It seems that not even knitting is free from politics. On Sunday, the knitting website Ravelryannounced to its user base that it was banning “support of Donald Trump and his administration,” falsely claiming that support of the president and his administration is “undeniably support for white supremacy.”
According to the site:
This includes support in the form of forum posts, projects, patterns, profiles, and all other content. Note that your project data will never be deleted. We will never delete your Ravelry project data for any reason and if a project needs to be removed from the site, we will make sure that you have access to your data. If you are permanently banned from Ravelry, you will still be able to access any patterns that you purchased. Also, we will make sure that you receive a copy of your data.
“We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy,” the site adds. “Support of the Trump administration is undeniably support for white supremacy.”
Sounds a bit hypocritical to us.
The site added:
- You can still participate if you do in fact support the administration, you just can’t talk about it here.
- We are not endorsing the Democrats nor banning Republicans.
- We are definitely not banning conservative politics. Hate groups and intolerance are different from other types of political positions.
- We are not banning people for past support.
- Do not try to weaponize this policy by entrapping people who do support the Trump administration into voicing their support.
- Similarly, antagonizing conservative members for their unstated positions is not acceptable.
Translation: If you support Trump, sit down and shut the hell up — or else. Sounds rather “liberal” to us, if you know what I mean…
The site even calls on users to help by “flagging … items if they constitute support for Trump or his administration…” Gee, just like in the former Soviet Union or in Orwell’s classic book, “Nineteen Eighty Four.”
Then again, the presence of the rainbow flag in its logo should be a — pardon the pun — red flag:
Ravelry describes itself as:
“A place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration. The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. Ravelry is a great place for you to keep notes about your projects, see what other people are making, find the perfect pattern and connect with people who love to play with yarn from all over the world in our forums.”
The site also announced its ban on Twitter:
We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry. We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. More details: https://t.co/hEyu9LjqXa
— Ravelry (@ravelry) June 23, 2019
Nothing says inclusive like banning people we don’t like! https://t.co/rmh8ys6wBe
— Carlton Hinds (@methuselaschild) June 23, 2019
Bingo.
And it seems they’re serious about this policy, judging from this tweet:
https://twitter.com/Pancho93528792/status/1142779031911325696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1142779031911325696&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fconservativefiringline.com%2Fknitting-site-bans-support-of-trump-claims-support-of-president-undeniably-support-for-white-supremacy%2F
Another person correctly noted:
https://twitter.com/KeithBarrett/status/1142868649360941057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1142868649360941057&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fconservativefiringline.com%2Fknitting-site-bans-support-of-trump-claims-support-of-president-undeniably-support-for-white-supremacy%2F
We reached out to the site for comment but have not received a response as of this writing.
Courtesy of Conservative Firing Line
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