#but you have to know that calling only one side of the argument parasocial is hypocritical right?

[newtness532]

trying so hard not to be a hater rn

[thekatebridgerton]

You know what, I think Eloise’s reaction to Penelope being LW through season 2 and to season 3 is taken from the anger Colin had in the book. She is angry and also jealous because Penelope is right from their argument, because unlike Eloise who is all talk about doing something but she never does. Penelope on the other hand DID something, she has A LIFE’S WORK, and Eloise can’t stand that.

Okay I agree and disagree with this Anon

I agree that Penelope was right and what she said to Eloise had been a long time coming, Eloise has a lot of advantages that other young women don't have and yet bemoans the oppression of a society in which she's oppressed the least. As tough her problems were the only ones that mattered. She's got very little self awareness and Penelope said what everyone else didn't have the guts to: that the world doesn't revolve around Eloise and her little mermaid ' part of your world ' problems

I disagree because I personally don't think Eloise is jealous. But rather that she had the wake up call all fake fans with a parasocial relationship have with celebrities when they meet and realize their idols are human... And flawed.

She's the audience throwing tomatoes at a performance when it's not up to her standards. The reviewer who leaves a 1 star review because their chef didn't change the menu, the Taylor Swift fan who signed a petition to 'save' Taylor from her relationship with Matty Healy. You get the point. Shes the type of fan and dare I say the type of friend who only likes something as long as Lady Whistledown and Penelope keep up the performance and conform to her idea of who they should be.

Lady Whistledown being that perfect celebrity writer and Penelope being the friend who never actively disagreed with her. So Eloise felt the betrayal in two fronts:

With LW it was very straightforward. The moment she found out that Lady Whistledown was actually an angry teenage girl and not a wise woman of the world, well of course she became an anti fan. I mean I know people in this fandom who send death threats to actors because uhh * puts on reading glasses * 'they didn't come back to the show ' well guess what, Eloise is exactly like that, just regency. I mean she's not the death threat kind of anti fan but as you can see shes definitely the ' this celebrity is dead to me ' kind of anti fan. (Although yeah, when we put it like that, jealousy is usually a big motivation in an anti fan hatred of whichever celebrity ' betrayed them' )

And I think that's the bulk of why Eloise reacted the way she did

The part that will probably go unnadressed in the show because its more messy is that with Penelope as a friend it was more personal because her friend had been lying to her, to her face, for a long time and worse, she was such a self absorbed friend that she believed the lie. Eloise thought she was close to Penelope but not as close as to see the Lady Whistledown in her. There's this whole side to Penelope, heck this whole career that Eloise doesn't know about. If Penelope lied about that then what else did she lie about? How many times did she agree with Eloise just to placate her (or redirect her away from the truth)

Note that I don't think Penelope is blameless in their fight, if Penelope felt she had to keep up a performance and pretend to be someone else even with Eloise, then her side of the friendship had its huge unnadressed trust issues too. But that's a post for another day

And that's the tea

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

What's your opinion on parasocial relationships

From: "I don't think we should be able to see fictional characters have sex because they haven't consented"

To: "Blatantly and overtly objectifies -insert celebrity here-"

There seems to be wild swinging from one end to the other 🤔🤔🤔

okay so this is uuuh a Large question and I need to start by saying flat out that "parasocial relationship" is a pretty value neutral term that's only very recently taken on a distinctly negative connotation. the term was invented in the 1950s in response to increasing television viewership in America, to describe the one-sided attachments that viewers formed with fictional characters and media personalities. while Horton and Wolh, who coined the term, did express concerns that some people might be prone to substituting parasocial relationships for real, reciprocal human connections, it wasn't intended to be a condemnation of the practice. parasociality in small amounts is essentially necessary to have any sort of stake in fictional characters or celebrities who can't love us back, and its worth noting that parasocial relationships significantly predate the terminology - humans have felt strongly about rulers who don't know them and characters from myths and stories for centuries. this sort of connection-making is fueled by the same extremely social nature that let us bond with dogs and other domesticated animals.

so the tl;dr there is that my feeling on parasocial relationships is that it largely depends on whether we're talking about, like, people having harmless crushes on attractive and charismatic actors or, like, twitter stans sending each other death threats over musicians who don't know they exist. like most things, it's harmless in moderations and is mostly down to individuals to use their grown-up brains to not make it weird and harmful.

now, onto the example you gave of people objecting to depictions of fictional characters having sex because they can't consent. I don't know that parasociality is the main issue at play here, although as we've noted a degree of it is certainly necessary to care that much about a fictional character in the first place. that particular ideological clusterfuck is a result of several things colliding, I think namely:

a.) an increasingly prevalent and normalized streak of extreme sexual conservatism amongst people who broadly consider themselves progressive. if you've spent much of the last decade online and especially in fandom spaces, you've probably seen this mindset becoming more and more pronounced via a bunch of horse-assed debates about the morality of depicting #problematic things in fiction and fanworks. sincere arguments that sex scenes are bad because made up people who don't exist can't consent to being featured in them is pretty much always where that particular line of thinking was heading.

b.) an absolutely tragic conflation of media consumption with activism and political beliefs. this overlaps heavily with point a (with a lot of assumption that if you're a Good person you must take great pains not only to not consume Bad fiction but also to call it out at every opportunity for being Bad, lest you be accused of having Wrong opinions) and also generates a lot of very stupid takes like treating Captain Marvel as a #girlboss #feminism movie despite being sponsored by the US Air Force and holding creators from historically oppressed identities to impossibly high standards of Good Representation, a thing that doesn't exist and no one agrees on. (read Elaine Castillo's excellent essay collection How to Read Now for way more eloquent thoughts on that.) the point being that people's so-called hot takes about popular media are almost conflated with their politics, whichever way they may lean. this also related to point c, which is"

c.) the internet and its many insufferable algorithms encourage outrage and conflict at every opportunity, so nobody can just say some normal shit like "I don't like seeing sex scenes on tv, it feels uncomfortable :/," because people will start crawling down their throat screaming about how it's actually very sex negative and queerphobic and problematic to dislike watching sex scenes and that the person who posted that is somehow personally oppressing people with sexual trauma who are reclaiming their relationship with their sexuality and were greatly helped by [insert sex scene here]. so you have to pre-empt those replies by acting like you're teeing up a fucking tedtalk and also are ready to throw down in defense of your lukewarm opinion, and that's a lot easier to do if you've figured out how to use language affiliated with social justice to bolster your point.

anyway. that's my opinion on that.

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just��“one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

[kanmom51]

Also a weird thing about the IU argument and, before I go further I know I don’t actually know the extent of IU and JK’s relationship, they may know each other better than we know but as far as I know.. they’re strangers. They know of each other but they don’t actually know each other. She’s worked with Yoongi sure but we have no clue whether her and JK have ever spent time actually getting to know each other on a personal level. So JK’s “love” could be comparable to our love of a member, like a fan’s love. The only difference being he has an actual chance of being able to actually talk to her unlike most of us and the members. Either way though, until we find out more about whether him and IU have actually spent time together, his love is like a fan’s love. He doesn’t actually know her just like none of us know the members. So, for instance, me saying I love and admire and appreciate and have a crush on a member doesn’t negate and invalidate my actual love and appreciation and crush on someone I personally know in my life; especially someone I’ve known for over 7 years, like JK’s relationship with Jimin. JK can love IU while also being in love with Jimin just like I can love Yoongi while being in love with my boyfriend. Me singing some romantic lyric to my boyfriend that Yoongi wrote isn’t meaningful with regards to Yoongi but meaningless to my boyfriend because we’re talking about two different types of love. It’s the same with JK. If there is something going on with him and Jimin, he can still feel how he feels about IU because, until we know the extent of his relationship with IU, we’re talking about two different kinds of love. And I’m sorry but I just don’t think a person can fall in love with a complete stranger or someone that you only know parasocially. I know some people think that can happen but it’s not a healthy love and it’s always one sided. That’s why I say that we can’t really know the truth of the matter because we don’t actually know how well JK and IU know each other. What we do know, though, is that his relationship with Jimin is much deeper because they actually know each other. There’s nothing one sided about it, and I’m not talking romantic wise, I’m talking about their relationship in general. They’ve spent over 7 years together at least 80-90% of the time. I hope that all makes sense. The tldr version is basically there are different kinds of love and they don’t always cancel each other out. It’s absolutely possible for JK to love IU while being in love with Jimin.

Yes.  All that.

I just want to clarify one thing, as far as I’m concerned.  There is a difference between admiring and idolising an artist and being in love with someone real, someone that is part of your actual life. That is why I wouldn’t call both ‘LOVE’.  

You can admire/idolise JM, be scared as hell to actually talk to him, think he’s the sexiest thing on earth too.  But then you will sing Serendipity to your actual partner and mean each and every word in that song thinking of him, not JM.  It’s JM’s song, and you adore the idea of him, but in ‘real life’ it’s your partner that you are in love with, and singing JM’s song to him doesn’t mean you love him any less, maybe even the opposite.  You are singing a song you love by an artist you idolise to the person you are in love with, if that makes any sense...

[withteeths]

Maybe Steamrolling Games is Bad Actually

Videogames are unique in that they are inextricably tied to corporatism and have been since birth (this is an oversimplification but roll with it). This means that to an extent most companies even since the ’80s have never really cared about proper preservation or easy access to their titles. Nintendo carts were originally manufactured to have their battery die in 3 years so you would have to buy a new one (this failed, but it’s why you still see a lot of dead carts floating around). I think there's a nostalgia issue within the gaming fandom regarding "oh x was great back then" but a lot of the time, games manufacturers have been historically shitty and anti-consumer and it’s just that they now have the tools to execute it much more effectively. Regarding obtrusive DRM, that’s an issue PC games have had since their zenith, where if you lost your original copy of a manual or a small plastic key you could never play a game again because the codes were individualized for each copy and support would refuse to give you a new one. Even back in the arcades, there were particularly batshit examples like the CPS board, which I shit you not was built to explode a battery pack filled with corrosive acid if it detected you were attempting to repair or modify it. There’s a lot to say about the current state of games but what I would likely illustrate is that 2/3 major consoles are racing to decide who will be obsolete first. Games consoles are reaching a point where they are trying to emulate PCs with more restrictions and DRM. We're already seeing interest in steam spike again and it’s likely that eventually, we will see almost a crash for consoles where no one can justify the price for games they can play on a PC rig. The only solution I see there would be a merger between the two consoles which feels inevitable. 

That being said as interest in the PC space increases again so does attempts at entering the bubble. We have Epic, Origin, Microsoft, Indiegala, Itchio, and Steam all vying for attention, requiring accounts, and offering exclusives to justify the use of their storefront over others. Some people think this is a good thing because it's breaking up Steam's monopoly but it literally is not, if you ever really wanna hear me rant ask me about Leftist obsession with itch being some sort of ethical steam, which it is provably not. In the end, the real sort of saviour figures that work to preserve games are random ass people on the internet. I know people who automatically assume that at the end of the day, companies care about games preservation too, and they usually have a three-pronged argument that cites a) Steam’s ability to allow the redownloading of delisted games, b) retro companies periodically rereleasing titles for modern consoles in compilations, and c) companies doing limited reruns of a game that fans request. All three of these examples are basically an incredibly effective use of diversionary tactics, but most of the time when someone cites these I just assume it’s a misunderstanding and not outright malicious intent because a lot of the time companies will attempt to actively implant these ideas to build brand loyalty.

My main dissertation is usually that Steam is incredibly selective with what titles you can redownload, and most importantly, corporate benevolence is more-so a band-aid on a gaping wound! There’s no contingency for when Steam might migrate to a new service, go belly up, or become obsolete when a new OS is created. That means thousands, tens of thousands of dollars worth of games are just gone, permanently, along with fan mods, DLC, and content. It’s a terrifying thought that not many people bring up when discussing the problems with game storefronts that focus so much on providing a cloud and have DRM attached to every purchase. In a way, Steam preceded the trend of not allowing consumers to actually own the things they purchased, and they’ve avoided criticism by strategic use of silence and creating the illusion of a company being made by the consumers they’re attempting to serve. At the end of the day, Steam is a business, and if you ever lose access to your Steam account, or they decide to up and leave one day, you will not be able to play almost all of those games, even if you have them installed on a hard drive, because if you’re online, they connect with a server to ensure your steam account has the ability to play them. When it comes to other arguments like the limited rereleases or use of compilations to preserve arcade titles, I usually just beg people to look at community-driven options that have existed for years. The Scott Pilgrim game is a big source of contention, but I would point out that for years now, it was playable, for free, with all the DLC, on PCs. Preservationists didn’t wait for the gods of Universal and O’Malley to rerelease it for 30 bucks or save up to snatch the fucking ridiculous 200$ limited edition with shitty paper cut-outs, they straight up just did the work to make the game free and available. RCPS3 has (with a contemporary build) been able to run the game pretty flawlessly for years now, in fact, it was how I played through a majority of the game in high school on my shitty brick of a laptop. If you look further out than this one example then it gets even better, MAME and other emulation backends have been able to play obscure, unfinished, and homebrew titles with 100% accuracy, on almost any setup, for free, for decades! I found out about many of these options back in 2015 or so, certainly late to the curve, but I never really questioned as to why emulation, games preservation, and some key titles being available on PC remained some sort of arcane, unknown knowledge to most people interested in games. In the end, the answer was a highly effective propaganda campaign that combined with strategic use of DMCA takedowns has resulted in the concept of communal games-preservation and emulation becoming some sort of debate, where people will wholeheartedly side with corporations in some sort of quest for preserving things the “ethical and correct way,” which is code for preservation on the condition that it remains profitable for the IP owners.

 I think the best way to illustrate this would be with the community built around the preservation of an infamous PS4 title, PT. The story of its inevitable delisting from the storefront and the messy breakup between Kojima and Konami is well known, so I won’t regurgitate it, look it up at your own leisure. What is significant here is corporate reactions to attempts at preserving the game, which can basically be boiled down to Konami acting with borderline rabid fervour to prevent redownload, redistribution, or recreation of a seven-year-old demo, released for free download. Mentions of solutions to redownload the game have been taken down, fan-made recreations for PC, and archival servers that store a copy of the game for future preservation or emulation. Usually when this is brought up a debate occurs citing that technically speaking, Konami has a right to do this whenever they want, for whatever piece of media they believe infringes on their copyright. On one hand, yes this argument is factually correct considering the current state of copyright and ownership of media, but on the other hand, what compels someone to step into the ring for a multi-million dollar company with the primary argument being “well actually, people SHOULDN’T be able to play this specific video game until it benefits the shareholders”? In my opinion, it’s some sort of corporatized symbiosis where players believe that, if you cull the bad actors and play by the rules of the company, you may be able to eventually play the game a couple of years down the line. Sure, this has happened in the past with a few isolated cases, but it can’t be stressed enough that this is a genuinely dangerous and reductive position for people to take regarding games preservation.

 I have two colleagues, Mariken and Fotocopiadora, who released a short interactive title called Videopulp (playable here: https://fotocopiadora.itch.io/videopulp). It’s a dramatic reimagining of a real historical event, wherein a promotional event was held in 1994 at Lelystad to destroy bootleg carts by a figure in a Mario costume. This perhaps best encapsulates something I am pleading with younger generations to understand, as an archivist, art historian, and creator: corporations are not your friends, and they never will be. With the rise of online circles of leftism, this concept is starting to gain traction but is starting to be polluted with concepts of fandom and tribalism. This has lead to arguments that while *most* corporations are bad how could you say that about Nintendo? Or Valve? Mario is so innocent and characters like Wheatley are beloved by all! I feel some people don’t realize that they can enjoy a select title or character without enlisting in a corporate faction in the battle for “best company” or “best videogame”. It leads to a parasocial kinship with a nonexistent figure that was hand-crafted to ensure consumer loyalty to a certain brand. It’s depressing, terrifying, and should stand as a disquieting example of how the grip of capitalism on works of art has permanently distorted how we think and engage with media today. So, what’s the solution? As always I can never really provide something concrete that’ll act as a cure-all, only things that people in games need to work towards. Bring up conversations about games preservation, create archives for your own work, support archivists and boost their work whenever a new discovery is created, and try to promote optimism and solidarity in your hobbyist communities. I’ve noticed a lot of futility being intertwined with the future of AAA gaming, use of online storefronts, and the inability to own pieces of media anymore, and I feel this should be pushed back against, even in a minute way. Open-source programmes still exist that allow you to hold on to what you have purchased, offline and ad-free options exist for games launchers, e-readers, and media players. The future isn’t bright, but it is not a place without hope, and as long as people continue to enter communities with passion and ingenuity, I think we have a chance at stopping the events at Lelystad, 1994 from happening again. 

[heartshpedfx]

@dumbbitcho tagged me in an ask game and i love talking about myself let’s get started 🤓

1. Why did you choose your url?

i think i’ve told this story in the tags but when i made my blog i was 12 and completely disgustingly obsessed with nirvana but heartshapedbox was taken and so was heartshpedbx so i changed the b to an f and prayed it wouldn’t matter. it didnt. and somehow i haven’t changed my url since. kinda works bc people assume it’s about the network fx that sunny airs on

2. any sideblogs?

yes one for things i don’t want to rb to my main or want to look at later and don’t have the time to right then but i won’t tell u what it’s called 👿

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

since late 2014 I THINK. so. too long

4. do you have a queue tag?

i do not and it’s so sexy of me

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

funny story! i wanted to reblog fun pictures and send memes to my bff who i am still bffs with. but they just used their tumblr as a vent thing and i went absolutely fucking crazy with it. do you guys remember fan mail?

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

just look at my blog 😒

7. why did you choose your header?

because i log on here to feel like a fucking clown is why and i’m not even ashamed i love being annoying and funny and sexy

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

https://heartshpedfx.tumblr.com/post/654125940390150144/dennis

this guy which is. fitting

9. how many mutuals do you have?

do you guys keep track of that?????? you people are insane i have no clue of my two sided parasocial relationships

10. how many followers do you have?

486 but i feel like a lot of them are very inactive now i’d highball active followers at like 100ish

11. how many people do you follow?

that’s a secret ❤️

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i actually. only make shitposts

13. how often do you use tumblr a day?

it rlly depends i’ll have days where i do nothing but in a row followed by days where i won’t touch the fuckint app and i don’t even know why. i think sometimes i just need breaks

14. did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?

surprisingly no? i avoid confrontation at all costs though

15. how do you feel about the you need to reblog posts?

i ignore them ❤️

16. do you like tag games?

YES and i want to be tagged in every single fucking one please take note of that btw and if i ever don’t do one you tag me in i am busy OR i forgot about it bc i have chronic goldfish memory literally

17. do you like ask games?

i like talking about myself and i like when other people talk about me so yeah

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

tumblr fame doesn’t exist. followers aren’t real. nothing matters

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

yes but you have to guess who cause i’m feeling impish evil malicious devious

i’m gonna tag @rcg @dykedennis and @malewifedennis but ANYONE who sees this can do it from me <3

[ockto32]

i hate him (8.3.22)

So I've been thinking about this boy for a while now and he's even invaded my dreams at some points. More frequent than not actually. Even throughout the day I'm thinking about being friends with this person I don't even know. Apparently it's called 'parasocial' and usually happens with celebrities and other public figures. Which, yeah. I might be going through a wave of "para-social" thoughts but at this point it's the only way I can cope with my actual relationships with the people I already know.

Like, what's the point of having a relationship that could just end and fuck you over in the end when you're best friends with your fp and all their little friends in your imaginary world? Okay now I definitely sounded mental there. But now I'm starting to hate him because of this. Why do i love you so much when you barely know me? Do you know I'm here?

It feels so fucking infuriating. Like when no one takes your side in an argument, like someones watching you getting punched in the face and laughing.

I just want him to see me for once, you know? Maybe we can be friends, since its near impossible for us to be anything more.

im just getting over my head rn, goodnight

[emgoesmed]

Thanks for the tag, @do-no-harm-hopefully

1. Why did you choose your URL?

I wanted to make a blog about my journey to a career in medicine, and it's vague so it will still apply if I keep using this blog as a physician. "Em" is a nickname of mine, I would feel weird having my full name in my URL.

2. Any side blogs?

Nope.

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

Since 2014, I think. I had a personal blog for memes, which is now deactivated. Then I had a studyblr sideblog in 2016? but I deactivated that too. I started this blog in 2018.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Nope. I love scrolling through the different studyblr and medblr tags and liking posts, but I rarely reblog stuff. I really appreciate the content that everyone puts out but I like that my blog is just my own thoughts, pictures, and posts.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Copying & pasting from my intro post 3 years ago (I had to scroll way back in the archive for this one, folks):

Over the last couple years I’ve found it to be a much more inclusive and academically positive community than I originally expected.

I want to get more involved and interact with all of you lovely people, which is difficult to do when i’m using a side blog.

There are a lot of cool resources and people from all over the globe who are studying medicine which I think is awesome.

This blog is kind of an electronic timeline for me since I’m not a traditional student who is applying to go to med school straight out of undergrad. I have ended up taking a somewhat roundabout route, and it’s a fun way to document, which I’d like to keep up in medical school when I get there.

6. Why did you choose your icon?

Coffee is a very stereotypical studyblr picture to post, but whatever. I remember this was a delicious cappuccino from a cafe I really like, I was wearing my favorite nailpolish and a comfy old sweater, and I think the photo just has calm vibes.

7. Why did you choose your header?

It's the same as my icon.

8. What is your post with the most notes?

This post. I think it resonated with a lot of people who are uncertain about coming out of lockdown and what "a return to normal" means, given the huge sociopolitical upheaval and conflicting messages about how "the pandemic is over" when there continue to be highly uneven vaccination rates and unequal access to healthcare both within countries and around the globe.

9. How many mutuals do you have?

I don't keep track, but it's really great to virtually cheer everyone on as they pursue their interests and figure things out.

10. How many followers do you have?

1,208 as of this morning.

11. How many people do you follow?

118. It's kind of arbitrary and I think a bunch of those are inactive. I should follow more people.

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

Not on this account.

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

Too much, honestly, but less than other apps. I recently got a book from the library called "How To Break Up With Your Phone" because I am definitely addicted and the pandemic made my screen usage worse.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with a blog once? Who won?

No, I haven't.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I'm not 100% sure what this refers to, but the phrase is ridiculous.

16. Do you like tag games?

This is the first one I've participated in, I think. It's fun!

17. Do you like ask games?

I've never done an ask game before but they sound fun to me!

18. Which of your tumblr mutuals do you think is famous?

I have no idea. I like that tumblr doesn't put follower counts front-and-center, although obviously there are still "popular" blogs and parasocial relationships on the website. I do have some real-life friends who are microinfluencers, for example 200k+ followers on TikTok or 100k+ subscribers on YouTube.

19. Do you have a crush on a tumblr mutual?

Nah, but I do want to be friends with all of them! I've only ever had 2 crushes in my 26 years on this earth, and those were people I knew in real life.

20. Tagging (if you want!)

@lattesandlearning @future-doctor-r and anyone who wants to!! I don't know who to tag lol