Popular knitting website bans users from supporting President Trump, equates it with 'support for white supremacy'

A knitting website has banned its users from posting support for President Donald Trump and his administration, saying such support "is undeniably support for white supremacy."

The site — Ravelry — posted a Sunday tweet announcing the ban:

"We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry," the post said. "We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy."

You can still support Trump — as long as you keep your mouth shut about it

The tweet also linked to a blog post that gave further details on the ban, noting that the site at least won't get into policing pro-Trump users' thoughts — you just can't voice them: "You can still participate if you do in fact support the administration, you just can't talk about it here."

The blog post also noted:

• "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."

How did people react?

As you might expect, some folks ripped the ban:

• "No one you know or in office in D.C. believes one race is superior to another. It is an attempt to dehumanize ppl you don't agree with. You cannot claim to be inclusive while banning or censoring half the country for supporting its president."
• "So is Joe Biden OK? He loved the segregationists. Worked along side of them. Didn't Eleanor Roosevelt knit? Her husband rounded up millions of Japanese Americans to internment camps. And he had a mistress and had a disability. That guy checks off a lot of boxes."
• "Inclusion through intolerance!"
• "Also Ravelry: We are Inclusive, Caring, Diverse, and we will ban anyone who says otherwise."

But others were supportive of the site's ban:

• "As one of many mods of busy (NON-POLITICAL, SOCIAL) ravelry forums, I can say that the emotional labor of defusing angry & ugly situations where casual hate & intolerance is directed at queer, non-Christian, or minority people is frakking exhausting."
• "Thank you for doing the right thing."
• "I think I need to take up knitting. This is a community I want to be a part of. Thank you for taking a stand."

Yahoo Lifestyle said Ravelry officials didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.