90
Both of these removals are tacit endorsement of ableism and racism and this mod should be removed.
(hexbear.net)
Also here is the head mod defending a transphobe/chaser https://hexbear.net/comment/3762972
Here's a couple sources about it:
Chicago Tribune- Here's an offensive word we should retire right now (2016)
Anchorage Press - Why [word] is Lazy and Offensive (2020)
Cambridge English Dictionary
It's not just us Hexbears who find it offensive. Even if it's used ironically, I think we can all agree that the ironic use of offensive language still has potential to cause harm and should at the very least not be above crticism.
E: I'm pro-federation and I want to soothe things over, and I think the admins of both Blahaj and Hexbear are committed to that, but it seems like this mod is intentionally trying to burn bridges. This all happened underneath a post where they publicly posted a private conversation with one of our mods for the purpose of mockery. I've been trying to get people to tone it down on our side, but none of our people are going to listen to calls for civility in the face of ableism. We support our neurodivergent comrades.
Yeah, saying this right now, 196's main mod consistently posts bait. Ada is a great admin and community runner, I feel bad that I have to consistently see her step in because Moss fucks up so much obvious and easy shit. Moss posting a blurred picture of her conversations with Hexbear admins and blaming the blurring on Ada is shitty, posting ableist slurs and using them in mod messages to people calling you out is shitty.
These are actions that cause a lot of drama within the community, and take less than a few seconds of thought to know they're bad ideas. Moss consistently wants a drama filled community and it sucks. It's like the second one of these ridiculous bait post become old news, OH SHIT HERE'S A NEW ONE FOR EVERYBODY TO SALIVATE OVER!!!!
My impression is that Blahaj accepted the 196 lifeboat without necessarily knowing much about it. Many of us on Hexbear had experiences with it on Reddit because on the surface it seems cool, but it's always had some strong Vaushite tendencies that we really dislike.
:::spoiler tangent
Imo he plays the controversy game of "Say stuff that makes group A mad at me in order to appeal to group B, who hates group A." That leads to saying problematic and harmful stuff but there's always this layer of plausible deniability, and all criticism, legitimate or not, gets dismissed as coming from the bad outgroup ("tankies"). When our site first started we had a ton of posts criticizing him but then we figured out it's better to just ignore his antics.
I've been worried since the start that federation with 196 was a ticking time bomb, but I've been pleasantly surprised that the users haven't really been posting bait or trying to antagonize us, but unfortunately I can't say the same for this mod. From what you said it sounds like they do similar controversy bait tactics.