New rule, you're not allowed to have a negative opinion about any flag that you're not represented by. The polyamory flag is beautiful and I will not stand by when I see her slandered by people younger than she is.

I swear to fuck if people decide polyam people are the new trendy targets for queer infighting I'm going to start biting people.

However important you think Biden winning the election is, you must surely realise that jerking off into a sock might just do more to make that happen than being annoying about it on tumblr.

Thanks for having the integrity to send this off anon, man. And I more or less agree frankly. My original post was primarily venting and mostly just intended for the people in my immediate circle as, at most, an explanation for why I was unfollowing them and breaking mutuals. I didn’t even tag it as anything but “us politics” for people who don’t want to see that shit. It wouldn’t have gone much further than that, but a sci fi author I follow and respect deeply reblogged it, and they’re pretty popular so here we are. The shit i have got in my inbox the last week you would not believe, dude.

The thing is being annoying about voting for Biden on tumblr is pretty damn ineffective for sure. Unfortunately, doomposting about how he’s no better than trump and it doesn’t make a difference who wins so we should all just give up- does work. Reblogging a million posts about how Biden is a genocidal monster and voting for him means you’re a murderous racist (and exactly zero posts about Trump’s political plans or anything hopeful or which recommends actual action beyond just *not voting*) is incredibly effective at suppressing votes here. The tumblr community is very susceptible to apathy, because we’re all depressed and broke and miserable.

Russia literally used that to their advantage in 2016- this is established, proven fact- in order to get Trump elected the first time by convincing leftist youth that the democratic candidates were just as bad so there was no point in voting (and in fact voting makes you a bad person because you’re endorsing those monsters!) So I’d prefer if people around me did not uncritically reblog that shit. It pisses me off to see it and it does no one any good.

Biden is dogshit man, I know. I’m not a democrat, I just vote that way because, generally speaking, they are the only available candidates who don’t want to make my life actively worse. That doesn’t mean I like it.

But as far as I can tell, the revolution isn’t happening any time soon. I’m doing as much as I can where I am, but generally speaking the American people are uniquely complacent and apathetic and systematically depowered. Most of us are fighting just to stay housed and fed and don’t have the energy to also throw ourselves on the gears of capitalism. Those of us that do have the capacity face the incredible impersonal violence of the police state and a justice system with both political and financial incentive to strip their personhood and sell them into forced labor. Either things have to get a *lot* worse to convince people they have nothing to lose (which as someone else pointed out is a risky gamble that doesn’t always work and results in a lot of suffering regardless) or things need to get *marginally* better, enough that the people who already want change have the stability and resources to fight for it. And when you want incredibly, frustratingly marginal improvements, look no further than the democratic party!

Look, when it comes down to it, you don’t need to agree with me. But at least admit that even if it makes no difference at all, voting doesn’t hurt anything. It’s free, it takes very little effort, and it maybe gives us a slightly better chance of avoiding our country becoming a christofacist dictatorship.

If voting, at worst, makes no difference why not do it?

If voting, at worst, does nothing- why are so many people so invested in convincing you that you shouldn’t do it?

Several years ago I came across on my dashboard a little comic that left in me such a deep and intense sense of horror that it's haunted me ever since, though that is partially because of how my brain regularly revisits bad memories against my will for the express purpose of torturing me. Anyway, the point of this preamble is to serve as a content warning for existential horror, I guess.

The comic was simple, and pretty well burned in to my memory, so let me describe it for you first; a time traveler (a young woman) pops into frame and declares their excitement to explore the future. They are immediately greeted by a small feline robot that offers them a key to "their room", and a pill that will make them feel every kind of happiness at once. The time traveler refuses the offer, saying that they don't want simple happiness, and get their thrills from the sense of adventure. The robot explains that yes, no worry, that thrill is one of the things she'll feel once she's taken that pill. The time traveler agrees to try it for "just a minute". The comic cuts to the time traveler sitting on a chair in a small, completely barren room, with an IV hooked up to her. She is drooling and her eyes completely unfocused. We zoom out to see her room is just a small box next to many, each with a similar occupant, and we see rows and rows and rows of such boxes, implying this to be the fate of humanity. The comic ends there.

Just retelling this comic makes me want to puke, so distressing it is to me. I was also distressed by the person reblogging it who in the tags talked about how they felt this was a good fate for humanity; I blocked the post (I have thankfully never seen it again, despite blocking it multiple versions of xkit ago) and unfollowed the person who put it on my dash, and have never spoken to them again.

It's hard to explain exactly why I find this scenario so terrifying. It truly does shake me to my core. It's horrifying because it is a kind of living death, I suppose. A prison that cannot be escaped from. The mind is gone, or effectively gone, while the body remains. And there feels like there would be no saving someone from such a fate. What would happen to a person who experienced such a pure bliss, if you tried to cut them off from it? Do you think they'd find a return to existence anything less than traumatizing? That their minds would even be able to start working again, after what had happened? I don't see how. That's what makes it such a horrifying fate, to me. Once encountered, the person is lost, even as their body continues to function.

I also hate it because I've found it hard to refute as a potential fate for humanity. It gets kind of philosophically thorny. Our brains are just chemical machines; what is the difference between a sensation of pleasure earned versus one that's been chemically induced? What difference does it make if it's "real"? What does "real" mean? Is the person who climbs a mountain in a videogame not entitled to a sense of accomplishment the same as a person who really climbs a mountain? What about a mountain in vr? How far do we have to abstract away from the truth -- that every experience results in the production of a chemical cocktail by one part of our body to be processed by another part of our body -- for a sensation to "mean" something? Isn't pleasure something we all pursue, in some form, anyway? Isn't the goal of every moral framework out there to find a way so all involved can live happily? Why is it okay to imperfectly pursue pleasure of some kind -- satisfaction, ecstasy, triumph, whatever -- but not okay to pursue it optimally? If neither is okay, what are we all living for?

I refuse to accept this, because there's no room for both a world where this ultimate pleasure pill exists and a world where humanity continues. You can't say "this can exist and some people wouldn't take it". It renders all pursuits of humanity pointless. The thrill of discovery? That's just chemicals. The joy of companionship? Chemicals. All things we feel are just chemicals; we are just chemicals. This thought has never scared me before, but that's perhaps because on some level, I always took it for granted that consciousness was somehow... special. Something more important, something you can't just... bypass. But I know that that's not true.

Maybe consciousness is still the answer. Maybe our consciousness is what makes us human, and needs to be protected. I feel unsure if I've explained why I'm so sure that the scenario described in that comic would obliterate consciousness; it feels self-evident to me that the individual must be destroyed in such a scenario, because they are unable to take any action including thinking, because they have been robbed of all reason to act or think, or in other words, the very ability to think.

I do not rely on instinctive reactions to guide my moral philosophy, so my revulsion alone is not a reason to condemn it. Perhaps, however, in this case my revulsion is justified, for the destruction of the mind is truly immoral thing. It does not perfectly answer why the destruction of the mind is a horrible thing, because, again, we are not special. We are an accident of atoms in a mechanical universe, or at least so I believe (unfortunately). I suppose, when you get to the heart of the issue, I'm simply asking what is the point of it all? If it doesn't have a point, doesn't that make all the struggle pointless too? Doesn't it mean we may as well strap ourselves in and have super-heroin drip-fed into our brains for our entire lives? And if so, why do I find that so terrifying? Is my terror just an accident of my evolution-designed brain, that contains in it the same desires to preserve and proliferate my kind as the slime mold?

This is the part where I'm supposed to come up with an answer. Something that irrefutably denies the idea that some kind of super-pleasure-cocktail could replace the enormity of life. But I don't know. In order to deny it, we have to decide on a meaning to our lives that categorically excludes it as a valid option. And there's no such universally agreed upon meaning to life. But maybe that's the answer, itself. We contain within ourselves the ability to decide for ourselves what it all means. We have free will; even if the universe turns out to be perfectly deterministic on the scale we're on, we won't ever know our decisions until we make them. It is this free will that the scenario I've gone on about destroys, because as I've said, there is no way for this to exist alongside other choices to live. Maybe you don't believe that. Or maybe you're one of the sorry kinds that think we should all be living in tiny boxes, our brains turned into nothing but organic chemical processing machines that take in chemicals and produce other chemicals. If that's the case, I think I hate you. But that's the best I can do to stop being haunted by a stupid comic I saw five or six years ago now. That's really all this is about.

Sorry for subjecting you all to this, it's really just for my own sake. I just needed to write my thoughts down. I've tried writing this post a couple times over the years, and always scrapped it. It just upsets me that much. I'm a neurotic little freak and I wish I wasn't being constantly tortured by my own mind. Maybe you got something out of this, maybe I disturbed you, in which case I'm sorry. Hopefully you can find a better way to cope than I did.

Maybe in the future I'll post the other thoughts that my brain uses to torture me, like the short story I read about that taught me what autocannibalism is, or the time in the 4th grade I touched a girl's thigh by accident. It's not much fun being me, most the time. Anyway, I'll stop procrastinating and post this. Sorry again.

Hey, hi! Im really sorry for sending this, i just hope im not overstepping any boundaries as I’m about to ask help which is very important right now :( our cat, Sleepy needs an urgent vet care. She is pain and I can't afford to pay the vet to help her so I'm reaching out to ask for help, I mean even if you can’t help monetarily, reblogging or sharing it would truly mean a lot. She is my daughter’s best friend and she’s all I have left of my mom who passed away last 2021. In case you’d be insterested to help, I have pinned the post on my blog, please try to also answer the ask privately as some people tend to get weird on this stuff. Please send us prayers, be safe. ♥️🙏

hey hun! firstly, I don't mean to sound rude but I really do hope that you followed me for what I post and not just to send an ask only to unfollow me immediately afterwards. that would be the only overstepping you could do in this situation as I feel that would be a dick move. I understand what you're trying to accomplish, but that just makes you look bad. secondly, i'm so sorry to hear about your family's cat Sleepy. i normally wouldn't answer asks like this as they can be triggering for me as i have 2 cats myself, one who is close to dying of old age, but i also understand the desperation a family can feel during this time hence why I'm answering the ask. although i'm sure you are a genuine person who is genuinely looking for help, i can't be sure if you're a genuine user or not. just taking one look at your profile tells me that you only have 2 likes, both of which are also 2 of your 3 posts, the third being about Sleepy.

by this logic, it means your account is fairly young. a little too young for my liking anyways. a lot of scams use new tumblr accounts to follow people and send asks like yours to beg/request financial support by guilt tripping genuine users with stories of heartbreak and in some cases, using things like the Gaza-Iseral conflict/war and the Ukraine-Russia conflict/war to trick users into sending them support after reblogging a small handful (less than 5) posts to try and look genuine (it does not work).

despite the fact that i would like to give you the benefit of the doubt and truely believe that you're real and need the support, especially since you've got a pfp and a bio, your account just brings up red flags to me and i don't believe i can put my trust or expect my followers to put trust in the fact that your story is real, especially since i get multiple asks a month in a similar fashion across multiple blogs of mine, all asking for financial support for a range of different issues.

i hope you have a nice rest of your day and that if your story is real that Sleepy can get the support she requires before it's too late. king regards, si0

hi ! this is an independent, highly selective, & private roleplay blog featuring goro majima & yutaka yamai of the like a dragon series ! low activity due to health reasons.

18+ only. mature themes such as violence, organized crime & gore will be present on this blog. multiple verses. oc + crossover friendly. general roleplay rules apply. read my rules on my page for more specific ones.

mun's name is DEMON, 30+ years old. they/he, UK based.

my blog is on the beta editor, & i have found dealing with posts that have used editable reblogs a nightmare to deal with, so please if you are on legacy, just edit my reply out of yours, there is no hard feelings on my end.

majima links. bio. verses.

yamai links. bio. verses.

rules are under cut.

general. this blog is 18+ only ! there will be mature themes such as violence, organised crime & gore. if this isn’t your cup of tea, i suggest you do not follow. if you are a minor and follow, i will softblock you so do not even attempt it. general roleplay rules apply, no godmodding etc.

following/unfollowing. the only roleplay blogs i tend not to follow back are messy ones with a lot of ooc/uncut posts. i follow duplicates of my muse, & even allow roleplays with them if we can talk, & plot ooc, i've had a bad experience with a duplicate in the past who has stolen stuff ( graphic/icon style, thread plots, extremely unique headcanons ) off of me, so i won't refrain from hitting that block button if i do see any of this happening, but this fandom has helped me enjoy interacting with duplicates again, & i hope it remains that way.

i am open to crossovers, but there are fandoms i avoid ( multimuse & friends are exceptions ) ; dragon age, bnha, voltron, steven universe, hazbin hotel. & similar, these are just either things i don't enjoy or like, or in general, i seen way too much drama coming off said fandoms to want to expose myself to them.

if i do not follow back, i ask you do not persist; unfollowing & refollowing, liking every starter call i put out there, sending memes in, this will earn you a way into my blocklist. likewise, i respect if you do not follow me back, & i give up to a week’s time before i unfollow so that i prevent sending in anything by accident. i do not send in passwords, just trust i have read your rules.

roleplaying. i prefer plotted threads over non-plotted threads, request my discord, speak with me & you are highly likely to get a really well written thread going with me ! i can be a lot more invested in a thread that is plotted, & muse will come a lot easier for those kind of threads. speak to me about your own specific headcanons & what not.

shipping. i am highly selective with ships, & a good majority of the time i will not be after them or all that willing to write ships. with enough plotting, & development during threads, i may be open to shipping our muses, i definitely will not ship our muses if i do not have any ooc communication with the mun to plot or otherwise, i do not jump immediately into ships, even if they are pre-established. smut is written, but i am extremely selective, there has to be extensive plotting, or it will otherwise not happen.

drama. this blog is a non-drama zone. i do not take part in callouts unless said individual has affected me personally. i will read, & take heed in callouts however, if you see i'm interacting with anyone toxic, & have evidence to back up these claims, then please do reach out to me via dm, but also allow me to make the final decision on who i interact with, & don't.

triggers. this blog will include the prior mentioned, blood, gore, organised crime themes, & violence. everything is tagged with tw trigger. for me personally, i respect if people do not ask me for pregnancy based roleplays, & tag it as such if you do them. it is not a trigger, but more a discomfort.

credits. all graphics displayed on this blog have been created by myself. majima & yamai images belong to sega. psd has been made & adjusted per icon by myself. carrd layout was created by myself. some icon bases are credited to aerialdive.

#ONLYGRL        an independent and selective roleplay blog for  DIANA TEJADA   from POWER BOOK TWO: GHOST

───── depicted themes and warnings. organized crime, depictions of abuse, drug trafficking, murder, gun violence, racketeering, loyalty, misogyny, prison industrial complex, fallen legacies, manipulation, gangs, law enforcement corruption, racial tension, and discrimination, the complication of mother and daughter relationships. heavily plot-based and with significant periods of low to medium activity; she/her, 25+, black, central standard time. alias, venus. iconless. AFFILIATED WITH GYATABORN

                             ¹DOSSIER, ²PINTEREST, & ³PLAYLIST RULES BELOW

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ONE. my name is venus. my pronouns are she/her. i’m of legal age / 31. central standard time. mun=/=muse, that typical statement.

TWO. (FOLLOWING) mutuals only. 18+. PERSONALS DO NOT REBLOG MY HEADCANONS OR CONTENT.

― this muse is quite plot-heavily and this blog will reflect that. i personally prefer character development and my level of selectivity will reflect that. i will mostly follow those who post role-play content, head-canons, etc. i’m here to write. i’m opened to following canons and ocs. i will love on them all. i love ocs so much.

― i would love to write with everyone immediately, but that’s also not very logical. i’m a professor and administrator in university (oh that’s so weird to say). i will probably be slow at time, but i will WRITE with you. shoot me a message and we can cook something up. mains get priority as far as replies and edits go. guilt-trips don’t work on me. i really don’t care about your drama or other people’s drama if i don’t like something, i unfollow or block. if its something completely horrifying, i’ll probably report it to tumblr if it violates their terms of services. i participate in block culture. simple as that. and that goes both ways. if you don’t like what i post, unfollow please. make yourself comfortable.

THREE. (ETIQUETTE) follow all the basic rules of roleplaying: no godmodding, metagaming, etc. my asks are always opened. if you think my characterization or portrayal is inaccurate, then that’s you

TL;DR FOR BIO: power is some black ass media. so i know most of ya'll don't even know what it is. yall don't even be rping with black chars like that in general. but she's easily transferable to a multitude of medias, mcu -- esp luke cage, daredevil, punisher, as her char is based in nyc, breaking bad, etc.

she's the youngest tejada child in power book 2 ghost and the only girl, hence my url. her family is deep in the drug dealing business. her father was released from prison after doing a long stint. her family is currently, season 3, under surveillance by NYPD and the feds. she actively participates and utilizes her cover as a college student to help the family business. her mother is a terrible person, verbally and mentally abusive/controlling. and very very manipulative. manipulated diana into getting a cop murdered for looking too close into their crimes. her brothers collectively have a host of bodies and too many enemies. she wants out from everything and her father was willing to let her step away. however, her mother orchestrated the murder of her father for two reasons, 1) so she can take over. 2) revenge for her father accidentally killing her mother's secret son.

her family has a series of beefs and ongoing war disputes with the russians. in her main verse, she's unaware that her mother killed her father. but this will be updated if she canonically figures out as the season progress. i will update this info accordingly.

she's of african american and puerto rican descent.

lol turns out chlowstix likes sheith. wow

tbh the only thing i could find to indicate this was one single retweet on a twitter post which was for art that didn’t even look like ship art. like, if u didn’t read the tag you’d probably think it was just broganes. i could see myself liking/rting cute art and failing to read the caption in full. not that i even really give two shits about ship discourse in 2020 anyway but still, i like to give people the benefit of the doubt

hiii sangsang! how are you? 💜💞 as a newbie to mdzs, my fandom experience has been so stressful considering the amount of toxic (not even productive) debate, fanon as canon and hate on the main couple esp LWJ. I'm trying to embody the whole ship butet ship, but it's irritating seeing the way people bring down LWJ. I think I'm gonna step back altogether, but I was wondering if you have any tips? I always end up sucked back in bc of fanart or a random fic. I don't know what to do

Hello anon! I am not doing my best today I’ll admit, I’m up about three hours later than I should be, but when I saw your ask arrive I couldn’t wait till morning to answer you.

I’m sorry your time in Modaozushi has been difficult. Unfortunately it’s a difficult fandom to be in for the reasons you name. Nonsense runs rampant and it’s hard to enjoy yourself when it feels like everywhere you turn you’re being bombarded with more of it. If you choose to leave and just enjoy the book as is, I won’t blame you.

But if you are wanting to try and stick it out, here are some tips I can offer.

A: Whenever you run into a take you hate, block the person immediately. If someone keeps reblogging it onto your dashboard, unfollow them. This is a pretty big active fandom, you don’t need all of that showing up constantly. The more people you have blocked, the easier it gets to manage. You can do a similar thing with Ao3. If I’m searching through posted fics (which is rare, but it happens), I have a bunch of tags I immediately filter out. I don’t need to see that and while not everything is tagged, having the most common fanon ones dealt with helps a lot.

B: I don’t go into the main tags. I have found my people I trust with good takes and two art blogs that don’t post so much fanon I can’t scroll past it with a weary smile and that’s enough. I don’t need to be in the center, I can be here in the corner with my anons and my bunnies and we’ll all have a good time.

C: if you’re wanting help finding more good fics in canon style, try @pocketfulofrecs the runners have been a little busy lately, but they have excellent taste and checking out the authors from their featured authors will definitely give you plenty of good fics to enjoy. In addition most of the people I reblog and rec are a wonderful beacon of sanity in this fandom, so if you want some warmer takes based off of MDZS, I highly recommend @rynne and @glitteringmoonlight or for amusing salt, excellent metas and fun things to know, @jiangwanyinscatmom (don’t be fooled by the username she’s a delight to know and the one good JC fan I’ve found in this fandom) @vrishchikawrites @whiteflowercrimsonparasol / @justdoityoufucker @karmiya / @fannish-karmiya @fondofeveryprickle @righteousinadversity and many others who are not coming to mind at this late hour, but you’ll see me interact with them regularly. While we don’t always agree on everything, we all respect and understand each other’s opinions and I am very happy to know them.

I hope this helps anon. And remember while this fandom may seem overwhelmed with bad takes, it is vast. There are many, many people in it. And I’m sure you can find your own little circle to have fun in.

And you are always welcome to stop by again! My inbox is always open.

You seem to have Tumblr figured out. Is there a way to block those posts that say “you will be cursed if you don’t do this” or stuff like that. Saw a bad one that said something about dying if you don’t do something and immediately averted my eyes but now my anxiety is upsetting me. I know that it isn’t real and I feel really stupid for letting it get to me. I wish there was a way not to see that stuff. Sorry for bothering you.

Oh nonnie, what a horrible, HORRIBLE post to encounter, I’m so sorry that this happened to you, and that you’re so upset.

Please, don’t feel stupid, your feelings are not stupid. Posts like that are cruel and inconsiderate and should come with a mandatory trigger warning. Sadly that’s not something Tumblr would insist on, and unless the caption contains words you can blacklist, you have to rely on those who reblog those kinds of posts to tag them in a way that allows you to blacklist.

Sadly, not everyone tags their posts tho, insofar there’s no reliable way to avoid these kinds of posts 100%.

So there’s not much you can do, but of course, you could ask the person who reblogged that post whether they could please tag posts like that in the future in a way that allows you to blacklist. I know, another possibly anxiety-inducing thing to do, but maybe that’s something you’re comfortable doing. Sometimes people just reblog stuff without thinking about how it could be triggering to someone else when they themself are not affected, but often people are happy to accommodate other people with tags when they are asked.

If that’s not an option for you, you could blacklist or unfollow people who reblog posts like that, a strong measure but at least you’d avoid seeing upsetting posts.

If you don’t want to do that either, there’s one more thing you could do if you don’t manage to ignore a post like that: try to “trick” your anxiety by reblogging posts to your DRAFTS. Then you’d do what a horrible post “demands” (CRISIS AND CERTAIN DEATH AVERTED, WOOHOO), but these posts never say that you have to reblog them publicly. When they are reblogged to your drafts, they are reblogged, but don’t bother you or anyone else, and either you let them sit there in your drafts and rot in hell, or you go and delete them when you feel up to it.

But please, don’t beat yourself up over feeling anxious and upset. Our brains are fragile and complicated, and many people are not “immune” to posts like that. These posts are MEANT to induce anxiety, they actually rely on triggering people’s anxiety - bc if no one would be affected, who’d reblog these shitty posts? 🤷‍♀️

It’s an absolute asshole move to even set up posts like that (oh, make sure to BLOCK the OP of the post, if they were successful with one post like that, chances are they posted more, and by blocking them, you’ll avoid seeing any of their posts ever again!), and I’m sorry you had to deal with that.

Try taking a couple of deeeeeeeep breaths

and remind yourself that you are safe and that this post has NO power over you.

I’m sending many soothing and kind thoughts your way, nonnie! ❤️❤️❤️

why were you so defensive about your right to follow terfs when you were first called out? and you said that you could follow them and not agree with them. do you still think that?

This is going to be very honest, but it was a knee jerk reaction to something I had never experienced before. Being called out or cancelled online is a very uncomfortable feeling, not because I can’t take criticism, I literally experience that every day in real life, but because these people are strangers. They don’t know me, and sometimes they can get carried away. It’s also just kinda hard to take tumblr anons seriously 💀. I didn’t know the proper behavior to have when being “canceled,” and I still don’t. I jumped to my defenses because I felt violated that thousands of people on the internet saw what was basically my diary in a way. This is bad, but I also just didn’t want to talk about it yet. I was just not ready to and I didn’t want to rush an apology. This was immature and definitely made the situation look worse. I should have stepped away from my phone and thought a bit more, but who knows, maybe I would have become even more upset and defensive about it.

In regards to the second part of your question, I think that most people, including me, have the ability to differentiate their ideals from those that they read the posts of. It’s good to be familiar with opposing views, but don’t drown in it. It can become unhealthy (it did for me) when you see horrible post after horrible post. I was lazy about unfollowing and blocking people on tumblr as I started using it less, and I honestly thought that nobody would ever see that blog besides my ex that stalks me and that I could just get away with it. Obviously not! It is very logical to see the views of one person and conclude that the person reblogging their stuff holds similar opinions and therefore be weary of them, even if the posts reblogged are unrelated to ops shitty views. People being angry at me for reblogging from terfs and then getting defensive about it immediately after getting called out earlier this year are justified in their anger.

Hello. I saw the post you reblogged about toxicity in the TS fandom. And as someone who is relatively new (Just over 2 months, heyo!), may I ask what kind of toxic behaviour do you see in the fandom? I hope this isn't too much for me to ask, I was just a bit curious and wanted some clarification on the matter. Please feel free to ignore this if it bothers you!

Well, welcome to the fandom, first of all! I hope you’re having fun so far. 

In regards to the post you’re talking about, I think @izzyfandoms said it best: “...most fandoms are okay but have a loud toxic minority, but for us the not-toxic people are often the loudest so we can come off as pure and perfect...” 

Most fandoms do have an amount of toxic behavior in them, it’s very rare (I’d say impossible, actually) to find one with zero problems, but it’s also usually more noticable in other communities than in this fandom, as we have been fortunate to have the non-toxic majority also be the louder voices most of the time (most often in fandoms, toxicity is a loud minority, though there are of course exceptions to this as well). 

The other thing I think is important to remember is that this fandom started out smaller than it is now. I’ve been a presence here since november 2017, and there are other who have been around even longer, and back then, the fandom was much smaller and therefore the toxic minority was even harder to notice. This led to us gaining a reputation of “purity,” which in turn made issues more complicated when they started to crop up. Every fandom is going to have issues, things that people in it disagree about, and people who try to stir up trouble. This is normal, and a fandom displaying those traits is not immediately a bad fandom. What can shift a fandom into an unhealthy one is when issues, disagreements, and drama become the focal point and people begin to treat each other poorly over these things. And I would say a majority of fanders are good at not falling into that type of thinking or acting. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t mean that the fandom as a whole can just stick our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine. 

So, you asked me what toxic behaviors I see. I’m going to talk about some examples I’ve seen in this fandom, and before I do I’d like to state first off that it is not my intention to attack anyone specific, or to shame people for their tastes in characterizations, ships, or their triggers or squicks. This is me trying to give my open and honest opinion about this community while being as respectful and tactful as possible. 

Also going forward, every time I say “the fandom” or “people” or refer to the community in some other all encompassing way, know that I do not mean every single person in it, or even a majority necessarily, just enough people to make it noticable. If you exhibit some of the behaviors I’m talking about, I’m not saying you’re a bad person or that you shouldn’t be here, far from it. But everyone has flaws, and these are just some common things that I see in this community. Maybe if you see yourself in this post, you can take a step back and consider your thoughts and actions to see how they may be harming you or others. 

Regardless of everything I’ve said and am about to say, I really love this fandom and the people in it, and I’m incredibly grateful for the impact it’s had on my life. Some bumps in the road aren’t going to change that. (Also I don’t engage with the fandom much outside of tumblr, things may be different on twitter, discord, or other places, this is just my experience with this platform specifically. Okay? Okay.)

So...here’s what I see in this fandom:

It is quick to judge. Anyone been here long enough to remember the week when Roman was “cancelled” between Accepting Anxiety part 1 and part 2? I came into the community later that year, but the fandom elders can tell you, there was a rally against Roman as a character, and a slew of people calling out prinxiety shippers for shipping such a “toxic ship.”  You’d think after that first time, the community would have learned to perhaps be not so quick in its judgements, but we’ve seen the same pattern over and over again.

People were quick to judge Deceit when his character was introduced, which was followed by a back and forth where people argued about what was and wasn’t “sympathetic” content, how things should be tagged, and 

People were quick to judge Virgil after Embarrassing Phases

People were quck to judge Patton after SvS and Patton AND Virgil after DWIT. 

People were quick to judge Remus after DWIT.

And here’s the thing, it’s fine if you have different interpretations of characters, or prefer certain versions. You see Patton’s character flaws and decide “you know what, this character isn’t for me now” or want to explore those flaws taken to their extremes? That is okay. What is not okay, and what this fandom does a lot, is insisting that YOUR interpretation and version of the character is the correct one and shaming people with different ideas. It’s fine if you don’t like Patton or take issue with his current flaws being displayed. It’s NOT fine to attack people who disagree and send anon hate to blogs who speak out in support of Patton. It’s fine if you don’t like unsympathetic sides content. It’s NOT fine to shame people who do or send anon hate to unsympathetic sides blogs. There are lots of different ways to interpret all SIX sides, and yet so often I see people go on some sort of crusade to defend their opinon and insist that it’s canon. 

But that’s all just the characters, this fandom also is very quick to judge the individuals in it. Real, breathing people with lives outside the internet are often shamed or attacked for their opinions about the characters, different ships, the way they’ve chosen to portray the characters in their art or stories, I could go on. Purity culture and cancel culture are prevalant in all areas of the internet, and this fandom is not exempt from it. Demonizing people for making small mistakes, or even for just disagreeing with you, is never okay, and yet it is something I’ve seen again and again in this fandom. Which leads me to my next point...

Anon hate. God, it makes me so angry, and this is the only one that I won’t try to portray both sides of or be diplomatic about, because it is flat out unacceptable no matter the circumstance. There are so many blogs in this fandom that have horrible anon hate problems, and I am sick of seeing it. I don’t care what a person has done or what opinions they have that you may disagree with, I don’t care if they’re the worst person in the world. It’s not okay to send anon hate, and it’s not okay to tell people to kill themselves. You find a blog in this fandom that you just Do Not like, either because of their content, their opinions, hell, just their personality? Unfollow them. Block them if you want. But sending anon hate over ships, characters, opinions and statements, it’s just childish and unacceptable. And it happens enough in this fandom that there are people who are afraid of making statements about things for fear of attracting more of that energy. Love always follows the hate and drowns it out in this fandom, for which I’m grateful, but the hate shouldn’t exist in the first place. Cut that shit out. 

In general, this fandom has not handled differing opinions well, be it opinions on how to tag content, disagreements over characterizations, or encountering an idea that you personally may not care for. It is ultimately up to individuals to curate their online experience, by unfollowing blogs they don’t like, blocking tags and blogs they don’t want to see, and reading summaries and content warnings before opening fics. Often in this fandom I think people get upset if something isn’t tagged the way they want it to be (and I’m not talking about not tagging triggers, I’m talking like, someone insisting a blogger tag deceit content as #ts deceit when they already tag it as #deceit sanders. In situations like that it is the responsibilty of that someone to either block the tags a blog is using or not follow blogs whose tagging system doesn’t work for them), or if someone disagrees with them and we forget that it is okay to just...unfollow people. You don’t have to follow every blog in this fandom to be a part of the community, and if a blog is making posts and content you don’t like, unfollow them, don’t attack them for it. Accept that they have as much a right to their opinions and their space in the fandom as you do, and adjust your block and follow list accordingly so that you can get the experience that YOU want out of this fandom. 

I hope this was helpful, and I hope it didn’t get too long for you. I’m not putting this under a cut because I think it’s important, but I will tag it as #longpost so my mobile users don’t suffer too much. If you want to discuss this in the notes, please keep it civil, and remember that we all are fans of Thomas here, and that we probably have more in common than we do differences. I love you guys, stay awesome

started following someone new a couple of months ago who seemed really cool. today they reblogged something not only uncritically but with tags doubling down on it. I try to not let bad internet people get to me but there were no red flags or if there were I missed them entirely. gotta be honest, I feel a little sick to my stomach about it. obviously unfollowed immediately

this is not someone who is following me so this is not about anyone reading this. that said, if you ARE currently a bad person in a specifically online way, you can always change and grow and become a good person. there are some evil deeds that a person can’t take back, but being toxic online is something that you can stop doing. it doesn’t mean that people who personally experienced that side of your past will forgive you, but it does mean that you will no longer be part of making online spaces worse

“Tumblr Cultings” another Shitpost fic.

Hisoka is a ~~Tumblr Influencer~~ and decides to start drama. 1334 Words. 

fanfiction.net link

Click. Clack. Click. Hisokas nails tapped quickly against his phone screen. "Tonight it's going down. I have had e-nough of a certain person here, and all of you deserve to know who and why! ~ ♠️ " Post. He didn't have to wait long before the familiar pings and blops of instant messages and questions asked to his blog started.

Anonymous: Who is it?? (≧▽≦) So excited to see you tear someone a new one!! IM from cutiepanther: where do u even get your info from lol?. IM from chaineddown: I Thought You Were Done Creating Drama For Attention. 

Hisoka snickers to himself, lazily grabbing another whiteclaw from the fridge, before retreating to his bedroom desk. He takes a first sip of his drink while opening his laptop, and quickly going on tumblr.com once it has finished setting up. @Bubblegumbitch, 20.879 followers. 7.344 posts. 27 new asks, 7 new IMs. With a satisfied sigh, the popular blogger sets down his can, and cracks his knuckles.

YouTube Influencers make a lot of money through ad-revenue. Instagram influencers hold themselves over water with sponsorships. And though Hisoka did hold a platform on both of these as well, he preferred the more traditional customs of the blogging site. You don't get paid for having a lot of followers, or making popular posts, and sponsorships are almost entirely unheard of.  But he wasn't in it for the money anyway. The drama was far more alluring. Hisoka had made his starts as a "Tumblr influencer" through creating blog layouts, masterposts of custom themes, and the occasional "funny" post, which was usually just him vagueing about someone that pissed him off that day. His first call-out post he wrote at 7k followers, calling out a far bigger blogger than he is for stealing codes for their theme and for kinning a character from a TV show that has generally been frowned upon on Tumblr for being "atrocious and a bad influence". No one likes to admit it, but everyone loves a little drama, don't they? To see someone else's dirty laundry aired out, the relief that it isn't their own, the community effort of shutting someone out of their reigns for one simple post. A satisfied Huff escapes Hisoka as he dwells in this lovely memory. Time to make a new one.

"CALLOUT POST for @spidershead13 I can't believe I would ever have to do this for someone like him, but Chrollo has definitely pushed it too far~. Definitely don't harrass him, just unfollow and block his sorry ass!~ ♣️ ."

Excitiment starts to bubble under Hisokas skin. In truth, of course, Chrollo did nothing horribly wrong, nothing at least that Hisoka could proof. But everyone likes good drama between popular blogs that follow different themes. If this post could rile him up enough to write a callout post for Hisoka in return- Blop. IM from porcelaincat: Hisoka. Oh no, the fun police. Bubblegumbitch: Yeeeees?~ ♥️ Porcelaincat: Are you not too old to start petty fights online? Bubblegumbitch: OUCH. ♠️ Bubblegumbitch: I stay young at heart, dear.~ Porcelaincat: 1) Gross. 2). Who are you bullying this time? Bubblegumbitch: Chrollo @spiderhead13 :o) Porcelaincat: I am surprised, I honestly did not take you for that stupid. My fault.

Ouch. Illumi never cared if he was hurting feelings. Maybe he should write the call-out post about Hisoka. Though Hisoka doesn't have any viable dirt on him, not yet at least, not until he finds that porn blog that hes SURE Illumi has hidden away somewhere. Whatever, fuck that guy and his voice of reason. Hisoka takes another gulp of his whiteclaw, and goes back to typing.

"It has come to my attention, that multiple people have had the same unpleasant experience with Chrollo, something you cannot let slide so easily~." 

(Multiple people meaning one fake blog that he himself created to write himself IM messages "receipts".)

"In the following screenshots, one person tells me about how Chrollo tried to convince them to come visit him in Newyork and joins his 'church'! That's right, the guys a cult leader, trying to lure in more people from here!~ (Blogname in the Screenshots is blacked out for anonymitys sake ofc)."

Was he going too far, trying to convince everyone that Chrollo was a Cult leader probably out to harvest their organs? Or was he not going far enough

"Not sure what everyone was expecting of a goth blog like his, posting all that ~deep~ and ~brooding~ stuff, but pleeaaaseee stay clear of him now, don't let yourselves get pulled into some scary cult bs~ ♦️ .

#callout #calloutpost #internetbloodsports #cult. "

And post. Hisoka spins excitedly in his chair, self satisfied with his own hubris.  Immediately more blops and pings storm in. Anonymous: I knew chrollo was a weirdo, mayor bad vibes ಠωಠ Anonymous: thank you for talking about this, honestly scary!!!!! Spiderslegtostandon: What is your damage? Hisoka chuckles. Now only to wait for- IM from spidershead13: Hello. Chrollos timing was as usual, perfect. Bubblegumbitch: Why hello~~~~ ♠️ Spidershead13: I believe we need to talk about whatever that post was. Hisoka glances at the notes, a steady stream of likes and reblogs flowing in. Damage control is gonna be hard for the opposing side.

Bubblegumbitch: Sorry, I believe I'm just warning the people about you~. Didn't take you for such a dangerous guy :o( Spidershead13: Can you give me the @ of the person sending you those messages? Obviously they must have gotten something wrong. I'd never Invite just anyone to come over here, and I'd also never force my beliefs on anyone. Bubblegumbitch: Sorry, no can do. Who says you're not going to doxx em~. ♠️ I don't want to be responsible for putting someone in danger more than they already are~.

The influencer was now just leaning back in his chair, taking in a cool nights-breeze flowing in from the window. Was Chrollo mad? He's sure he'd want to punch him right now. What will he start Hisokas call-out with? Who would people believe more? It was all so exciting.

Spidershead13: Hisoka, this is nothing to joke about. I don't want to loose the trust of my community. I want to clear my name. Bubblegumbitch: if you can proof that I, or my informant has lied, I won't stop you from trying.~ ♣️ Spidershead13: Is this another childish game to you? Bubblegumbitch: A game? I take public safety extremely serious!~ :o(

No reply for 10 minutes. Hisoka bites his bottomlip, basking in the excitement of the unknown next moves of Chrollo. He was unpredictable, and thats what made him fun to toy with. If he was simply out to ruin someone's blogging experience, he could have cherry picked any one popular blog, dig long enough for dirt, and run them off the site in less than 2 hours. But that's predictable, that's normal, where's the fun in that?

Ping. Anonymous: Where's the Call-out?? Did you bitch out? Huh? Anonymous: did you delete the post? Was about to forward it to some friends who r mutuals with chrollo Pardon? Hisoka check his blog, and behold- The post is gone. Wooshed away, as the site itself would annoyingly proclaim. Did the site glitch out and delete it? Is it simply not displaying the post? 

Spidershead13: So you did fake those screenshots, I assume. The URL in your IMs leads to an empty blog with the same IP address as you Spidershead13: I did not take you for someone who'd stoop that low. Bubblegumbitch: Hahaha what did you DO?~ ♠️  ♠️ ♠️ ♠️ ♠️ Spidershead13: Had a friend of mine 'check' your blog. He was also nice enough to delete the post for you already.

Hisoka blinks. Once. Then twice. He's been hacked. This was going even better than he had anticipated. Quickly he screenshots the conversation, before hitting "New Textpost". " !!!I'VE BEEN HACKED BY @SPIDERSHEAD13!!!! [Screenshot] #callout #callout post #internbloodsports #hacker"

Post.

Ping. Blop. Blop. Blop. Ping. This was going to be a long, delicious night.

no one else has reblogged ask meme Mondays so I'm just going fucking apeshit with u. from the big boy: b7 for raini bc it's funny, c1 for cog bc it's inchresting, h3 for brilliance bc I know there's some gay shit going on and I want to hear more, then a17 (character proud of themselves or ur proud of ur rp as them) L5 and L6 for whomsoever u want to talk about

I won’t need a readmore for this one, I tell myself. There’s not that many questions, and they’re not proseboys. I was a fool. She’s too long to be allowed to run on people’s dashboards unrestrained 😔 Thank you! For going apeshit!!

Raini

B7. How do they respond to babies crying in public? I guarantee the image you have for how Raini would react to a crying baby is 10000% correct. She’s unhappy. Uncomfortable. Unimpressed. Can you please make that thing be quiet. Why did you have it if you can’t mange it. This is why she’s never having kids. Like she’s not gonna say anything to the parents or shoot them dirty looks, because she’s not that specific flavor of asshole, but she’s going Mind Her Business and vacate the premises if possible. People who want to take care of something should just get a cat. Goddamn. There is ONE (1) baby that may qualify for an exception, and that’s Red. This is because (and please, picture Raini, the absolute picture of ‘fed up’, squatting down to look a fussy Red in the eye while she says this) “Baby Lent. You’re better than this. I know you are, and you’re letting me down. You need to stop making that noise.” This is unrelated to the question, but please also picture a Raini who was asked (blackmailed?) into babysitting using her Mage Hand to change Red’s diaper. It has nothing to do with the question but I think it’s a Very funny mental image. Thank you.

Cog

C1. Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it? Absolutely! The way Cog approaches the world is defined by three main mantras: - Kindness is a discipline, not a character trait. - Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but it is always worth doing. - If you are able to help someone, you have an obligation to do so. Between these three things, Cog sees the world in pretty black and white terms. There are right decisions, and wrong ones. The difference between the two is usually clear to anyone who cares to look, and so most of the evil in the world is born of selfishness. Consequently, Cog does very poorly in morally grey situations. She will commit without hesitation to any course of action that she deems “right” and “kind” no matter how drastic or dangerous it is, but she pretty much shuts down the second she’s faced with a decision that has consequences for someone regardless of what she does.  I’m sure that has not, and will not, come in her life ever at all. Ahah!  I think originally, this worldview was born of naivety. She grew up that religious kind of super sheltered where everything in the secular world was dangerous and dirty, and so when Cog began to realize that definitely wasn’t the case she made the choice to intentionally see the best in people and the world around her to fight what she was told growing up. When she started traveling with her party and actually seeing more of the world than the extremes of a) shitty cult town b) shiny clean magic school, she began to realize that the true state of the Wasteland was somewhere between what her Mama had told her and what she wanted to believe it was. But I’ve never in my life made a character who is stubborn as hell deep down, so instead of letting the world she found herself in change her Cog took a deep breath, rolled up her sleeves, and settled in to be the one changing it by loving and helping the people around her.

Brilliance

H3. Does your OC believe there’s only one ideal partner (or multiple ideal if not monogamous) for everyone, or that there are many people who could be right? I think Brilliance absolutely adores the idea of two people being made for one another. Two souls, wandering the world looking for one another? Who slot together so perfectly that when they find each other it’s clear they never could have fit anywhere else? Bruh. Yes, she knows love takes work. Sometimes you and your partner are going to disagree, and sometimes there’s going to be conflict. The world isn’t “love at first sight” then smooth sailing for the rest of your life. But you put in the work to make your lives better, together, because the universe gave you this person to care for. Maybe there are many people who you could be happy with, and those relationships aren’t anything to look down on. But when you find The One, Brilliance thinks, you know. She certainly did.

Don’t Worry About It

A17. What’s one of your OC’s proudest moments of themselves? Gonna hijack this question to talk about rp moments I’m proud of because Alex sorta kinda gave me permission to do that! Alright! For Raini, the biggest rp moment I’m proud of was her “I’m getting our memories back” speech a few sessions ago, specifically the line, “We’ve been fighting with one hand tied behind our backs for too long. If we’re going to die fighting this thing, I want to know exactly what I’m fighting for.” Morgan and I had been planning to kick off our return from July Hell Hiatus with Wish Two for a couple of days, which meant I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little while planning what to say. I feel like that line in particular embodies Raini’s unwavering confidence in her magic, her determination, and her specific brand of caring for the people around her without actually admitting that’s what she’s doing. I also really liked the way the scene of her apologizing to the party for being Bitchy post losing Magic for a minute went! Idk if anyone else remembers it, because it was pretty short in game, but! I thought it was a very good moment of Raini finding the most Roundabout way to say “thank you for looking out for me while I was defenseless”.  If I can pat myself on the back a little, my Cog monologues kick Ass. The most recent one was when she was talking to Ace about how War is Bad (radical, I know) and there was a moment where she looked at him and said, “...I’m not going to ask for your help, because I don’t know what I’ll do if I do and you say no.” Which. OOF. That was her and I realizing in real time that she and Ace were very much on different sides of this issue. When the session ended everyone said they Loved how good and hurtful that conversation was and I :’) Also, there was a really small moment when Cog was pleading for Maelo’s life (when Sunny’s dad had him locked in a cat carrier. It’s a Long story, made slightly better by the fact that Maelo was wildshaped into a cat at the time) and Cog went Straight for the dad heartstrings by sniffling and asking if, please, would Robert at least let her say goodbye to her friend before he killed him? Please? 😢  She is using her baby face for EVIL!  And oh my god how could I forget! Arcane Timeout! When the party went back to New Alexandria and was confronted by Ace for helping a prisoner escape (which, in fairness, Maelo did do) and Cog brought the encounter screeching to a halt by casting Wall of Stone to make a timeout hut with herself and Ace inside. She then sat herself down, looked Ace dead in the eye, and told him that the wall wasn’t coming down until he actually talked to her, or until he broke her concentration on the spell. She banked hard on him not being willing to hurt her, and it paid off. There were tears all around, both in and out of character. It was Wonderful. Also! I do just want recognition for the fact that I did not give into my impulses to be a little Shit as Cog last session by subtle casting Heal in Ace’s face after he Counterspelled my Healing Word. it was what I Rebekah wanted to do more than anything; unfortunately Cog is a better person than I am. There is No worse feeling than wanting so badly to do something you have no choice but to admit isn’t in character. Rip.  For whatever reason, all of my favorite Brilliance rp moments came during combat. Pressing her forehead to Sabre’s after he died in silent grief, forcefully taking a Narzugon off his Nightmare and then using Misty Step to mount it herself and take off after her friend, planting herself in the chokepoint of a hallway to stare down three minotaurs so she could keep her party safe behind her, pushing deeper into the hellwasp nest to rescue Dembe and Sabre despite knowing that doing so all but destroyed her chance of making it out alive, the list goes on. There were good out of combat moments too (despite the rest of the party’s best efforts 🙄), but I feel like for once I made a character who really shone in combat.  oh GOD I just remembered one really really good rp moment, when our rogue Zihro died when he got separated from the party during combat. We finished taking care of the main devil we were fighting, then began searching the dungeon for Zihro and the npc he was with. We, instead, found both of their corpses. Dembe looked to Brilliance, our healer, and demanded to know why she was just standing there instead of fixing their friend. We were only level three or four at the time, so Brilliance had to tell Dembe, again and again, that she couldn’t fix Zihro. It was too late, she wasn’t powerful enough yet, her goddess wouldn’t answer a prayer like that- It was a rough scene, and without question one of the best rp moments I’ve had with that group. Tae, if you’re reading this, you’re the only one with rights. Also, please unfollow this blog immediately.  Now as a quick pick-me-up after that mess, Pip’s best rp moment was when our barbarian Durokal -who couldn’t read and had a habit of running off and causing Problems- found a plaque he could tell had five words on it, and called Pip over to read it for him when Pip finished chasing him down. Pip, annoyed and out of breath and all of two feet tall, looked up at this 7 foot half-orc and told him, “It says: I’m. Gonna. Kick. Your. Ass.” Also, he regularly called very powerful figures in Barovia by sweet nicknames with “Mr.” in the front. As a sign of Respect. Because he’s the Best. sdfhsdkfj he also he couldn’t think of a fake name quick enough one time so he told an npc that is name was Dick and he was Very embarrassed about it. She: bought it!

Brilliance, Again

L5. Which OC do you think is the most decent morally or behaviorally?  AKA, which is supposed to a “good guy”? The answer is Cog, but we already went in depth on her morals this ask. She’s HAD enough screen time let’s move on. Brilliance is the only other character who, if asked, would say they saw themselves as a good guy instead of just “a person”. She strives to do right by the people around her, and to protect the light and beauty found in the world. She doesn’t have the same illusions about the world wanting to be a good place that Cog does, and she very much understands that sometimes the best thing you can do for the world is to put the things that make it dangerous six feet under. What’s interesting I think is that, despite being a paladin, she isn’t Lawful Good! She’s Neutral Good, because you know what? She wants to do the right thing, and laws aren’t always right. It’s up to you, as a person with a mind and free will and agency, to look at a situation and decide what you think is the right thing to do. And, for Brilliance, generally the right thing to do is heft her sword, raise her shield, and face trouble head on.

Raini, Once More

L6. Which OC do you think is the worst morally or behaviorally? AKA, which is supposed to be a “bad guy”? I don’t have any evil aligned characters, because I personally find things like “getting along with my party members” sexy, but the character who’s the shittiest and the worst is obviously Raini. She’s not a bad person per say, she’s just selfish and results oriented. Very much “the ends justify the means” and in a party like hers she’s aware that somebody has to be the bad guy sometimes, and she’s not afraid to make sure that’s her. She’s also very very likely to fall victim to her hubris making her feel like she definitely knows what’s best, and acting on that maybe without consulting other people (see: the whole fucking premise of the campaign). She sees a goal, she sees a way to accomplish that goal, so why shouldn’t she begin taking the necessary steps to reach it? I think the events of the game have mellowed this flaw out a little bit, but you can still see traces of it in the way she, for example, wordlessly handed Lent a bunch of diamonds before launching her consciousness into the Abeast and very nearly dying in there without consulting with the party first. It happens!  Also, behaviorally, she’s just. I mean. She’s like that. The worst. And that, I promise, will never change. 

I rarely talk about this because the welter of deeply personal pain and anger that surges up in the replies, reblogs and even unfollows that inevitably follow my doing so scares me half to death (not to mention the anonymous asks I almost always get immediately after) but, here goes.

I cannot condone and must in conscience always oppose abortion because abortion results in the end of a human life. There is no way around or under this fact, no way to twist this truth, though pro-choice rhetoric does its best. And I always want to stop the argument there because I believe the argument should stop there. Nothing justifies taking the life of another human being. Science (and common sense alone) establishes that the fetus a) is alive and b) is a person. The arguments that claim otherwise- the self-defense arguments, the attempted comparisons of the fetus to parasites, the bodily autonomy argument, the delayed-til-birth personhood argument- are silly and implausible. I call them silly, even though this subject is so serious, because they are all silly in the truest sense of the word. They have no meaning and they inherently contradict each other and even themselves. Do we want to protect this person from having a difficult life or from being unwanted or is this protection not necessary because, in fact, there is no person at all? This is one example among many, but my point is no one can agree and people don’t even really bother because there is no true sense to be made. So. To get back to the matter at hand- no situation ever justifies taking a human life. No measure of inconvenience or uncertainty or even fear and terror and anguishing pain ever gives any human being the right to end the life of another. If you do not agree, then that’s where we have to start but this IS the place to start.

And for a long time I believed it was the place to end the discussion too and so never participated in the discussions because it never DID end there- because pro-life arguments in addition to those of the pro-choice camp spun off into all sorts of tangents that often were true but which were not the point. It is very often true that a woman comes to love the baby she was afraid to have at first; it often happens that a baby whom doctors predict will die or economists predict will live a life of pain and poverty defies the odds and lives to be healthy AND successful. But it is not the point. We cannot defend life only because things might work out or might be easy, because the bad, scary thing MIGHT pass, and great, personal joy might be the result. People have the right to life even when they are unwanted or unhealthy or unloved. People have the right to life over your right to decide whether or not they will enjoy it. To rob them of that, to make a judgment on what they can or cannot endure or what is acceptable and then allow them to live, even to allow them to stay alive because we believe that it will “all work out” is not our place. We don’t know that it will all work out, but we still cannot offer death as a solution. When we do so, we cross a terrible line. We commit a grave evil and injustice that no amount of loving motivations can erase. It isn’t complicated, it’s simple. It is terrifyingly, starkly simple and it is the one truth in all of this that matters the most and so it was always the one I clung to as I dodged and ran and twisted my way out of engaging on this topic with either side because it was too painful.

But here’s the thing. While the truth remains that simple and while it will set us free if we cling to it- no matter who you are or what you’ve done or lived through or endured this truth will set you free, I promise, I promise, I promise- I’ve been forced to admit that rhetorically speaking this isn’t enough. If I am in the business of trying to change hearts and minds, this can’t be my only way of engaging with my fellow human beings. Don’t get me wrong. The truth will always come first, it MUST come first and has to be the bedrock of everything I say or I might as well shut the hell up right NOW- but there can be more. Compassion and truth aren’t small; they cover great expanses of ground and they are meant to. If I can get myself to say what I feel so oddly tongue-tied about saying in the pain of these kind of discussions, I know it will be better. For me and for anyone reading this, but especially those who disagree.

And so I just want to say to those out there who are pro-choice that I know that the concerns and pains that motivate your stance spring from real problems that need real solutions even as I cannot budge on the unconscionableness of abortion as a solution. I will never because I CAN never budge on the fact that abortion is not a solution. It can never be. But the problems you see and want to address deserve solutions and need to be addressed, and I want to incorporate recognizing and responding to those very real needs more in any pro-life arguments I formulate. Women should not be abandoned with a child to raise; women have to be protected and cared for; children should not be abused. I do not have all the solutions, I only know that death cannot be one. So for now, in my effort to broaden the scope of my discussion, all I can say I see your pain and your reasons and I am speaking completely sincerely when I say that my heart goes out to all the women who are affected and will be affected by the new laws in Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri. And I know there will be effects and that they will not all be pretty. I hope that you are not left to suffer alone; I hope you are met with compassion and love and financial and practical and emotional and spiritual help and support to carry you through this. I am sorry for the terror you might feel or the pain you are in if you are afraid and hurt. I hope that you find the help and comfort and consolation that abortion could never offer you-- because it could not and can never offer you anything except for destruction and more pain-- but that you absolutely should receive. I am sorry for your suffering, I am truly, truly sorry, and if it is any consolation- I know it might not be but I offer it anyway- you are in my prayers.

heres the thing about being a marginalized fan, i, personally, dont care about the comfort about able bodied, cishets, whatever you want to call it. i dont cater to anybody let alone pro temp/ar people. i’m not here to lick boots. 

i have a fandom blog for two reasons only, to be gay and fight against oppressive institutions. yeah sure they arent real, but the fact that i/we as a whole piss people off that they make anti-months against my/our fave character, and entire blogs sure makes it real enough for me

ive been in this fandom for, idk, 4 years? ive seen some shit, experienced some shit. had a lot of hate flung my way. i tag my anti posts. i make jokes. i make points to know why i despise the character. its not just bad writing, its purposely bigoted against people like me.

at any rate, unfollow me, block me, whatever, i dont care.

what i have a problem with is coming in my inbox, sending me weird anon messages, reblogging posts belittling my experiences as though as youre not the biggest most invasive group of people in this fandom, demanding that you get love from people who clearly do not like him. 

you may or may not despise and/ers but dont deny anti an/ders month does exist, and so many of you despise mages, and are pro temp/ar people who demonize mages that many of us marginalized fans see a lot of ourselves in. a lot of you are clearly ableist.

i really dont mind if cu//en fans still follow me, if you dont take offense to my anti posts and dont get offended i’m cool with you. but for the inevitable 10, 20 people who immediately unfollow and block me because they get in their feelings because i make jokes at the expense of their “unproblematic” fave, bye! i fully intend to continue to blog the way i want.

and no i dont have any plans of making an anti cu//en month or actual blog because im not that pathetic :3