First, lilmod, I support your effort to keep these boards L”H free and safe for the rest of us. Although I assumed the mods were doing that already (maybe they want to hire you too?) since they are not perfect, or maybe interpreting words in a different way, it is good there is a watch-dog for when things fall thru the cracks.
There are a couple of things here that bothers me though, perhaps you can explain it to me. From all these threads it really seems you know these Halchos well, so maybe I am missing something.
You stated that “the main L”H issue was not the blue shirts and that is not what I was protesting. What I was protesting,…”
If telling over the blue shirt story was not L”H,- afterall, he was retelling an experience that disturbed him, with no names of any school or administrator mentioned (there are lots of schools in that particular city), and had he ended the post there it would have been a legitimate discussion, then why was it ok for you to call this story out as a lie? I could understand if you were doing so to remind everyone that when one hears L”H one is not allowed to believe it, but this you admitted was not L”H. So why not be dan lkaf zechus that this really happened? With all the research you did, you could not possibly have found out about what every principal told every parent. Maybe your sources told you something different because they were talking about official school policy, or something that applied personally to them, but in this parent’s case, it was different? How can you be so sure it was a lie? (I read what you quoted from the chofetz chaim about a rasha, but that would apply to the actual LH statement, not to everything he ever said, no? Or once someone tells L”H even once, it is automatically assumed that everything he ever says is a lie?)
The second issue is one of tochacha. Elsewhere on these boards people have pretty much come to the conclusion that tochacha can only be given if the person knows that his words will be heard and not do more damage. On an anonymous fourm when one does not know the poster or how he will take tochacha, can one give tochacha? Does he not risk that his words will be thrown back at him and lead to more insults and L”H? Granted that when pointing out L”H one is also protecting the listener (or reader, as it may), but what if it backfires on the speaker/writer leading to worse comments? Perhaps it is better to call attention to problematic posts to the mods rather than confront a poster who may not react in the proper way?
These questions are not meant as criticisms, but are halachic questions that have come to mind reading over recent threads, and I am looking for halachic answers, from Lilmod or anyone else who knows these issues better than I do.
Thanks.
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