headcanon: "i have decided that this is true about the character, and it doesn't matter to me if the canon text supports my idea or not."

interpretation: "after considering elements present in the canon text, I have decided that this might be true about the character and here's why."

subtext: "I can show you strong evidence in the text and context of the work that this interpretation could be the actual authorial intent."

Learning that it's apparently a Take from some Americans who are neither indigenous nor Black when confronted with the hypocrisy of thinking their own lives have value but the lives of Israelis (including the many who are refugees from systemic and State-sanctioned violence) don't is that "American colonization is a done deal and there's nothing we can do about it anymore" is quite a trip. My fellow colonizer Americans, you are so infuriatingly privileged, how do you say things like that with no shame.

Also remember, the people who came and still come to America as refugees are still coming to live on stolen land, using stolen resources, and are participating in the system of colonization. But you still support refugees coming here, right? But how genuine is your support of refugees? Is it different when you're faced with the realities of all the nuance and complexities and grey zones in such things? Do you have some latent beliefs in American superiority and importance you may have to unpack?

The indigenous peoples of America are still here and they're still fighting for their rights and sovereignty. But it's much easier to join militant armchair activism for a conflict overseas that barely effects you than it is to have to sit and work with the uncomfortable realities of your own country and your place in it, isn't it?

So where's all the GoFundMes for all the white gentile Americans and Canadians to fund their moves back to the European countries their families came to the Americas from?

Where's all the news stories of the white gentile Americans and Canadians giving up their homes to local indigenous people?

Where's all the white gentile Americans and Canadians giving back any of the stolen land and resources they use?

genuinely fuck all of you for diluting the meaning of “nazi” down to “person i don’t think is radical enough” and the absolute devastation of the holocaust to “jews whining about a couple of them being killed.” fuck you. i hope you all spend the rest of your lives embarrassed and ashamed at the bold faced antisemitism you took part in.

Here's the thing about the protests. Yes, there's people in them who have no ill will towards Jews. There are sections of them where it's safe for Jews to be visibly Jewish and gather and pray. But there are also people in them who do have ill will towards Jews, sections of them where it's not safe for Jews to be visibly Jewish.

And from what I'm seeing, too many of the people in the first group get angrier at people (especially Jewish people personally victimized) who acknowledge the second group than they do at the second group itself. And that says something about you.

You may not personally have any intention of harming Jews, but you also don't care when they are harmed. When people under your banner harm Jews, it's an inconvenience to you, and you get annoyed when the Jews speak up about it instead of keeping their mouths shut.

You'd sooner go around spreading the idea that the USA (the fucking USA) government is allowing a foreign government/military to conduct operations against American citizens on American soil than to acknowledge or do anything about the antisemitism in your movement.

Let me tell you something, your movement is harmed way more by letting these antisemitic people stick around and define your movement than it would be if you let yourself lose the numbers and throw these people out of the protests. Why do you need their support? Why do you let them stick around? If you're so brave, why don't you stand up and kick them to the curb instead of letting them do what they want and playing minimizing and victim-blaming damage control when their victims speak out?

The increase in anti-semitic hatred and violence gives me anxiety and panic attacks and I'm not even Jewish and I just...

To any Jewish people reading this, words can not properly describe all I'm feeling and I know it's nothing compared to what you are feeling. I just want to say I am here. I care about you. I will do by best to fight for you as much as I can. You matter. You deserve to be listened to. You deserve to be supported and fought for. I'm not looking for accolades or anything like that, I'm just.... I'm here. And I'm so sorry.

If anyone's wondering, this is in response to someone (who I've blocked after checking if they were worth trying to talk to) saying I was creating a strawman argument with my jokey post about fic-cops deciding whether or not something is being "romanticized" or "glorified" by whether or not they personally enjoy the media it's in.

I found them doing the above.

Here's another "strawman" for you: fic-cop who posts in pro-ship tags looking for a fight.

Here's another "strawman" for you: fic-cop who posts in pro-ship tags looking for a fight.

It's pointless to call yourself "anti-proship"

"Pro-ship" became a thing in response to "anti-ship" becoming a thing. Calling yourself "anti-proship" is as pointless as me calling myself "anti-antiproship".

Horniness is not intrinsically less pure than any other human motivation

"ummm you know the writer only included that because they have a FETISH right?" is always so funny to me as a disparaging comment, because imagine if people spoke that way about nonsexual interests. "the lord of the rings? didnt the author only write that because he was interested in linguistics? thanks, i'll pass" "yeah, i used to love spongebob as a kid, but i can never see it the same after finding out stephen hillenburg is a marine biologist :/"

Whenever people try to tell me to ship "moral ships" I like to think about how inherently immoral it is to flirt with service workers at coffee shops where they're obliged to be nice to you so... many coffee shop AUs are like. Immoral. But given that they are a fantasy where this is instant romance without the fear of trapping a service worker in an uncomfortable situation that's tantamount to workplace sexual harassment, I enjoy the cutesy coffee shop AUs immensely.

And that's basically my attitude towards all fantasy. There's lots of things I enjoy in fantasy that wouldn't work IRL. Enemies to lovers. Sudden kisses. Miscommunications in relationships. Codependency. Fight sluts who physically assault each other while emotionally connecting.

Once you start ascribing your morals to the fiction you consume, you tend to miss the issues in even the most innocuous, innocent seeming scenarios. It's easy to judge other people's fictional enjoyment until someone points out your innocent coffee shop AU is romanticised workplace harassment.

But it's all fiction. It's a fantasy. That's why it's fine.

A lack of education around things like consent, healthy relationships, self respect and respect of others, bodily autonomy, etc, has made people think they can rely only on fiction to tell them what right - but that's dangerous. And unsustainable.

Why is it necessary that a piece of art "condemns" or "normalizes" something. Is it not enough for art to say "here are some fucked up people in some fucked up situations for your enjoyment"? The art doesn't have to judge them and neither do you. It's for your enjoyment.

Life advice: If you want to invoke the suffering of people in an argument, you have to actually care about that suffering yourself, not just use it as a gotcha prop

The more I see of the topic the more I'm realizing how much gentiles (disclaimer that I'm a gentile myself) who label themselves anti-Zionists are stepping way out of their lane. They really just took over a Jewish discussion, and named themselves the experts on Zionism and the arbiters of which Jews are allowed to be involved in the discussion that was a Jewish one in the first place.

That series of tweets about Hannigram reinforces one of my main beliefs about antis: that being an anti renders you WAY more susceptible to actually normalizing abuse than being a proshipper. Because if you believe liking abusive ships makes you a bad person, you're always going to find a way to convince yourself that the ships you like aren't abusive - because YOU'RE not a bad person, right? Which means you're going to be way more susceptible to ignoring any abusive aspects of ships to convince yourself they're not abusive. Whereas, if you allow yourself to like abusive ships, you're going to be more able and willing to acknowledge abusive aspects of ships. Which makes you LESS susceptible to normalizing abuse, not more.

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reminder that proshippers are allowed to personally dislike certain ships or tropes. being a proshipper doesn’t mean you like every ship, it means that you respect everyone’s right to ship whatever fictional characters they want to without being doxxed, harassed, assaulted or sent death threats.