10thManProtocol

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] 10thManProtocol 1 points 2 years ago

Well, despite no additional information being released, the fact that these are happening back to back in the same area does hint to it not being random or accidental.

[–] 10thManProtocol 2 points 2 years ago

That's always been a rough part of town (I worked in that area for years), and one-off daytime shootings have happened in many places over the years. To me the big difference is that we're given less and less information as the public. No names, no circumstances, nothing. The lack of information makes it possible to use events like these as justification for any policy since we all want less shootings but with no information hinting at root cause (for example gang activity) it makes it easier to pass blanket laws like our federal government does.

[–] 10thManProtocol 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Interesting driving from Kanata to Ottawa, getting to the top of the hill after Eagleson from where you can usually see the city out ahead and the Gatineau hills to the left, and seeing nothing but yellowy grey. Pretty thick out there!

[–] 10thManProtocol 2 points 2 years ago

What's in a name... I was fine calling it the river parkway for years, then the name got changed to something more "patriotic" or something. Makes it fair game to change the name again. Like the palladium that takes on a different name every few years. I just wish people would agree and stick to one spelling. Why not stick with kitchissipi?

 

By default the community was set so only mods can post. I've changed that now.

 

For some time I was an active user on Reddit, and my experience was the same as most where I often got some useful information, sometimes learned something new, and sometimes ran into users who said things I didn't agree with. Then in 2019 that started changing, ever more drastically, where disagreement on some topics was taboo. Along with the ever increasing polarization and division of Canadians, this lead to a certain orthodoxy with dogmas that should not be challenged.

At the time I'm writing this we have some benefit of hindsight, but topics like BLM, COVID lockdowns, protests, and so on were some where in some communities you were only allowed to agree - the other option was to be silenced (posts removed) and/or banned. I had created a small community on Reddit called Ottawa/Gatineau as place where people from the region could connect, converse, challenge each other on their views, and perhaps start finding some middle ground. I see open conversation as the principal cure to polarization. That community was created as an alternative to an existing community that, through new moderators, actively prevented this and encouraged polarization by re-enforcing some views and removing anyone that didn't agree. In other words, moderated to actively create an echo chamber of homogeneous views on certain topics. The community I created was eventually removed from Reddit, after the moderators of the other community repeatedly complained that criticism of their approach to moderation was online harassment, and therefore against site rules. Any following attempts to create an alternative community were all followed by removal by site admins, enforcing that there can be only one Reddit community for the Ottawa region.

This bit of a history lesson is to give context for why I've created this community here on Lemmy.ca. While I'm certainly leery of investing more of my time creating an online community, especially after seeing it removed with no recourse earlier, I still believe that there is a need to reduce polarization in the Ottawa / Gatineau community. Recognizing the need, and doing nothing about it, isn't something I'm able to do.

So here I am, and here you are as well. Welcome.