I'm not surprise by this. Seeing how Lemmy has a hard coded wordfilter specifically to discourage "right-wingers" from using it. They did remove it. But still, it's not a good look.
Edit: This comment was written [in 2020] at a time when Lemmy the software was practically identical with the lemmy.ml instance. At that time we barely had any moderation tools, so it was an easy way to keep some groups of users off the instance. Now its different, there are good mod tools, and many different instances. So we removed the slur filter in Lemmy 0.14.0 (instance admins can optionally configure one, which lemmy.ml does).
So basically some developers working on a pet project took a shortcut at a time when other features were being prioritized. Let's not make this particular item out to be more than it is. I think it serves the conversation better to focus on what the post is about which is widespread bans on certain content.
Okay. Why didn't they say that in first place? Why say, "because we dont want to make it easy for right-wingers to use Lemmy."? It's like they edited the comment to make them and Lemmy look better.
I'm not saying their original statement wasn't what they meant when they said it. My only point is that hard coding things is a common development shortcut. Everyone knows that it's bad practice, but when you're developing software for basically your own use it doesn't really matter.
Not only that, but Lemmy is open source. So anyone that is so inclined could remove the filter on their own instance if they really wanted to.
My opinion might change if I saw the list of banned words and it contained things other than common curse words and slurs, or only included slurs for one group. But without that, this just seems like a development decision in spite of the poor reasoning behind why they implemented it in the first place.
But they're not doing it. You're just freaking out because they could, hypothetically do it. And then you're getting angry because your hypothetical admins - who are in your head - are doing it, which you MADE them do - because, again, this is all a scenario in your head.
ooo yeah such a bad look when we can't say slurs, that is what freeze peach is all about!! Not a very welcoming environment for cishet white dudes, the main characters of the world