Ya maybe. But the ubiquity of alcohol suggests that the specific substance bears too.

I’m pointing out an incongruity between popular opinion and objective fact.

There’s a certain inherent nastiness to alcohol. A definite taint that shouts “I am poison” or “this stuff is good for cleaning engine parts”.

Opium, not so much. More of a warm floral hug.

I literally just explained.

Underlining everything sorta kills the poetry.

I am describing a minimal-effort dystopian nightmare. You trick the serfs into oppressing themselves. Very cheap to implement.

I feel your pain, princess. Best add me to your block list.

Yeah but it’s an efficient, smooth-running dystopian nightmare

Ahh, so it’s ok to fuck with my conversation as long as you, smiletolerantly, think it’s legitimate. Whew. That’s a relief.

What would be better is a system where the sanctity of the conversation was respected. Where there was 100% assurance that everything you said got to me and everything I said got to you. No question at all. No man in the middle censoring and altering according to his whim.

It’s a discussion of principle.

This is a foreign concept?

It’s a discussion of principle.

If you are saying nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear from moderation, right?

It’s weird. The simple fact of being watched and told what you can say. And the possibility that what you’re saying is being edited and what you’re hearing is edited too.

This strikes me as abhorrent. But most of the people here call it necessary, preferable and even desirable.

Imagine a form of downvoting that led to removal from the server.

Decree of the masses vs decree of authority . Still gets the job done.

This is a discussion of principle. Save the details till later.

That doesn’t make having a moderator any less bad

I don’t see the connection with my reply

I am aware of that. But still, giving somebody the power to arbitrarily censor and modify our conversation is a fundamentally bad thing.

There are other ways to control the conversation. Ones that do not require a moderator. For example, voting.

So not necessary.