#and people tried to make up rumors saying he would be shunned lol

[noahschnappinfs]

now that the stranger things cast had their official wrap party: let’s remember how noah is so loved by all of them.

he was invited and went to every possible event with all of them! this is family!

[mariaiscrafting]

You know, what think I like when you are critical of a content creator is that you know how to separate a fact from especulation, unlike a blog out there that took especulation as facts.

Example, that night when we were critical of Karl, or any instance you have discussed about him, a lot of anons were saying that he gave them clout chaser vibes to them, and despite your opinion, you expressed that those were only especulation and not the truth, and to keep that in mind. That's good critical thinking.

But this blog had some similar anons, saying that he only is friends with the Feral Boys gro clout- In fact, they said the Feral Boys were only in it to benefit from clout and money. And they took it as a truth. I know you instance on them is neutral, but come one, they are friends. All of them. Karl isn't friends with them for clout. Like today Karl was playing golf with salad gang plus Sapnap and George at first and then Quackity and Dream joined bc they had spared time and it all devolved into typical chaos (Poor Corpse and Tina and Brook, had to endure those children lol/lh /j). Like, the stream wasn't planned with the 5/5 yet they joined, missing Karl and just having fun.

Idk, I guess that blog's superiority (They were a SBI focused blog) just irritated me. It's as if they were putting both groups at each other as if those streamers aren't friends or close. They were singing prayers of one while shunning the other based from especulation. Criticissism is fine, in fact recommended to be critical of your interests, but taking rumors as facts to base your crit is yikes. It's as if I wanted to crit SBI and base it only of "Philza hanging only with people younger than him is kinda weird ngl.." or "Sbi doesn't care about Tommy cuz he joined late" like that dumb Tumblr post did or some fuckers in Twitter imply.

The main reason I take so much care to separate speculation from evidence-backed theories and confirmed truths is because I feel like that separation is what distinguishes us from mcyttwt the most. One of the main reasons for mcyttwt's toxicity, imo - for its relentless cancelling of everyone, for its bandwagon campaigns - is that people oftentimes criticize and defend based on their personal feelings rather than rationale or evidence.

For example, I complain a lot about Dream stans on here, but you know the reason I didn't stop watching Dream directly after the cheating scandal broke loose, even though I thought he cheated? Because of mcytblr Dream stans. Mcytblr Dream stans engaged with me in discussion, both publicly and in DMs, about the cheating scandal, and even those who eventually came to the conclusion that Dream didn't cheat accepted the facts and statistics they were given and kept a healthy skepticism throughout the process. On Twitter, Dream stans were defending him before he even made a video following up to the mods' initial accusations because they felt that Dream wasn't the kind of guy to lie or cheat. They were replying to screenshots of statistical analyses from subreddits and to articles from mathematicians and staticians with extremely reactionary responses because of that feeling, which they believed in so adamantly, they had accepted it as fact. The thing is, to believe that Dream didn't cheat in the face of all the statistical and rhetorical evidence to the contrary is, in itself, speculative. Usually we think of speculation as a baseless theory that something is a positive truth- that is to say, that something did happen. But speculation also applies to those theories of someone not having done something, when the opposite has been nearly proven to be true.

For this same reason, I chose not to ignore the anti-technotwt threads with screenshots of Techno's old tweets in them. For me to have simply ignored these screenshots and continued supposing that Techno never expressed bigoted beliefs and/or currently doesn't would have been speculative on my part, and to boot, blatantly wrong, given the evidence to the contrary.

People in this fandom, and in all RPF/RPF-adjacent fandoms need to understand that almost everything they believe about the CCs they watch is speculative, at least to some extent, because of the nature of the content they make. Even if someone, in your opinion, displays evidence of some aspect of their personality - whether that be some form of bigoted, sweet, rude, clout-chasing, or anything else - because of the extremely one-sided nature of sharing one's life through a screen, that theory of ours will almost alwyas only ever be speculation, not a solid conclusion that can be drawn. We will never know these people's true intentions behind something shared to us via the Internet.

That vagueness leads to virtually every viewer creating a different theory in our heads about the CCs we watch, and we can't treat those theories as facts, especially not when sharing them with the rest of a fandom. I'm not a very big blog, but I consider even over 50 followers to be way too many people to spread a theory too, without at least clarifying that what I'm posting is speculation. If I have evidence, I like to list it or, if I can, provide sources; but otherwise, I take care to qualify most things with phrases or disclaimers that will clue followers into the speculative nature of whatever it is I'm saying. This is because theories and "feelings" can blaze through a fandom like wildfire, especially somewhere like Twitter, where so many things are word-of-mouth or based on summary due to character limitation.

You know why mcyttwt was cancelling Andi? Only a handful of original Tweeters under the cancel Andi hashtags actually knew what clips or tweets to criticize her for, or tried to elaborate on that criticism. But because every other mcyttwt user was getting bombarded by their mutuals hate-posting about Andi on their TLs, the "negative feeling" towards Andi grew and grew, even if most people didn't even know what they were supposed to feel negative about, exactly. Our judgement works on a quick trigger on the Internet because of the amount of information we're receiving, and so, even a single bad word against someone you don't have too strong of an opinion on can fundamentally alter your perception of them, usually subconsciously. If the first thing you see about Andi, who you've only seen on a couple LOH's or a couple Punz streams before then, is a tweet along the lines of, "disappointed in Andi for her homophobia and joking about suicide," despite you having no context, you will most likely be pushed to the negative side of her. Thus begins the cycle of hatred, building up and up, leading to you searching for more and more criticism about Andi, whether speculative or not, until you solidly and genuinely believe she is a Horrible Person. It all starts with the vaguest fucking feeling, because that's all speculation has to go off of, and it snowballs into a fucking wildfire across an entire fandom. I'm not about to be another person to let feelings snowball and spread like that.

Now, I don't know what exact blog you're referring to, but as an adamant SBI enthusiast, let me flip the argument many SBI stans have for their speculation upon the genuity of Karl's friendship with the Feral Bois, onto SBI. What do we have to go off of for the genuity of SBI's friendship, anyways? Our perceived brother dynamic between Tommy and Wilbur could very well just be Tommy capitalizing on Wilbur's brand and continuing the charade until now because it's been profitable. Maybe Techno only continues to associate with SBI because he knows how much his fanbase likes headcanon'ing about SBI, so he puts up with streams with them so he can continue to feed his fanbase with dynamics he knows they're obsessed with. Maybe Phil would rather play MC with people his age, and actually dislikes that he's friends with a teenager, but sticks around because he profitted so much off of Dream SMP and SBI-related content. And what could any SBI stan have to argue with me on any of these theories? Just because SBI laughs around each other and seems fond of each other doesn't mean they're actually like that behind the cameras. They so seldomly stream or make videos together anymore, anyways, so maybe they've grown tired of keeping up the dynamic.

Everything I said could be interpreted as utter bullshit, and that's because it fucking is. I don't actually know what Techno wants to do with his life, or how Wilbur and Tommy actually feel about each other, or who Phil wants to fucking befriend. The same goes for Feral Boys. There's nothing wrong with stating your theories or speculation, but to treat them as fact or not at least qualify such posts with the fact that this is all based on your bias and opinion, and no substantive evidence, is irresponsible. Just because you feel like one or more of the Feral Boys is "clout-chasing" doesn't mean you have the right to tout that feeling as truth. I feel a lot of things about a lot of CCs, both negative and positive, but no matter how strong my feelings, unless they have substantive evidence backing them up, I have no right to treat them as facts with my followers.

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I saw:

Raw- It’s a familiar tale in a way. A quiet, extremely studious, virginal, “good girl” arrives at school where here wild child older sister pushes her to try to fit in among the cruel peer pressure cooker surroundings. Brutal hazing leads her to do something she does not want to do, and has never done before, which leads to a downward spiral and dire consequences. The thing here is it isn’t sex, drugs, or alcohol that triggers her change but....meat.

See, her family have always been vegetarians. Her sister had until she started school, but now she gleefully partakes. Now our heroine’s first taste causes a reaction that builds. A hunger for flesh, the more raw the better, overwhelms her until one day it goes beyond the meat from a grocery store. In an accident her sister cuts off a finger and, instead of saving it to be reattached, our girl eats it. The sister isn’t too shocked by being stuck without a finger for life. See, she’s got the cannibalism bug too, and she has decided to embrace it. How far will the sisters go in indulging the hunger unleashed in them?

The film takes cannibalisim and uses it to comment on growing up, both in the obvious off to college way but also with the connection to family.  I’m not sure that the hazing aspect isn’t more horrifying than the flesh eating, but that’s because my own anxieties are based of social interactions with bullies and not a fear of being eaten/eating people. Still, an excellent little film, a sort of cousin to Ginger Snaps in using horror to deal with the adolescent female experience. 

Black Death- In the 1300s the plague ravages the land, but a young monk has a personal problem. He sends his secret lover to hide in a forest, but is then torn whether to join her or stay true to his vows. When Sean Bean rides up to the monastery needing a guide in the direction of his beloved he takes it as a sign. Well, anyone would take Sean Bean riding up as a sign! He discovers that the bishop has sent the group of men he joined to go to a remote village that has not been sickened and so is believed to be involved with demonic forces. They are to uses barbaric forces to take out the leader and get conversions. Funny about that. The vilagers are pagans and just as devote to their religion, and just as willing to use violence. The young monk had discovers his girlfriend had been killed by bandits in the woods, but the village priestess seems to have the ability to raise the dead. Which side will he turn to with he is offered his love returned? 

This is not a movie about magic but the horrors of humanity, filmed to try to keep a sense of dirty reality.  If anything the pagans have a hint of moral high ground by having simply been keeping to themselves until the christians, out to destroy them, kept arriving. It’s a slim advantage though, because both groups are equally willing to be unmercifully cruel for their faith. For me this is far more chilling than anything that goes bump in the night. Humans have always been the source of my terrors, and fundamentalists of all sorts in particular.

(I went on a bit about my anxiety on the subject, but since it’s about my being an agnostic in the fundamentalist christian bible belt I’m making it so you have to click. I tried not to talk about some of the more upsetting things, but it still ended up a lot of venting. LOL    It is NOT about the movie!!!!!!!!)

Alright, to be honest, because I have lived surrounded by them here in the bible belt, christian fundamentalists scare me the most. Sure, many of my family are christians and all the friends I had were christian. I know them, and have first hand experience with how quickly they can turn on you. Not all of them of course! But enough.

See, in first grade I became an agnostic. The exact train of thought at that age I won’t go into here. But yes, yes, go ahead and be disgusted. I joke it’s the one thing every religion and atheists agree on: they believe agnostics are wishy-washy. Nah, it’s about not thinking the unknown is anything other than the unknown. It’s embracing doubt and uncertainty as rational. Basically it’s “can’t prove it? Then I can’t claim certainty”

The point is, also in first grade my teacher would have us recite a prayer before going to lunch. She was NOT supposed to, but it is very likely I was the first non-christian she’s taught and I was not talkinging about my views. Heck, I didn’t have the terminology yet! All I did was simply remain silent while the prayer was said, what with having a lifelong dedication to NEVER say things I do not believe. My silence was noted by the meanest boy in the class, who actually happened to be a preacher’s son. He started shouting how I wasn’t praying. Obviously the teacher couldn’t punish me since she wasn’t supposedto be doing it to begin with. For days afterwards everyone shunned me. This would not be the last time.

Actually the shunning would become almost an annual occurance. In between everyone would seem to forget. I think it was simply I didn’t fit their ideas of atheists (the catagory I was lumped into, which is fine. It’s closer than any actual religion). I was quiet and friendly. I never got into any trouble, never sweared in public, was famously honest (heck, I paid back a kid that had loaned me a dime even though he was out of school for more than six months after an accident). I always tried to help people, including many of them with school work. An atheist (agnostic) was evil, but I wasn’t evil, so they had to reject the label. But something would come up, like my not saying the “under god” part of the pledge of allegience. And there would be the shunning.

Well, one time I did out myself. In high school a couple of girls were talking about non-believers. Apparently we were all devil worshippers pretending to be nice to seduce christians into evil. I turned around and asked if that’s what they thought I was and they were stunned. They had forgotten!!! They actuallylooked embarressed and hurriedly asked for a bathroom pass. One guy did say “Just ignore them.” and it meant the world to me. A bit of kindness from an unexpected corner when most just stared at me in confusion  and horror.

Christianity is REALLY big here. I had a junior high teacher, a born again christan, who talked about seeing witches. Witches, satianist, demon possession seemed to start to be believed in seriously in the 1980s. I am not sure how it happened, how it got to the point where a Star of David spray painted by some kid on a street sign could be seen as proof of local satanists, but I argued about just that with a freaked out lady myself.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the school Halloween Carnival was about the bigget event of the year and all the kids went trick or treating, but as the 1980s wore of the local churches got very active in insisting the holiday was satanic and evil. Heck, every October we will get at least one lecture from the person checking us out in stores about Halloween being the devil’s holiday. They tried to relabel the Halloween Carnival as a Harvest Festival to get the churches to stop deliberately doing counter events to keep people away from “sin”. One year a rumor started that satanists were going to kidnap a child to sacrifice, so Halloween was cancelled! Really, Halloween barely exists in this town any more.

I dunno. I could go on about the local views on religion. The point is, I know seemingly perfectly nice people that can turn on you out of fears and religious devotion. They half expect the devil to be mucking about in every shadow and those of us that don’t share their faith are subject to suspicions and misunderstanding. Considering the fact that before I was born  my family got shot at  and death threats, for being “yankees”, having black friends, and the (untrue, but whatever) rumor they were jewish, I never can feel comfortable with being reminded of how they really feel about non-believers.

Truth is, I expect if they ever started a witch hunt around here I’d be top of the list. First to the gallows......