I’m not arguing against moderator discretion, I’m saying this community would benefit from stating the discretion boundary explicitly.

You’re already doing it in practice ("deemed offensive," "promotes right-wing ideologies"), and that’s your right. But between what’s been stated in this post and the current written rules, it’s easy for users to assume a level of consistency and auditability that the tooling doesn’t really provide.

Maybe something like this would help:

Rule 3: Respect the community’s principles.

Posts/comments may be removed if they conflict with our mission to center Global South perspectives. This includes (but isn’t limited to) discriminatory language, colonial/imperialist framing, or right-wing ideology.

Removed content may not be shown in the modlog. Removal reasons may be brief.

That would make expectations crystal clear and avoid confusion.

I understand not showing slurs publicly. My point is that if the original content can be hidden and the reason can be vague, then "the modlog will show the reason" isn't meaningfully accountability ... it's closer to "trust us." If you're moderating based on moderator discretion (eg. "deemed offensive" or "right-wing ideology") in addition to the written rules, it'd be more transparent to state that explicitly in the rules or policy.

The nice thing about the fediverse is people can choose communities whose moderation philosophy matches them ... but only if it's clearly documented up-front.

Should you face moderation, the reason will be visible in the modlog

The modlog can omit the original comment and may not include a substantive reason for removal. That means moderators can remove content while leaving little or no trace of what was removed or why, effectively enabling silent unaccountable censorship.

If the modlog is incomplete by design (or even buggy), it should be described honestly.

Politics is politics. Votes swing, some percentage of people also place protest votes. Some percentage of any population are stupid, some just want to see the world burn. All people are influenced by propaganda and their own biases, and some percentage try to fight that by being discerning and politically engaged. Most people are somewhere in-between, just trying to get on with their lives while ignoring the torrent of shit that the world throws at them.... which is also a tactic used to disengage people.