This is a friendly reminder that if you don’t want your art edited, to check and make sure it’s not on picsart.com. Picsart.com is a site where they allow you to take any photo online, cut out the images and turn them into stickers for quick edits. I’ve seen so much art theft over there from both tc-96 and Whitekimya. There may be many more.
Apropos of different perspectives, I find the range of tags people put on my posts regarding Fandom Antis to be fascinating. There are people tagging them as “fandom wank”, and people tagging them “fandom discourse”, and even some tagging it as “serious business”.
And I agree with all of them!
It’s totally fandom wank–it is a bunch of people arguing over How To Hobby Correctly, and it ultimately should have little impact!
But it is also serious business in the context of fandom, because rather than let it be a hobby, Fandom Antis are doing things like…
sending death threats/suicide baiting
spuriously reporting people and websites to the FBI
doxxing people
engaging in mass bullying campaigns
And MORE
Yes, there are important, serious discussions to be had in Fandom as a whole to address unhealthy behaviors, such as: talking about large scale patterns of bigotry, toxic expectations of personal disclosure, reader entitlement to content and access and more.
But ultimately, these are and should be minor things in the context of a hobby centered around collective enjoyment of media.
The only thing that makes Antis worth the label of “Serious Business” is that they’re attempting to use coercive force, some of it backed by the power of the State, to attack, ruin, and harm people for disagreeing with them on how media should be consumed.
I do find them fascinating in a sociological context. After all, they’re a bunch of social conservatives and reactionaries who found themselves in a progressive-leaning space. From there, they coopted the language and rhetoric of that space in order to push their regressive viewpoints and frame them as progressive! It’s a valuable case study on how you have to examine not only how someone says something, but what they are saying and what their statements imply.
But I also find them horrifying, and a microcosm of the larger political and social environment that we’re finding ourselves in now–a deeply regressive and puritanical minority who, by dint of volume and having no shame in harming people, are actively attempting to reshape the social landscape to what they find good, consequences on everyone else be damned.
I don’t know how to explain the difference between reality and fiction to people like this. “They would have real feelings if they were real” - yes, but THEY’RE NOT REAL, and that is THE END OF IT.
If you argue like this, the ultimate consequence is that ALL FICTION IS ABUSE! Why? Because by creating it, you force the characters to do things, it’s that simple. The argument goes like this: “Real people should be able to act out their free will, so if the characters were real they should be able to act out their free will, not your story. I know they’re not real, but if they were, they wouldn’t want to do to the letter what you want them to do. Don’t write fiction, it’s abusing characters who’d want to do what they want if they were real, not what you want!”
This! I sometimes get the impression people do think of fictional characters like in Toy Story, and it’s weirding me out. It’s a fun concept, but nothing more than that. Have I ever, for fun, imagined/pretended that all the characters in all the different imaginary worlds, in all fanfics etc. etc. are somehow really existent? Yes, when I was younger I absolutely did. Was I serious, did I actually believe it? NO, OF COURSE NOT!
They’re no more alive than a stone or a roll of toilet paper, damn it!
The only reason to be careful about writing sensitive topics is for the reader’s benefits - which is super important because people shouldn’t read stuff they didn’t want to or weren’t prepared for.
I agree. Luckily, proper tagging takes care of that, so in the end, everyone can write whatever they want, and if it’s properly tagged and the readers exercise some common sense when choosing what to read, all will be well.
Humans are not gods, they cannot create a universes with real people in it by the mere writing of a story. At most you can only consider you are (partially, imperfectly) describing a hypothetic parallel universe’s story that exists without your intervention. Writing isn’t a crime, where has gone the liberty of expression? It’s with this kind of insanity that we fall back into despotism, censorship and control of the media. Fanatics.
This therapist has since had to lock down her account because antis began attacking her and trying to doxx her because they were convinced she was lying about her profession and credentials.
Antis will scream “go to a therapist” until a real, IRL therapist tells them they’re full of shit, and then suddenly therapists can’t be trusted anymore. The kool-aid is powerful.
There are ancient Roman accounts of sensible people watching blood sports in the arenas and being just as horrified by the crowds as by the killing. Watching gladiatorial games did something fucked up to people. Something about the spectacle of violence and the scent of blood and sweat on hot sand turned otherwise respectable citizens into ravening beasts baying for human suffering and more than keyed up to go inflict a bit of it themselves. The stoics and optimates who were disdainful of games weren’t just hating fun; they kinda had a point with that one. Watching slaves disembowel each other for your amusement is not conducive to the development of a well-adjusted human being.
I think about that every time I look in the comments sections on news articles.
Also, I’d argue, online mob justice.
I’ve seen targets of Tumblr cyberbullying campaigns literally make posts saying that the constant harassment has made them suicidal, and the notes of those posts are always full of people either encouraging them to give into those feelings or saying things like “we did it boys!”
Like, that’s not normal.
None of this is the appropriate and humane response to someone making a Tumblr post expressing an opinion you disagree with. Or, more frequently, expressing an opinion that you would agree with but they worded it badly and that’s being treated as a Cardinal Sin, or being the victim of somebody else who has been making up opinions they don’t actually have.
And some of these callout posts really reach. Especially the ones relating to pedophilia, because it’s such an emotionally triggering topic that you can get away with a paper-thin argument. People will try and rally others into bullying someone into suicide by saying that they once liked a fanfiction that featured an aged up version of a character who was portrayed as a child in canon, or made dirty jokes on their blog without having ‘minors dni’ in their bio.
And I’m aware that part of the problem is a side-effect of socialising in virtual spaces. If you can’t see all the angry strangers around you, it can be hard to realise that you’re actually part of a mob now. You could in all innocence assume that you’re the only person who’s noticed the iffy implications of a post somebody made, and send them a message asking for clarification without realising that you’re the 100th person to do that in the past few hours, and they’re experiencing it as a constant barrage of criticism. That can happen.
But also I’m convinced that some of you just crave the bloodlust. Being part of a large social group, all directing your rage at one mutually hated 'acceptable’ target, all in the name of some form of Good that is bigger and more important than yourself… that’s the sort of thing that tends to appeal to something pretty primal in humans. It’s why the Crusades were so popular. It’s why so many young men volunteered for WW1.
And if something feels good, then it’s possible to become addicted to it. And if your substance of choice is witch-hunts then your addiction is probably going to manifest as seeking out more people to denounce as 'witches’, for pettier and pettier reasons.
Yup
I respected it more when there wasn’t the veneer of progressivism and the pretense of being driven by justice. If when we drew our swords we realized there was naught to be gained but love of the sport, I don’t know if we’d be any less violent on here, but it’d certainly be a lot less annoying to see if we dropped any mask before entering the arena
The comparison is even better than you think it is.
When we think about Roman arenas and their games, we think about gladiators. Usually two men, trained by gladiator schools, who were armed and knew how to fight each other. They were the stars of the show, usually fighting later in the day, when everyone was back from work and could come and cheer them up.
Except gladiators weren’t the bloodsport you think they were. They didn’t die often, because training them was an investment, and the public love them like we like actors today. They were taught of to fight in a very dramatic style that would draw blood but didn’t injure them substantially, and they only died in very special occasions, for example when an emperor was sponsoring the game’s and could afford to murder the cashcows.
Do you want to know what the actual bloodsport was? It took place earlier in the day, when it was the venatores turn to go in the arena. Their names means “hunters” and they were made to fight animals, especially “exotic” beasts like lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes… You cannot teach an animal not to fight to kill, and so both humans and animals died like chattel.
Do you want more? Let’s talk about the first attraction of the day: the public executions. Those are one of the reasons the guillotine was considered humane. The Romans liked their dramatics. These executions were stylised, made to emulate stories from mythology or history. You would get a guy dressed up like Ganymede being dropped from the skies to crash on the ground, because Ganymede died that way. You would get entire naval battles. You would get a lone guy against three famished lions. You would get awfully creative dramatization, because there’s this sick thing in some human brain that loves to see human suffering turned “meaningful”.
That’s the part that resonates with those callout posts today, for me. The public execution, fitted into a narrative made to appeal to the masses, where the audience is supposed to clap at the karmic justice at play.
It’s hilarious to me when people complain about AO3 and its policies, and what they allow on the site - but it’s ESPECIALLY funny when people complain like “Why can’t the freaks make their own site and just go there?”
Sweetie… AO3 is the site for that. Y'all invaded our space.
Wattpad and FFN still exist. Go there. They’re as shitty and G-rated as you want. You can’t have the luxuries that AO3 offers if you’re gonna be a little bitch about its policies. Imagine walking into a strip club and complaining about the alcohol and naked ladies when there’s a god damn Dennys next door you could have gone to. Christ.
Speaking of bullies— some recent information has come to light about a recent situation. And the truth is, a lot of this fandom got swept into the gossip trap when that call out journal was made and believed everything this person said about me.
The person that made that call out post is an abuser and serial harasser.
The blacklist that they’ve been keeping is a laundry list of lies that he’s spinning on everyone in this fandom. I’m not the only one being targeted by this person. Some well known fandom olds were targeted by his blacklist for minor things like incest. Claiming that incest shipping ruined his view on the fandom.
I learned that he repeatedly attacked an innocent person to the point that they had nightmares. That isn’t someone you want to be believing their word.
As a result, the bullying is spreading. I’m learning that artists are being targeted by other people who drank his kool-aid. That claims of racism because people aren’t drawing animals as native Africans are on the rise.
It is not, nor ever was a racist issue.
Lions have been called the king of the jungle dating back to the Roman empire, where lions spread out past Africa and into the south eurasian territories like Syria and Pakistan. Disney depicted King Richard the Lionheart as a lion. A “white colonizer” as twitter police would call him. Lions are a symbol of royalty.
The reason I am saying this, is because this is a serious problem. This isn’t defending people of color. This isn’t supporting BLM. This is straight up bullying content creators over skin color on fictional characters. There’s a time and place for rep, and bullying people to the point that they’re losing motivation in drawing what they love isn’t it.
I realize that by stating this, a lot of people will be fueled by this. And, hey. It’s fine to hate me. I don’t care. But I’ve already apologized for my past behavior.
That wasn’t enough for this person, though. They wanted me gone because I claimed a controversial label. They saw that as an invite to attack me. They ignored my apology and persisted to attack me. He didn’t want an apology. He wanted me gone.
And as a result, he’s labeled me as bad as his ‘abuser.’ And while I don’t want to doubt anyone’s claims of abuse, I found out that this one case isn’t true. In fact, his ‘abuser’ is a victim he’s attacked and hate stalked in the past. I got in contact with their victim and learned the truth. That this person gaslights and projects onto his targets.
I know from experience that it can be easy to get swept up in gossip. But we need to stop bullying each other over things like this. Letting twitter police take over is going to ruin the fun of fandom for everyone.
