#I have Disengaged and I Will Not

[kabretoss]

please be proud of me, I ollied out of an Internet Discussion before it became an Internet Argument

[tahopo]

we truly regressed when people started buying into the genderbending is inherently transphobic thing. yeah that twelve year old being inquisitive and having fun on deviantart was your enemy all along.

[imperatorrrrr]

model behavior

Nico Hischier visits Lonza Arena (x)

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

ADHD hack: you may be able to say "last post" aloud and then not keep scrolling beyond it

(emphasizing the word "not" so your brain remembers to read it)

[carsonjonesfiance]

And I love how gay unemployed 20 somethings on think that a vast interconnected network involving the US government, independent media, Verizon, etc, conspired to delete a couple dozen blogs on a dying blogging platform is somehow more likely than a gay unemployed twenty something disillusioned with American politics unknowingly following a sockpuppet account or two back in 2016.

[naranjapetrificada]

Thinking this midday about ofmd AUs and what it means for someone to be "out of character". I've talked about this here at length before, but today I'm thinking about a different aspect of it. Namely that I wish people thought more about their goals when writing and recalibrated their relationships with canon as a concept.

We all know by now how contentious a certain late first mate (what is the opposite of "qepd" lol) is. When writing him in fic, some people seem to have this (inexplicable to me) urge to show him behaving in ways that the canon version of him would hate (outwardly nice, polite, kind, open, etc). And while not everyone is open to direct feedback about their writing, I've seen discussions a handful of times in ao3 comments and more commonly over here between readers about how in or out character potrayals of him are, and something occured to me today.

When there are opposing sides on the core question of whether or not a portrayal is in or out of character (vs people who agree on that question but may have quibbles about the reasons why they came to their conclusion), the sides tend to be "here's why this was in character" and "here's why this isn't in character". And while that gap will always exist because there are as many readings of a text as there are readers, there's a reason the concepts of "canonical" and "non-canonical" exist. There are things that are canon and things that are not and there is disagreement about which things are which but like it or not, there are some people that are more correct about canonicity.

The thing about fan works is that people should always create what they want, and will do so according to their interpretations of source material, and the question of being in or out of character should, at the end of the day, come down to your goals. We all have more goals in our creative work beyond "finish" or "do it well" and we may not consciously consider them, but they're always there. Those "alternate" goals may be different from work to work, but they exist are influenced by our experiences and inspirations and aren't ever going to be 100% impartial or canon-aligned, because the former would be boring as hell and the latter is neither possible nor desired in what's supposed to be a transformative work.

Everyone who creates anything wants it to be "good", but measures of quality can change from work to work the way goals can. For many writers, how "true" their characterization feels can be one of those quality measures that relate to their goals. Probably in most cases tbh, and especially in AUs. But it isn't always part of the equation because other writers have other goals, and it's usually pretty obvious when those goals haven't been examined.

Some of y'all think Con O'Neill/Izzy Hands is hot, and just wany to imagine his character in various sexual situations with other characters you find attractive (or at least narrative useful) in some way and you know what? That's perfectly fine, and despite not comprehending that impulse at all I understand the importance of creative freedom in fandom enough to want people who write that to write it without hesitation. In these cases we often just tell people to be "proud villainfuckers" which is easy, straightforward, and usually has less contentious discourse around it.

But some of y'all find Izzy to be the most sympathetic character in the series, and while I have enough of the acquired (and healthy) suspicion as a black person who has spent decades in fandom spaces to not want to touch that tendency with a 10 foot pole, those same decades of fandom experience make me understand that there will always be people who glom onto antagonists and secondary characters like that. Even when if I wonder about the motivations behind such an inclination, I understand that y'all are usually part of the ecosystem too.

But the thing is: if you're motivated to write Izzy as outwardly nice or kind or as some kind of hero vs the antagonist he canonically is, or gravitate toward reading those kinds of portrayals, why argue with people about what is or isn't in character? If something in you is drawn toward that kind of Izzy and wants to sympathize with him, why not just own it? There's no easy "villainfucker" way of making peace with this though because it's much more likely to make you want to think about individual morality.

No one who is partial to Izzy wants to be called racist or femme-phobic etc, and I'm not here (on this post at least) to litigate whether or not those accusations would be fair or not (although my opinions are probably obvious). But isn't it exhausting to have to put canon through so many refractions so you can insist that what you like seeing and/or writing is canonical? I understand that being able to point to canon can make it feel easier to stand by your preferences, but is all the bending over backwards to make it fit worth it? What if you could just acknowledge if your goal is to persuade others to see him the same way you do, or see him getting cared for, or whatever else you get out of it? I wish more of y'all had the courage of your convictions and were willing to just say "I like seeing Izzy this way" or "I sympathize with Izzy" because you would probably be having more fun.

[anto-pops]

you don't have to post this.

I'm just happy you nodded to how destructive that blog is. I'm glad to see some resistance to that blogs fucking existence.

I'm sorry anto. Parts of me is happy you've slightly moved on from HL just so that hopefully didn't barb you as bad as I'm sure "bitch of the blog" wanted it to.

Yes she self-submitted it. She does that with all her worst ones. It's for attention - and blatantly visible in her discord servers. Do not take it to heart.

I will post this because if you and I feel similarly about it, there’s bound to be others.

I’ll say it with my whole chest: that entire blog is a joke and an excuse for insecure, mean spirited people to harp on others. I blocked the entire page basically right at the beginning when I started seeing it pop up in my feed, but from what I gathered when my attention was dragged there by the anons in my own inbox, it’s full of people who:

A. Hate the game and all the characters

B. Are jealous of other creators and their success

C. Are too lazy to write their own stories yet have the gall to criticize other writers’ work

The fucking audacity to make a blog like that and defend the blatant bullying with “well we’re allowed to dislike things and have our own opinions” is so unbelievably lazy it’s not even funny. Nevermind the fact that there’s nothing anonymous about half the asks there— I could clearly tell who certain asks were referring to. Maybe the whole thing started with a few harmless polls (which is what I saw at the start) but it’s transformed into something so nasty that to defend it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Fuck that blog and fuck the people who feed into the toxicity.

[lord-squiggletits]

Part of why I hate this fandom's take on Autobots vs Decepticons is ppl (mainly 'con fans honestly) who can't have any nuance of the situation whatsoever and love to write plots like "oh the humans are racist and abusive towards Cybertronians so this is how Megatron is right" no actually I don't think colonialism/imperialism and racism are justified so long as you can point the finger and say "they were the aggressors first" or "their hands are no cleaner than ours bc their society sucks too" sorry. Please come up with better sociopolitical narratives in your war story.

[vividxp]

I've tried a couple of times to get my thoughts organized regarding white viewers commentary on how AMC's IWTV handles race, but I'll just simply say there's definitely a cynicism that is common in a lot of those analysis that is...bemusing.

[abirddogmoment]

Rory has been here a week today! Let's do a recap:

I've been trying to do targeted socialization outings to practice neutral behaviour in lots of settings!

Sunday: Hotel lobby

Monday: Vet (wellness exam)

Tuesday: Outdoor light display

Wednesday: Vet (vaccines)

Thursday: Bus stop

Friday: Canadian Tire (dog friendly)

Saturday: Bus stop (post-event)

She's been crushing general good citizen behaviour! She has also been crushing:

House training (no accidents so far!)

Crate training

Offering engagement

Tolerating nail trims (50/50)

Sit/Down/Stand

General bravery in new situations

I'm very proud of her 💜

Areas for improvement include:

Stop bullying Pike

Stop chewing her own ears

Excitement around people/dogs

Demand barking (already improving)

Our biggest victories for the week:

✅ Worked through noise sensitivity from cars driving by, can now ignore them!

✅ First baby "hike" with phenomenal enthusiasm despite the cold and snow!

Big goals for next week:

✴ More polite play with Pike

✴ Staying home alone while the humans work

✴ Reduce demand barking

Overall she is a perfect puppy and I love her very very much 💜

[szampers]

I feel why szpd is less well documented (and widely known) is because it's one of the most harmless personality disorders. It brings the least harm to the people around you. Any harm would come in a subtle way, and it isn't something someone would be madly concerned over, including the schizoid individual themself. What bothers the most is the frustration of being the way you are, the lack of understanding and acceptance from others.

I think most of the harm szpd can cause to other people is through passivity - the lack of interest in interaction. In our presence, they would only feel uncomfort, annoyance, confusion or self-doubt by our lack of engagement, all of which can be solved by simply distancing yourself from the schizoid individual, who aren't known to chase after people either. Simply ignore them like how we ignored them in the first place. The amount of input has to be equal, nothing receiving nothing. Szpd doesn't actively bring harm through interaction, it passively does it through disengagement. And can it harm any relationships if bridges were never built in the first place? But those who were misled by the act of masking would be hurt the most out of all. Lacking a will to maintain relationships, you wouldn't start any of them either unless it's unavoidable. This way whatever harm that might come is minimalized, but this act itself is arguably what brings the most harm, disengagement.

[mixelation]

so one time i was in my friend's car while some lady backed her car into us (side note: if you're parallel parking, you need to signal so other cars know you're about to go into reverse in the middle of the street. also if you're in reverse and you hear honking from behind you, you should maybe look in your rearview mirror). the lady then got out of her car and my friend rolled down her window and the lady attempted to cuss her out but she like. was clearly VERY uncomfortable saying swear words so it was like "you hit my... fucking... car, you fucking......... asshole....... you better apologize. fuck..... you" and it was very just, like. impossible to take her seriously

anyway i think this would be a fun trait to give a fictional character. "so upset they went to cuss you out, but chickens out over every swear word." cousin to the angry cry

[wednesdaythunder]

Curate my blog?

Listen, I won't curate FUCK, like ma'am, this is a Tumblr. If I can't spam my latest obsession then what's even the point

[jakeperalta]

I wish taylor still did pre-release lead singles. I know she doesn't need to but I just like them

[scoobysnax]

what i hear when grav falls fans talk about billford

[ineffablebookgirl]

When people say, "This fandom [insert some crappy behavior they don't like]" I think they really mean "Three people I refuse to unfollow who have crappy takes that feed my dopamine-outrage loop."