Re: Muzzling Flat Earthers - Would it be Possible?

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 22:20:12 -0600
Trey Hermiston <nobody@email.invalid> wrote:

It looks as if the flat earthers are trying to take over sci.astro.
Since they reject accepted astrophysics the astronomy community could
fight back to muzzle the flerfers. No one that I know of in the
astrophysics community wants to read their articles or watch their
videos. Why should they be allowed to post flerf content here at all?
 
It might be possible to stop the flerfers from propagating their
ideas. What if Usenet were to change this newsgroup to a moderated
group? Would that be a effective initial step toward quashing flat
earth content?
 
Moderation would empower a reputable, NASA-aware or science-approved
moderator to reject posts by flat earthers in sci.astro. All flat
earth arguments could be automatically rejected as spam.
 
The policy could go further towards rejecting all flat earthers from
being allowed to sign up for Usenet access. Usenet peers that allow
flat earthers to post could be de-peered like is done with Mastodon.
 
Peers like Dizum, Mixmin, Paganini, and Neodome could be de-peered
entirely from Usenet since they allow anti-scientific and conspiracy
content to propagate. Who would even miss those peers anyway?
 
How would one propose such changes? Who would one need to contact to
make it happen? What other actions might be taken? At what point does
the astronomy community draw a line in the sand against
anti-scientific content propagation?

First they came for the creationists, and I did not speak out—because I
was not a creationist.

Then they came for the pro-lifers, and I did not speak out—because I
was not a pro-lifer.

Then they came for the Christians, and I did not speak out—because I
was not a Christian.

Then they came for the flat earthers, and I did not speak out—because I
was not a flat earther.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

~Martian Niemoller