Permanently banned from r/geopolitics for vaguely leftist views, comrades beware

Sorry if this is off-topic, but I thought my experiences might serve as a warning to other posters in this sub.I started reading and posting in r/geopolitics a little while ago because it was one of the few current events subs that seemed to value facts over name-calling. It purports to be an academic sub concerning a topic adjacent to my field, so I thought it was a good way to engage with non-leftist arguments and maybe even learn something. Overall, I found that the environment was more conducive to discussing ongoing developments without getting downvoted for simply stating a fact that someone else didn't want to hear like you would on bigger subs like worldnews.Then out of the blue, I was permanently banned without any warning or any previous infractions. None of my posts were deleted and I received no messages about the ban. I inquired the mods about the ban, no response. A few days later, I asked again and got the following response:https://ift.tt/2CVjFev was followed by a 72 hour block.Needless to say, "whataboutism or autocrat-apologia" are not mentioned in the subreddit's rules: https://ift.tt/2XtbteQ. Banning for "autocrat-apologia" actually contradicts the sub's stated purpose of being academic and value-neutral.Furthermore, I did not do either of the things that I was accused of, my posts focused heavily on facts, not my personal opinions. Here is my most recent comment chain and the one that this mod probably read: https://ift.tt/2ratF0A short, I replied to a post about the NYT Xinjiang leaks and argued that the contents of the leak actually refute the idea that China's Xinjiang policy seeks to eradicate any ethnic or religious group. I don't think anything I say qualifies as "whataboutism" (which is inherently a dubious concept), I do bring up the US but comparisons and context are critical in academic discussions. The allegation of "autocrat-apologia" is even more ridiculous, I quote from the NYT article itself and draw an almost trivial conclusion from it.I suspect this is the work of some mod(s) who is trying to shape an ostensibly neutral space to better fit his ideological bias. Had this been a real policy rather than some ad hoc justification, I would expect to see heavier moderation throughout as well as actually deleting my posts rather than silent bans.I doubt many of you read or even care about this particular sub but I hope it serves as a cautionary tale that most of reddit is dominated by right wing ideologues who will actively censor facts that inconvenience them. Watch what you say outside of subs with trustworthy mods because there is absolutely nothing stopping a mod from banning you for any excuse they can come up with. via /r/communism https://ift.tt/2OyKlqW