#That's been Disney since day one and i can't ask people to teetotal there either

[delcat177]

Actually, I feel like acquiring media you don't want to support is one of the most powerful things about piracy, and have used it to view media where I don't support the producer.

If I pirate transgressive media, and then the notion that by viewing a thing--just by viewing a thing, that I am then espousing all its values--it's kind of fucked up. It leaves no room for individual thought and processing. It is the opposite of media literacy.

I am a god damned library page, or I was before my life fell apart awhile. I was in charge of putting books on shelves, and they were not all good books. It *hurt* putting Cesar Milan books out, I would silently and fervently wish people would just stop taking them out, because Cesar Milan is a garbage person whose methods hurt dogs. I considered taking them out and "losing" them. When they did hit the library sale, I bought them, and felt good about the notion--

But really, all I did was a performative action. The people wanting those books were going to get their books. *If anything, I just made them pay full price. Nothing of value was saved.*

I can't control what other people think and do. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a fundamental human right. I think it fucking sucks sometimes, absolutely, but fundamental human rights tend to be messy and painful things.

And if I have family members who want to view media that I find transgressive, and I'm supposed to blacklist them for that? Am I McCarthy or the fucking Vatican? I'm sure as hell not getting anywhere on explaining to them why I find it transgressive, I'm taking it away before they can have their own argument.

And the argument gets shot down way easier when someone *has* one, believe me you. It's way harder to get someone to listen to "That's transphobic and antisemitic so you can't have it" than to "You played it? Antisemitic as shit, right?". One just isn't a discussion. One is an opener to people who just don't get it, and--I feel like this is so critical--

Yes, there are people who still don't get it. No, it is not necessarily their own fault. *Yes, ostracizing them is going to cause problems.*

*Othering allies does not help.* Neither does mocking them. Neither does doubling down into a feud. It all feels real good, because then you get to be the hero, but *there are no heroes*.

There's just us. There's just apes. We're all making it up as we go along, and if we forget that, we really *are* doomed by media.

It's not heroes and villains. That's how Harry fucking Potter sets it up, as propaganda, but it's not like that. Long before this was "oh no this author is not good to people", it was "the Sorting Hat is dumb as shit can a Slytherin just be a good guy for once".

WE ARE THE SORTING HAT RIGHT NOW, AND IT SUCKS. THIS IS NOT HOW IT WORKS.

I don't know yet.

I don't know yet.

There isn't an easy answer.

There rarely is.