Amendment to the Regional Controls Act

[Salem]

Let me fix my last post since I seemed to have missed some words and rushed the post. I am for banning all the political tags if we decide we want to ban the communist tag. I don't view being LGBT or a feminist as a political ideology. I had my post typed out then realized there are other RL related tags and added them in without fixing the rest of the post. My bad.

As far as the political tags go - I'm for banning all of the political tags though because I don't think it's healthy for us as a region to debate the pros and cons of each political ideology. Giang's examples of tags that could have both an IC and OOC meaning - Imperialist or Monarchist - don't apply to us
anyway due us being neither that IC or OOC. At least not until we install Fratt as God-King. None of the other tags have an IC or OOC meaning that would apply to us either.

I'm also happy to leave the the tags the way they are right now with fascism being banned while the others aren't specifically because again TRR has communists as full members of our region. Fascists not so much, they tend to get banned super easy.

[Guy]

If we are (understandably) not interested in debating the merits of each political tag, a further alternative is to retain the status quo (which has, to date, generally served us well) and trust the Delegate's judgment not to select a tag that is contrary to the region's ethos.

[frattastan]

Should the onus be reversed?

This does raise an interesting question: should the Regional Controls Act's provisions on regional tags be changed, so that the Delegate must not add any tags that are not permitted?

The Regional Tags Act was written at a time when the region's democracy was at a less mature stage, and so were regional tags - there was a stronger possibility of them changing. Perhaps, rather than generally leaving tags to the Delegate's discretion, only specified tags should be permitted.

I don't think so. Most tags don't touch fundamental questions about regional identity and could be added as part of government initiatives (RP-related tags), or because the Delegate feels they fit the region's vibe at some point (Casual, Snarky, Silly, Surreal) or to make small political statements: I remember adding "Egalitarian" at some point, and someone else added "LGBT"; it's very possible that Feminist or Anti-Fascist could come about at some point. Maybe someone thinks that our worldview is "Pacifist", or that we should send that message to newcomers.

Until we get to the point where the Delegate "abuses" their power by adding something that causes controversy, I'd oppose reversing the way the law operates.

As for banning all political ideologies, stating by law that the region can't be Liberal, Libertarian, Conservative, Communist, Socialist, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, Anti-Communist and a couple more feels more stifling than saying "we are a diverse region".

The Feminist and Patriarchal tags aren’t equivalent, you surely know that, Fratt

And I could be saying that neither are Communist and the currently-banned tags.

[Altasund]

I've personally viewed "Communist" as denoting either a region which permits communists in it, or one which is actively a part of NSLeft (e.g. TCB) - not one that follows Marx's writings to the letter. It might be worthwhile proscribing it on the basis of that second one, since we aren't - and shouldn't ever be imo - part of the NSLeft conglomerate. If we're considering "communist" as equivalent to "monarchist", "imperialist", and "totalitarian" in the NS sense, then yes, there's an argument that it should be prohibited, and I'd probably vote for a proscription.

On the other hand, I get uneasy when people start banning communism on the basis that they've already banned fascism. The underlying aim of communism is to create a fair and equal society, and while it's been abused historically, it should not be seen as an equivalent to fascism. Characterising it as such is an attack on - or at last a disservice to - people in TRR who identify as communist. I wouldn't be comfortable supporting a proscription of the Communist tag if it was clear the general reasoning was "it's as bad as fascism". It is certainly not comparable to "Imperialist”, “Fascist”, and “Totalitarian", which are all actively harmful inherently rather than due to abuse. I'd also not consider Marx's views on how communism should come about to be relevant to how communism exists. You can agree with Marx's idea of a utopic society without agreeing that you should murder people to get there.
That said, this is a discussion on the merits of not permitting the "communist" tag, not whether we should have the "anti-communist" tag. I'd be uncomfortably voting for proscribing "communist" if I was doing so alongside people who are presenting it as being equal to fascism, but I would probably vote for anyway on the basis of it's in-game meaning.

I could get behind Guy's suggestion that we switch the system to where tags have to be actively approved rather than actively proscribed.

While we're here, can we proscribe "catcher" pls

[LiberzanEmpire]

I don’t quite think that proscribing the communist *tag* is the same as prohibiting or restricting communist nations and/or nations that believe in communism. For example, the monarchist tag is currently banned from usage, but that doesn’t mean that monarchist nations—such as my own—aren’t allowed to, say, partake in our democratic government.

I could also get behind Guy’s suggestion, though. Wherein rather than adding a list of banned tags, there would be a list of accepted tags: if someone wanted to add a new tag, e.g. communism, it would have to be approved first in The Assembly.

[Giangsang]

While we're here, can we proscribe "catcher" pls

seconding this.

[frattastan]

I don’t quite think that proscribing the communist *tag* is the same as prohibiting or restricting communist nations and/or nations that believe in communism. For example, the monarchist tag is currently banned from usage, but that doesn’t mean that monarchist nations—such as my own—aren’t allowed to, say, partake in our democratic government.

The perception is very close because Manson's proposal wasn't prompted by plans to add the Communist tag or anything like that. Lacking a purpose like "urgently needed to preserve the status quo", it feels very much like the point is just to send a message of moral disdain, saying that this region rejects Communism as much as (whatever else is already on the list). Indeed, this seems to be Manson's motive. If I suggested out of the blue to ban the "Liberal" tag no one would see it as an acknowledgment that we're a diverse region - quite the contrary.

[Manson]

I’m cool with either just individually voting on each tag or just not putting the “Communist” tag up for vote.

[BowShot118]

I'll put up a voting thread tomorrow - the options to add colony and to add communist will be separate