Naomi - // Some with their fingers on the zapper button do apply 'the rules' 'flexibly'. As far as I'm aware there is no rule forbidding criticism of a nation. //
Your approach to Moderation is the same as I experienced when dealing with account holders at BT.
The underlying feeling from the customer is that BT is ripping them off.
They don't have any concrete evidence they can point to, it's just a 'feeling' that they have, and it nags away at them like an undercurrent in their dealings with the company.
I am on the site virtually every day at some time or other, and obviously I never see posts that have been removed, or know what they say, so I would be at a loss to conclude that they were removed unfairly.
If you, or any other of the 'suspicious' AB'ers have evidence that the Rules are applied unfairly by Monitors, then you owe it you all of us to raise your concerns with the Editorial team, who actually do have the power to see what is being deleted, and also the required reasons why, and the individual doing the removing.
If, on the other hand you are doing what many do when criticizing the Moderators on here, you are simply muttering in a paranoid fashion about matters you actually know nothing about, then you likewise owe it to all of us to do your muttering to yourself, and not clutter up the site with it.