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unforth · 11 months

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I started to write this as a reply to @vex-verlain but realized it should be it's own post.

To be clear, this is about @end-otw-racism and why I support this movement (even if I don't agree with all their proposals).

I am profoundly anti-censorship. It has been one of my biggest personal issues my entire adult life. I will absolutely defend the speech rights even of people I think are utterly reprehensible, even the rights of people who want me and my family dead. I think their speech has a right to exist, full stop.

But.

Being anti-censorship in no way means being anti-moderation. I often see people who are pro-ship, anti-anti, or "too old to use a name for telling yall you're clowning" say that AO3 is supposed to be a safe space for WRITERS, not READERS, and that to me is one of the big ways that the current harassment and moderation policies are badly failing writers of color. There's no way to 100% protect all writers, period, on AO3, and to me it seems like a no-brainer that if the goal is "protect all speech, avoid all censorship, minimize harm to real people," the only way to accomplish all those goals it to have a really robust, well-moderated system that prioritizes reducing harassment - ALL harassment - without looking the other way on certain topics just because they're harder and thornier to sort through. A way to section the groups that are oil and water away from each other, through blocking, powerful filters, comment options, etc (some strategies we do have now, btw! They HAVE been adding functionality in this direction, but it's clearly not enough.)

Currently, protecting people who write bigoted shit is causing active harm to fans of color. We see the impacts of this harm constantly; I personally have seen many, many Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans driven out of white danmei fandom circles for all sorts of reasons, and if yall are in fandoms that often have bipoc in them I'm sure you've seen the same (and if you are in a fandom that doesn't have many bipoc it might be wise to take a moment and consider why it doesn't.)

I just really want more people to take a step back and ask themselves why they think an anti-censorship position necessitates an anti-moderation stance, and also why they think being pro-moderation is the same as being pro-censorship.

I defend the rights of bigoted shit to exist.

What I don't defend is the right of the people who create that stuff to weaponize it against vulnerable people.

Regarding AO3, I personally support a solution that involves some way of sectioning off the bigoted shit. I'm not sure exactly how that would work but I think some kind of major archive warning is a solid start. Also maybe a way of flagging authors who are frequent offenders. And to be clear...it's not my job or responsibility to know exactly how to accomplish this. I'm no expert. That's why I'm supporting a movement that explicitly says AO3/OTW SHOULD HIRE AN EXPERT. And I know it would be expensive...and I know many, many of us would donate to a funds drive to raise the money to cover that expense.

I've seen too many friends get profoundly hurt, and I'm so tired of (overwhelmingly white) fandom circles pearl clutching over this not being an issue, that the real problem is that this will lead to censorship of (checks notes) Nazi shit, spitefic, and the other dregs of fanfiction (which, again, has a right to exist! But God why are so many of y'all favoring IT over ALL THE FIC THAT WILL NOW NEVER EXIST BECAUSE BIPOC GET BULLIED OUT OF WRITING IT.)

It's clearly an issue.

And we have to speak up and demand better or it will continue to be an issue.

Please, please listen to the bipoc who've managed to not be driven out of fandom and understand that *things need to change,* which means, for us white folks:

1. A lot of listening to the people who've been harmed

2. Using our voices to amplify theirs

3. Standing up to bigotry we see in our fandom communities

4. Shutting up when they ask us to shut up

5. Checking our own behavior and doing our best not to be part of the problem, and, if and when we go awry, owning it with maturity and apologizing and doing our best to make amends and not repeat our mistakes

...and probably more but those are the first things to come to mind.

Please stop siding with people who've decided they are entitled to spew vile shit, stop prioritizing their writerly protection over the safety of equally valid writers who also deserve protection and are being targeted and hurt. All you do by siding with the assholes is amplify their voices while silencing bipoc and create a space that protects bigots. Is that REALLY the hill you want to fight on?

None of us know it all. We can all learn to do better. I'm personally here to learn, and listen, and improve.

And I'm here to shout from the rooftops that we can be anti-censorship and pro-moderation.

I am, and you should be too.

#unforth rambles #end racism in the otw #end otw racism #hi folks this white jew supports you #id like more tools for moderation too cause ive gotten a little antisemitic shit over the years #but thats not in the post cause this aint about me and its not really about judaism #and if we protect bipoc jews will have more protections too #there are so many reasons to support this guys #just cause yall cant imagine what better would look like doesnt mean better doesnt exist #demand better and expect better and be part of trying to make things better #i will never stop supporting all authors and right now doing that means protecting some of the most vulnerable #from some of the most heinous #i truly think we can develop better protections and maintain posting freedoms

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placegrenette · 8 months

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Thoughts on the Astana concert (because who knows how much more often we'll get to do this).

I was talking to friends today who serve the valuable and underappreciated role of I'm Not Into This Thing You're Into But I Love When You're Into Things So Tell Me More, and pointed out that I know of maybe—maybe—one or two other people in the entirety of North America following Ninety One. So the burden falls to you, Tumblr. I have Thoughts and you have to hear them. Feel free to mute and let me howl into the void.

First let's get to the very important topic of men in suits:

(Photo taken without permission from the Instagram feed of an Eaglez who was there, apologies, I haven't seen professional photos yet.)

It's easier to tell from video but Bala in red looks terrific; Alem's yellow suit is belted at the waist, which reads (to me) as slightly daring on a man, and therefore very appropriate for him; ZaQ looks dignified; and Ace is a damn sack of potatoes. And y'all know I don't hesitate to criticize Bibotta's work so let us note, for the record, that she is not to blame for this round: when she posted on Instagram about her pride in her work and the team as a whole (as she should!), Eaglez came into her comments to say, "yeah but Ace looks like a sack of potatoes," and she replied that the man himself feels more comfortable in oversized clothing. Which hopefully is about physical comfort and not about body image and self-criticism, YOU LOOK FINE, HONEY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE MODEL-THIN TO WEAR FITTED CLOTHING, ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU OTHERWISE CAN GO SOB USELESSLY INTO THEIR SCREENS. BIBOTTA HAS PROBABLY ALREADY HAD THIS CONVERSATION WITH YOU MORE THAN ONCE, LET YOUR TALENTED AND TRAINED FRIEND DO HER THING, UNLESS YOU ARE COSPLAYING AS DAVID BYRNE CIRCA 1982 THERE IS NO NEED TO LOOK LIKE A SACK OF POTATOES. I HAVE SPENT WAY TOO MUCH TIME OVER THE LAST SEVEN YEARS CONTEMPLATING YOUR PHYSICAL IMAGE ALONGSIDE THOSE OF YOUR BANDMATES, TRUST ME, YOU LOOK GOOD.

...sorry. I'm a little frustrated with these dudes these days.

So is this the next-to-last concert? Maybe? Probably? They've got something scheduled with Irina Kairatovna in October (I think?) and then possibly, IIRC, a date booked at Rixos Water World in Aktau, which they've played several times before. The fansite weloveninetyone posted an excerpt from the concert suggesting strongly that they are still talking about some sort of hiatus. I've been monitoring their social media output as best I can, not being able to understand anything, and they've seemed pretty cheerful, but who knows if that's relief or a show or something else altogether. I will go ahead and predict (and remember, my predictions are usually wrong) that more will be said at the end of the Almaty concert next week, and if they really are bidding a public farewell to Eaglez then it will be accompanied by some onstage crying. (From most to least likely to cry: Bala, Ace, Alem, ZaQ.)

I'm frustrated for obvious reasons: if they really are calling it quits after next week, more or less, then my odds of ever getting to see them live, already small, drop to indistinguishable from zero. I like their music and their goofiness and their willingness to think out loud. Are we really losing all of that? But also: they have a whole company to take care of now, that produces one product! They have staff members who've been working hard on this concert: the dancers, Bibotta, the merch team (there was merch! finally, there was merch!), whoever was in charge of putting Jeff-Koons-esque imagery up on the big screen. Is all that hard work and knowledge going to atrophy now? And is it all going to atrophy because our lead foursome didn't do decent worst-case forecasting and ZaQ got pissy DJ Khaled-style? Like, you guys overcame repeated threats of actual physical violence to get here, you're really going to leave us with the impression that you're taking your creative ball and going home because Eaglez didn't stream "Ego" enough?

I'm also frustrated because I know how much I don't know. Which is a lot. No one should ever have been satisfied with some random woman from Atlanta being the one to try to broadcast about this group. I've got multiple Kazakh-language resources here and haven't been able to prioritize learning the language enough to actually make any progress beyond a couple words here and there, or understanding that suraqtar is a plural noun. There's so much left to do! And learn! And it's vanity, admittedly, but part of me is now wondering whether if I'd worked harder, or been a more conventional (read: younger) superfan, whether it would've made more of a difference, whether they'd have more of an English-language following now.

But y'all feel free to ignore my grumpiness. We'll see what happens in a week. And if the Almaty concert really is the end of an era, well, the guys never owed me or any other fan anything. It's going to have to be one of those "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" moments. Baqytty bol, us to them, them to us.

#ninety one #come find me eaglez

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angelsaxis · 2 years

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Ik this is probably petty of me but not only do I block blank blogs, I block blogs that clearly haven't been active in years. I turned of time stamps in settings and there's definitely those of y'all who've been on here since 2017, haven't reblogged a thing since then but are spam liking left and right. BLOQUED.

Shady? BLOQUED. A chronic liker? BLOQUED. Something stupid like daddy kinks? BLOQUED. Have you been ignoring all my posts supporting trans women and Black people? BLOQUED. Do you ignore DNIs? BLOQUED.

But more than anything, I'm seeing a lot of blank blogs being run most likely by people who are from sites where all you do is like things. BLOQUED. No icon no theme no bio just a shitty spammy URL and maybe the likes section open. BLOQUED.

But you know what else I've noticed? People who rarely if ever reblog things, but who definitely are active in the replies to argue. Aesthetic blogs that don't publically leave a comment but are being racist and homophobic pieces of trash in the replies. It's insane. They all get blocked but it's kinda funny how they maintain a silent front facing aesthetic but are losing their minds on someone else's posts.

#angel posts

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