Honestly, I'll say this:

There are a lot of times where people have said things that shouldn't be said. And not just racist things (the Latino incident comes to mind, I feel), but the way people talk to others.

That's why, in one of @Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net's recent posts, I was against "bullying" even as a joke.

I feel that, while Hexbear is a pretty chill community, it's best not to even joke about that stuff, otherwise, at least under the surface, you get people doing stuff that eventually grows into an "anything goes" type of attitude.

(I tag Dirt_Owl so I'm not talking behind their back or anything.)

Anyway, I come from a community that does take a hard-line when it comes to banning, and is very stringent, but that comes with its own problems.

In general, I feel, though, that it's best to have "lines" yo don't cross, though it doesn't have to be an "insta-ban" every time you cross them and I think the admins are right to allow people to come back after a time, which I was told at one point by someone.

I will say this:

The problem with a lot of ML communities is that there's not really any controversial discourse, as you talked about, beyond ML itself. We assume that we're "controversial" by nature, but that's only to other people. But then we don't allow other topics because, as far as we're concerned, we're already being "controversial" as it is. But I think that at times we clamp down on other ideas.