I simply cannot agree (edit: based on this reasoning) that “…good god, you’re a mod here?” (for the record, intended as something like “your being a mod explains why no action was taken” or “you cannot say the things you have said here in the way that you’ve said them and also be a good moderator”) is an uncivil statement or sentiment to express. Conceivably it was very a uncomfortable, unwelcome, or even upsetting sentiment to read about one’s self. From my perspective, it is clear that the mod abusing their powers to silence criticism of their authority, not to remove an uncivil comment.

In contrast to you, I understand “civility” to refer explicitly to politeness in speech and writing, regardless of the actual sentiment (bless your heart is civil, but that doesn’t mean its sentiment is not unkind). In those terms, if either of my two comments were uncivil, it was clearly “WTF is wrong with you” which employed vulgarity to make my point. That said, googling civility comes up with anything from that plain “politeness” definition to extremely broad definitions including respect, tolerance, … I quite frankly cannot be asked to be any more respectful and tolerant towards apparently genocidal sentiments than I already have.

As I see it, they chose to ignore an arguably uncivil remark but exercised authority to remove “incivility” when I implied they were an arsonist hired as a firefighter.

But is that power tripping, or is it simply poor judgement?

I can’t tell the difference here.

If you interact with squid outside of the hot button issues, they’re pretty damn chill.

Yeah and if you talk to my uncle about something other than race relations or the “lost cause” he’s pretty chill too. He loves talking about classical music and math.

No power tripping with the specific mod action taken, but there is some questionable behavior overall.

Fair enough.