't. This is a communist-orientated blog, specifically a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist one, and does not pretend to be anything else. Comment on one of the billion blogs that accord with your ideology that are everywhere on the internet. That means you Anonymous.
5. If your comment is deleted I don't care if you think I'm "suppressing" your "right" to free speech. I am not a liberal, I do not believe in Mill's harm principle, I do not care about your oh-so-sacred right to say whatever you want on this blog. You can say whatever you want in the overall "marketplace of ideas", but this corner of that bad analogy is not for you! Common sense morality, bourgeois ideology, generally suppresses the "free speech" of critical progressives, protecting conservative speech and mandating liberal speech as normative, so you're not really being "censored." And it's not like I'm preventing you from saying the things you want to say in your life, I'm just preventing you from saying them here. I'm sure you would be annoyed if someone took your notebook, wrote whatever they wanted all over the pages, and then complained that you were violating their free speech when you told them to stop and took your notebook back.
6. Please do not insult or belittle other commenters if you disagree with their position. (Unless they're utter reactionaries and liberals, but that shouldn't be a problem because I will hopefully delete those type of comments.) Also, do not insult me the blogger and behave with a general bourgeois holier-than-thou, I'm so so smart, arrogant manner: I enjoy debate, but I do not respond well to vacuous insults - most likely I will respond insultingly to your insults, and then we'll get nowhere. Again, this is my blog: only I have the right to be arrogant here, damnit! Generally, if your disagreement with me and/or other commenters has to do with the different shades of red of your communism/anarchism/whatever, keep responses civil or just don't respond at all. See point 3: this is not your blog, start your own. It is also important to remember that we on the left disagree on numerous points and someone's personal experience and political practice might place them at odds with your position. If that bugs you, get bugged about it on your own blog, facebook, or zine: don't gripe, troll, and insult people on mine.
7. Try to keep your comments to a manageable size. What is a manageable size you might ask? Here's a pointer: if your comment is larger than the post you're commenting on, it is not a manageable size. Here's another pointer: if your comment is so large that you have to continue it into another comment, it is equally not a manageable size. If you have comments that big you should think about starting your own blog and sending me the link. Really, chances are, people will be more inclined to read you on your own blog than in the obscure comments section of my already obscure blog. Good all around, see?
8. If you troll this site, break the comments policy, and cause yourself to get banned – and if you write insulting "fuck-you" style comments at me because you have been banned – you will be banned from posting on this site in the future.
9. I like funny comments.
10. I also like insightful comments.
11. Comments that are both funny and insightful are the best.
12. Chances are, being cowardly and afraid to offend potential allies, I probably won't end up removing any comments except for the clearly reactionary ones.
1. I will consider removing anyone who posts under Anonymous or similar name. Although posting under a made-up name is equally anonymous, it at least requires more creativity. The anonymous commenter most often disguises hir identity in order to hide the fact that s/he is really someone from a conservative and/or liberal site/organization that I have mocked in an entry. Consider the supposedly reasonable Anonymous in the comments section of this post and the lengthy reply that I ended up writing - something I want to avoid in the future because, chances are, these Anonymouses generally parachute in to add their oh-so-brilliant insights in a rather dishonest manner (i.e. they don't read any other posts that might answer their "profound" complaints), and then never read the response. However, knowing that sometimes the commenting section defaults for some peoples browsers on "Anonymous", if you write your interwebs handle underneath, that's okay.
2. Any reactionary/retrograde/oppressive comments will be removed. Thus, anything that is explicitly/implicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, etc. will be deleted. What do I mean by implicitly? Well, leaving aside the fact that this might sometimes be a hard call to make (I recognize that), there are times when I'll be able to make the obvious call. (For example, if you use the word "misandry" in any of your comments as if it is a concept that possesses a real social dimension rather than patriarchal mystification, then the comment will be deleted. The same goes for the use of offensive/problematic term "reverse racism.")
3. If you keep posting comments forcing me to continuously reply you will be deleted. I'm all for debate but I also recognize that, if you're like me, you want to have the last word. That might be a great academic quality, and demonstrates your interest in theoretical discussion, but this is my blog and so I get to have the last word. Start your own blog if you want to write an essay about why you disagreed with one of my posts. Even better, link that disagreement to mine and we can have an interblog dialogue.
4. If your politics are conservative/liberal/libertarian and you feel the need to post a comment "correcting" me for being a misled communist, please don't. I know all of your arguments and most of them aren't as unique as you might think. No, they really aren't. This is a communist-orientated blog, specifically a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist one, and does not pretend to be anything else. Comment on one of the billion blogs that accord with your ideology that are everywhere on the internet. That means you Anonymous.
5. If your comment is deleted I don't care if you think I'm "suppressing" your "right" to free speech. I am not a liberal, I do not believe in Mill's harm principle, I do not care about your oh-so-sacred right to say whatever you want on this blog. You can say whatever you want in the overall "marketplace of ideas", but this corner of that bad analogy is not for you! Common sense morality, bourgeois ideology, generally suppresses the "free speech" of critical progressives, protecting conservative speech and mandating liberal speech as normative, so you're not really being "censored." And it's not like I'm preventing you from saying the things you want to say in your life, I'm just preventing you from saying them here. I'm sure you would be annoyed if someone took your notebook, wrote whatever they wanted all over the pages, and then complained that you were violating their free speech when you told them to stop and took your notebook back.
6. Please do not insult or belittle other commenters if you disagree with their position. (Unless they're utter reactionaries and liberals, but that shouldn't be a problem because I will hopefully delete those type of comments.) Also, do not insult me the blogger and behave with a general bourgeois holier-than-thou, I'm so so smart, arrogant manner: I enjoy debate, but I do not respond well to vacuous insults - most likely I will respond insultingly to your insults, and then we'll get nowhere. Again, this is my blog: only I have the right to be arrogant here, damnit! Generally, if your disagreement with me and/or other commenters has to do with the different shades of red of your communism/anarchism/whatever, keep responses civil or just don't respond at all. See point 3: this is not your blog, start your own. It is also important to remember that we on the left disagree on numerous points and someone's personal experience and political practice might place them at odds with your position. If that bugs you, get bugged about it on your own blog, facebook, or zine: don't gripe, troll, and insult people on mine.
7. Try to keep your comments to a manageable size. What is a manageable size you might ask? Here's a pointer: if your comment is larger than the post you're commenting on, it is not a manageable size. Here's another pointer: if your comment is so large that you have to continue it into another comment, it is equally not a manageable size. If you have comments that big you should think about starting your own blog and sending me the link. Really, chances are, people will be more inclined to read you on your own blog than in the obscure comments section of my already obscure blog. Good all around, see?
8. If you troll this site, break the comments policy, and cause yourself to get banned – and if you write insulting "fuck-you" style comments at me because you have been banned – you will be banned from posting on this site in the future.
9. I like funny comments.
10. I also like insightful comments.
11. Comments that are both funny and insightful are the best.
12. Chances are, being cowardly and afraid to offend potential allies, I probably won't end up removing any comments except for the clearly reactionary ones.