#no I will not link the post in question here. DON'T go harass the OP of that post they probably meant well

[kreftropod]

To the Anon who sent me an ask saying I "should feel fucking awful" for "giving you hope": I'm sorry about your situation, truly. But what did you want to achieve by sending that ask to me?

For context I reblogged a post earlier, mentioning that I hadn't double-checked the info yet as I was at work (my memory is shit, so I reblogged it to remember to check it later). I did check it later, found that the links didn't confirm what the OP claimed, and decided to delete the reblog as I had no reason to keep it on my blog anymore.

I'm going to assume that you're an adult, Anon, and as such it's your own responsibility to check sources and not trust random strangers on the internet (such as me). If you had checked the sources yourself, you would have been able to see that the post didn't add up (lawsuit too new to be approved yet, and the amount of money OP mentioned seemed taken out of thin air). I'm sorry that I didn't sit down and tell everyone that I, a nobody, decided to delete the post from my personal blog. It would perhaps have been a courtesy to do so, but it isn't a responsibility you can demand of strangers on tumblr of all sites.

Again, I'm sorry about your situation and about you getting your hopes up over something I reblogged, but lashing out against a stranger doesn't help anyone. I promise I didn't reblog, and later delete a post without telling you, just so I could hurt you personally.

I do hope you have a kinder new year than the one we're both currently suffering through. Cheers mate

[creature-wizard]

"Paganism isn't a Burger King or a Chinese buffet, you can't just pick and choose what you want" is bad rhetoric, and here's why.

I recently got an anon message telling me that paganism isn't like a Burger King or a Chinese buffet; you can't just have things your way or pick and choose what you like, and that "everything was organized a certain way for a reason" and that you "change the system at your own risk."

I pointed out that this is an incredibly historically-uninformed take, because there's never been a time or place in history where paganism was pure and unchanging, and there were many reasons for things being the way things were, most of them just not that deep or mysterious. (For example, politics.)

Anon sent a follow-up message stating that they were talking about cultural appropriation, which... strange if true, given that I hadn't been posting anything about appropriation recently.

In fact, it seems that the post this person was responding to was a post about pop culture witchcraft, given that the OP of that post got an anon message with the words "Chinese buffet analogy" and "pop culture paganism" in the same sentence. (It seems this person doesn't understand the difference between witchcraft and paganism. Common beginner mistake, but also, oof.) Said post wasn't encouraging any kind of appropriative behavior, but go off I guess, anon.

In any case, this kind of restaurant rhetoric isn't even good for safeguarding against cultural appropriation. It doesn't actually explain why cultural appropriation is a problem, and functionally just tells people to stay with what they they've been taught and don't question it. If anything, it reminds me of conservative Christian rhetoric telling people that they can't be Christian and pro-LGBTQ+ because "you can't pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow." (And I think we can all agree that we're better off when Christians decide to ignore this kind of sentiment.)

And speaking of conservative Christianity, people trying to get away from that kind of crap are generally not the kind of people who appreciate being stuck in shitty little boxes and being told they have to follow the rules Or Else. If you use this line on them, sooner or later they'll probably decide that this whole notion of cultural appropriation is a bunch of xenophobic, dogmatic crap, and they're not going to care anymore.

And if it does work on them? If they do internalize it? Congratulations, you've just taught them that policing people's practices for Not Being Pagan Enough is the way to go. This is how you get people harassing each other and putting each other down over total non-issues. It also means that they're less likely to think critically about their own beliefs and practices, and realize that maybe, just maybe, they're actually kinda shitty.

We should be able to explain to people that being mindful of cultural appropriation is about respecting other people's boundaries, access, and general welfare. We should be able to explain the actual harm that cultural appropriation does. Here are some examples:

The high demand for white sage among neopagans has contributed to overharvesting of white sage for commercial sale. This has resulted in ecological damage and made it more difficult for Natives to access the herb.

Ancient astronaut theorists twist and distort myths and traditions from numerous non-white cultures to make it seem as if they support a pseudohistorical narrative in which aliens supposedly built structures such as the Great Pyramids and Puma Punku. This narrative is linked with far right conspiracy theories in general. Those who speak out against the appropriation of their cultures' myths are regarded as unenlightened or agents of the conspiracy.

Commercializing aspects of marginalized culture to sell to the masses is essentially a form of exploitation; large companies benefit while they get nothing. Basically, if you wouldn't support intellectual property theft, you shouldn't support this kind of thing.

Said commercial products typically reinforce harmful stereotypes and misconceptions about said cultures.

In reality, there's no reason why people shouldn't pick and choose what they want provided they are minding boundaries. If somebody wants to worship Freya and Mercury and ignore other Norse and Roman gods, it literally hurts nobody.

There are many things that paganism is not. Paganism is not an unchanging monolith. Paganism is not decreed to us by an infallible authority. "Paganism" genuinely isn't even a very useful term to talk about Europe's rich tapestry of polytheistic beliefs with. But one thing that it is, is up to us, the living practitioners.

[report-rqs]

Step-by-step: Let's report a radqueer for racism

This is a tutorial on reporting. Don't find this user, don't contact them, don't harass them, etc - I am showing how you should report these posts instead. Content warnings: Radqueers, antiblackness, "reverse racism" type talk

Navigate to the racist post in question.

Click the meatball menu (the three dots in the corner).

Click "Report."

4. You'll be redirected to a new tab which will contain Tumblr's report menu. Select "Report something else".

5. You'll be shown a list of many options. Scroll down and select "Hate speech violation".

6. It will add the permalink of the post you're reporting. I typically also add other posts that are bigoted - I want Tumblr to understand that it's not a per-post issue and the entire blog should be terminated. Unfortunately, Tumblr limits report text to under 350 characters so this will limit what you can write. You can use Google Docs or this website to count the characters

Here's what I ended up sending for the post I reported while making this tutorial:

This user is racist and is arguing with other users about how White people are oppressed and also claims to be "transracial" (as in transitioning to another race). This blog is almost entirely about racist content - In another post they claim that people of color are actually a majority: sheyoves/737288677972131840 and in this post they say they're "transpanasian", as in they're a White person who is "transasian": sheyoves/737264717704347648/my-transids This is racist misinformation/propaganda.

6.5. Tumblr frequently glitches on the report page. Once you're finished filling out both text boxes I would really suggest copying and pasting what you wrote somewhere else. You could put it in a Google Doc, text document, a Discord DM to yourself, etc. If Tumblr glitches and just gives you a "We're sorry" message when reporting, reload the report page tab and paste what you wrote back in so you can try again to submit it.

Once your reply has been submitted, you'll see this message:

7. Block the OP of the post you're reporting, and every radqueer in the notes. Again, do not engage. Radqueers will use criticism as "proof" that "antis" are mean and harassing, no matter what place you come from when you message them. I can't say this enough: Do. Not. Engage. Report them.

8. To all people of color who may be reading, please make sure to step away from the computer and go do something that you enjoy now that you've reported a racist. Please prioritize self care and take care of yourself.

Related links:

Reporting a radqueer for inciting violence tutorial

Radqueers being racist tag

Why you shouldn't interact with radqueers and focus on reporting them instead

[notfreetoday]

On Returning Favors in Jun & Jun

First of all @plantsarepeopletoo and @twig-tea I'm really sorry I couldn't do this in a reblog to your original post - I think there were just too many gifs and tumblr wouldn't let me post it once I started adding links - so I reblogged a link to this post instead! Second of all - apologies for just randomly jumping in all of a sudden but I think a lot of things are being read through different cultural lenses here and I thought it'd be nice to exchange perspectives. Returning favors seems to be seen as an imposed burden in OP's post, something that is demanded of an individual as opposed to an individual expressing their desire to show appreciation. Also, some of the English subs are awkward, and whilst I certainly don't speak enough Korean to give a blow-by-blow translation - I've asked friends who do and done some research for myself.

Except, the comment about not letting Jun eat made me cautious. Telling him to eat, and not skip, like Jun was prone to skipping breakfast, but we saw he was already at the convince store. It's the start of the implied ineptitude of Jun.

Asking if someone has eaten, and reminding someone to eat, to most Asians, is more of a way to show concern for each other than it is an actual, functional question. Hyun Jae is simply expressing his care for Lee Jun, not actually implying that Lee Jun doesn't know how to take care of himself. As for the comment Lee Jun makes about "previously you wouldn't even let me drink a sip of water" - this has been mentioned in some of the show's already released BTS videos/interviews where they each introduce their characters but not in specifically in the show yet so [SPOILER IN YELLOW] this is a reference to Hyun Jae previously being Lee Jun's manager when he was an idol.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Jo Chan Hyun Hyun Jae is the one who made Jun think he NEEDED to return favors. He at least is using the idea of favors to get closer to Jun. But who demands, expects, or allows close friends/brothers to return favors for things like that? That's just a "thank you"

I don't really feel as if Hyun Jae is demanding anything in return - I think Lee Jun wants to do it of his own volition. As a junior in a workplace, having a senior give you little tips, even if it's just about the type of people at the office, is often appreciated. And whilst it is considered good manners to look for a way to "repay" or "give back" or "return the favor" as a way of showing gratitude and acknowledging their effort, it is not expected, and if a senior lorded a favor over a junior then that would be considered poor behavior (unfortunately toxic workplace environments and harassment in Korea is well known). But here all Hyun Jae has done thus far is to look out for Lee Jun and make sure he settles in well, and really all Lee Jun would need to do in return is to be respectful, listen closely and do his best in his job (not putting in effort would result in a loss of face for Hyun Jae). A step further would be to treat someone to a meal as thanks or bring back some local delicacies from your hometown or after coming back from a holiday (again, we Asians like food). However, the show has established that Lee Jun feels very strongly about returning favors so that someone's kindness isn't taken for granted - so he pays a lot more attention to these things than the average person. I do, however, agree that Hyun Jae pays special attention to Lee Jun because well, he likes him.

Lee Jun is ordering the coffees just fine, honestly. Then Hyun pulls this stunt and starts rattling off orders. To impress Jun? To make Jun feel off balance?

I think this may not have come across in the English subtitles - Lee Jun makes a small mistake when ordering the drinks - he says "two ice vanilla lattes, and 5 americanos...and..." - because he forgets to indicate that the americanos are iced as well, the lady at the cashier interrupts him to confirm "iced...right?" but turns towards Hyun Jae instead. Lee Jun follows up saying "oh yes 4 iced americanos and 1 hot, and one hot chocolate latte, and lemonade...". This is the part where Hyun Jae interrupts Lee Jun and rattles off the orders in verbal shorthand instead. I don't actually see this as Hyun Jae pulling a stunt but...as someone who has made similar coffee runs for my seniors before, I will say I was sufficiently impressed hahaha It's a more efficient way of ordering and well as a newbie who will likely be making many coffee runs in the future, it's good for Lee Jun to know that (it really is quite a stressful thing and it's not easy to learn the verbal shorthand yourself). It does also show that Hyun Jae takes care of his team, because he knows these orders by heart, which means he's going himself and not sending the youngest on the team to go. And it's also a nice way to fit in the 2nd reference to the spoiler up in yellow I mentioned earlier. The rest of the conversation in the coffee shop... I don't actually think Hyun Jae is being condescending at all. Admittedly, some of the phrasings sound awkward in English - "High maintenance" for eg is not the best translation and sounds rather insulting in English - that whole sentence is probably more like "you really are new (to this) aren't you! Or hmm... maybe it's just that you're a handful?". Incidentally this is the same phrase that Choi Jun will use to describe Lee Jun later too - and in both situations, Lee Jun protests that phrase. Here, when Lee Jun says he's better with the skills one needs to function in society (not just social skills), Hyun Jae offers the praise that Lee Jun has always done well in that aspect - hence Lee Jun's shy smile and "really?". Maybe the sentence after that, where Lee Jun says "I still have many areas I'm not good in right? For now, I'll have to trouble you to keep looking out for me, even if that might be annoying for you", sounds a little too deferential in English? It's actually a really common way to talk about yourself and ask for continued guidance when you're new - it's also implied that you will make mistakes because of how new you are, and you're asking for leniency when it does happen. There are many versions of this phrase in many different languages (mostly Confucian Heritage Cultures) but it is an explicit request (and in some places, is accompanied by a gift, if more formal). Hence in response to that request Hyun Jae asks "so how will you repay me? Don't tell me... you're just saying that (without really meaning it)?". It's at this point that Lee Jun switches from addressing Hyun Jae as Hyung to his work title, Team Leader, and asks "Is there anything you might like to eat?". Again, this is really common - treating someone to a meal as a way to express thanks (yes we really like food). Hyun Jae then suggests Lee Jun treats him to a meal with his first paycheck.

This is like reaching a milestone in life. It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but it's true. This isn't about owning anyone a favor, it's about expressing gratitude to someone who has gone out of their way to help you in your life, and it feels good to be able to do it. When I first started work, my seniors and superiors paid for my meals whenever we went to eat. No amount of protesting was going to stop that - because I was "young" and "still learning". I still remember how it felt when I finally moved up in rank and my senior actually allowed me to pay for myself (but not treat), and a few years later, my (much more senior) mentor finally accepted my formal request to bring her out for dinner - because that was an acknowledgement that I had "grown up". There's a reason why Lee Jun is so enthusiastic about using his first paycheck to treat Hyun Jae - it's a recognition of Lee Jun's ability and well, of becoming someone who can contribute to society.

About the chocolate milk - no that's just Hyun Jae chasing Lee Jun hahaha Now I'm sorry for replying to 2 blog posts in one reblog but...

did Hyun Jae not just agree when Lee Jun asked if the Director was nice in ep1 (instead he caveats "you could say that")?

Here Lee Jun actually asks "So (based on what you said) it seems like the Director is a good person?" to which Hyun Jae replies "Mmm... (seems like) a good person, right?". He's not really throwing shade here, he's just agreeing with Lee Jun (and asking for Lee Jun's confirmation - you can read more about the ~지(요) sentence ending here)

Did I imagine him holding his lanyard down so that he would not have to hold the coffee cup with two hands when handing it to Choi Jun?

This is also an acceptable way to hand something to someone actually (3rd point from the bottom)

About the direction Hyun Jae is facing when he drinks - no clue actually. I thought it was weird too.

Ok so ends my sharing! Sorry it got so long. If you're interested in more discussions about social hierarchy in Confucian Heritage Cultures, I've written a small section here when I talked about Win/Team from Between Us (Korea and the Thai-Chinese community are both considered CHCs and thus the concept of the senior/junior dynamic is similar)

[nightfall-1409]

There's a post i saw going around like "oh yeah ai can help give fic writers and fan artists ideas." it's called being creative and having ideas and thinking for your damn self. I am not linking that post because I don't want to harass the OP but jesusfucking christ on a bike. Without even touching the idea of it being plagiarism, which it is , openAI is being sued by the new york times for generating copyrighted articles literally word for word at times—

I will take a million insane ideas cooked up by earnest people enjoying themselves over any SEO generated piece of slop short cut to the end. "oh it'll give me titles or ideas!" Engage with poems or songs. Be true to your own experiences. Yeah some of those things might be cringey but it's fucking art. I don't want to know what a machine scrapped off the internet, I want to know the person on the other side of the screen. We do not hide our hearts in these things.

Never mind the biases implicit in things like generating lists of items that include fucking names or experiences. AI is always going to experience bias, and enhance them. That is what the machine does, it detects patterns and recreates them.

I don't want to see what a machine thinks about mourning or loss or war. That will never be as interesting or engaging or true to yourself as just coming up with an idea and baring yourself for your fellow fans to see.

Then there's the fucking horror of asking it to tell you factual information. Generative AI cannot reliably do that and you should not believe it can do that. AI Hallucinates, it doesn't know what a fact is, it knows what facts look like and recreates them. This is a very well known problem. Do not ask it questions to get real and reliable information, it may produce that incidentally but you are opening yourself up to a huge fucking problem which is "I am very likely actively contributing to misinformation."

and how'd the ai know about those things in the first place. tell me. how did the machine find out about things like tropes in star wars fan fiction. Tell Me. Tell me 100% with a straight face that the machine happened to know those things completely ethically and not without scraping the hard work of other people.

The post in question ends with a "Oh AI may steal work from artists and authors," And no, that's not actually my core issue with it and it never will be, labor is stolen under capitalism all the time and there are already ways of cutting out artists and authors from their labor without computer generated slop. That's the world of business and I have my issues there. My issue with it in fan spaces is that I don't read or write fan fiction or look at or make art to engage with machines. I do it to engage with you, the person reading this. To say I'm not alone and neither are you, I am here and I see you.

To offload that effort, those emotions to machines? What a way of saying that you don't care about this, and if you don't care, why should anyone else care about it either?

[anendoandfriendo]

Hey sorry I was trying to dm you but we aren't mutuals 😭 please don't publish this but https://www.tumblr.com/anendoandfriendo/739226231286939648 the person who coined this is anti endo. They even have endo dni

No, actually, we will publish it. It's a good example of how to investigate basic callouts to see if what people say is true. :) //not mad but...please understand why saying "do not publish this" is incredibly suspicious to us.

We're not sure what you're seeing exactly because we don't see that at all, unless we literally missed something? This is a screenshot of the DNI we're seeing from the link itself on that post:

We reblogged the genderfail post off of a friend who's also pro-endogenic and, like, it's exhausting vetting every single blog over a post.

Now, what we did was go to OP's blog from that gender coining because, welp, some people are slick and try to use the foot in the door method to buy people into hatred you know? By pretending to be inclusionists like the above and then it's completely different.

Their rentry URLs are entirely different than the rentry on the genderfail link. HOWEVER, endogenic systems aren't even in their DNI on their actual DNI, it literally looks like this as of this ask:

Now, like, we have issues with "basic criteria" being in a DNI because to us "do not harass people over their taste in fiction" is basic DNI for example, but to antishippers this obviously isn't the case. -_-'

That aside, that link under basic criteria actually leads back to that DNI list in the genderfail post.

We're actively working on getting web archives of these links in case they change. Asks are no longer acting weird and not allowing edits, but we do work in about ten minutes as of this edit of our own answer.

We don't know what is going on here but: if it's all cycling back to the same thing and we don't see "endos dni" anywhere we look, then it seems rather misinformed for you to send this ask.

Unless you happened to share the wrong link. Which is also possible.

But callouts to us, in general, are highly suspicious and this would be why.

Post will be edited as/if we come across information so people can see how it evolves.

MAJOR EDIT 1.0

Something that people generally do not realize about us, is, we prefer to do any kind of analytical work or any kind of...investigation? on a laptop. Now, here is the problem with that as explained by one of our headmates —

However we were talking to a mutual @tulpafcker who has typed things in our replies that indicate the blog in question was likely not shadowbanned so we put a search into the bar #endogenic and #endo, the latter of which turns up this post. The read more does, in fact, have the ableist, bigoted, and decidedly hypocritical "dni endos and supporters" on it.

But that's not for OP that's for an entirely different blog. That said, the implicit "no exclusionism or ableism except THIS exclusionism and ableism, this one is fine I promise you okay??? :)))))" is really bad.

Since OP of the genderfail post thinks they are slick we will probably be deleting the reblog (but not before also grabbing a screenshot and archive of our own blog for posterity). The post in question in image form, edited with the water filter for easier distinction:

We're still working on the archive pages unfortunately, we may need to wait until our EOS for the majority of them, but we'll try in and off.

EDIT 2.0: Managed to add all web archive links from what we can tell.

[vergess]

Again, I agree with you the two are not equivalent. On most things actually, that it's awful to compare them. And I think OP does too. I just think OP didn't meant it like you understood, tho you convinced me she could have phrased it better. I always get stressed about peoples words getting taken as more cruel and vile than intended because that happen to me due to my autism, I guess I got a bit emotional about this, sorry... Also, the cult links lead to a discussion on AO3, is that intended?

So, okay, I'm going to try to approach this more calmly, since you're clearly being genuine here. OP probably didn't intend to equate those two things, but, nevertheless, that is what the post does. Intent does not erase effect.

I agree that OP almost certainly did not mean to say that sexually harassing trans kids is the same thing as asking an artist a question about a comic they wrote decades ago.

Unfortunately, that is nonetheless what happened in the post.

Perhaps it was carelessness, perhaps it was accidental, the list of possible explanations is infinite. But the simple fact is, the equivalence was drawn.

Whether intentionally or not, that post takes a perfectly innocuous question about a comic book, and turns it into talking about sexually abusing children, with no cause and no warning.

Even in the post possible scenario, it's wildly inappropriate.

It's also a very common false equivalence specifically used by a politically active cult with a death toll. A cult which specifically uses discussions of fandom to recruit children who they then exploit, harass, and indoctrinate. A cult which also targets children and adults from marginalized groups (disproportionately queer people and Asian people) for harassment and violence.

It's a false equivalence that people need to stop making for multiple reasons, including harm done to survivors of childhood sexual abuse, harm done by a cult that uses the prevalence of this false equivalence to extend their reach, and which sets back efforts to make people actually take seriously violence done to kids.

There are going to be people who see that and tune out actual cases of real sexual harassment of children because they've been taught that when we say "sexual harassment of trans kids," we mean shit like asking a grown ass cisgender woman about a comic book she wrote decades ago.

And that's not a slippery slope thing. That's a real phenomenon already happening.

It was almost certainly unintentional on the part of the OP.

It's still a reprehensible thing to do, and people in general (not just OP) need to be aware of how common it is, and fucking. Stop. Doing it.

WRT the Ao3 post: I have had OP blocked for a while now, so it seemed rude and inappropriate to go digging through that blog for ~evidence~ when the simple fact is, I'm not actually talking to her, and I don't want to make the discussion about her. I want to point out this pervasive behaviour that needs to stop. So, I grabbed the first post I found from her which discussed the anti-shipper cult, in this case, discussing their piss weird hatred of Ao3 existing. Very much the only point of that link is to provide evidence that she is at least broadly familiar with the cult, because she's mentioned them in the past.

[rpbetter]

Thanks for your thoughts. Nope, I don't have another problem with the psa. It's the subtle word choice pretty much, but nothing else. I don't mind if people use me as a meme farm, so when I see psas like that or comments like that, I get upset because I associate it with people who make other blanket assumptions about all rpers, I have it linked in my head with people going around saying "rp is a hobby not a jobby" and making other assumptions about how all rpers do their thing.

Thank you for answering those questions!

The assumptive quality of the RPC can seriously be annoying as hell, especially if you're in the minority on any particular issue. When that's the case, the PSAs are so rarely geared toward you and any issues you might be experiencing that it's legitimately upsetting. I absolutely feel you on that!

I mean, obviously. Obviously lol I do. It couldn't be much clearer that I have a serious issue with the constant bombardment of PSAs insisting that we normalize shitty behaviors that are the damn norm, that we're all just losers RPing on tumblr so no one should be anxious about anything ever (instead of, you know, maybe trying to legitimately boost people's confidence, radical thought), or that anything that isn't being hostile to oneself is being hostile to everyone else.

I think the issue is that, while there is obviously a majority set of takes/issues/experiences (though, those, too, absolutely can skew toward one's particular RP corner and style), there's no way to address every instance and variable of an issue. Particularly not when anything other one paragraph is too lengthy for a lot of people here to engage with in a meaningful way.

So, I know I have to frequently ask, "is this a legitimate or hostile sort of blank-statement, or is it just addressing the majority experience? If it's the latter, is it genuinely enough of a problem to address?"

Like, did they mean that this is an experience most RPers have, or did they mean this is the only experience/is the correct and only way to do things? And that's not always answerable, of course, but when I feel like it is, it's usually found on OP's blog and RPC itself.

If OP has expressed things that are not the majority experience, expressed that they do not agree with blanket-statements, and doesn't imply with every rule, PSA, point on the DNI, and so on that to approach and proceed with RP in a way they do not is to commit some manner of terrible IRL crime? It's almost certainly that they were just expressing a majority experience and nothing more.

And in this case, yeah, as I'm sure you've noticed from being on the opposite side of this, it is the majority experience. I don't recall ever seeing very many RPers who do not espouse having an issue with having their memes and aesthetics reblogged without some manner of (rules specified if they're not a dick) interaction/relationship with the other mun. (Such as "mutuals are okay to reblog" or "I expect reblog karma and practice it.")

I don't know if there has been an influx of newer RPers or those who have migrated from more relaxed areas of the RPC, but recently, there really has been an increase in at least my corners of muns being used as resource blogs when they do not wish to be. They've all expressed in their rules their particular boundaries for that, have made overall posts politely but firmly asking that people who do not write with them and haven't even read their rules not do this, and have gone directly to the worst offenders to ask them to stop. And it continues to happen. So, I imagine that is why you might be seeing an influx of PSAs about the matter in response.

For anyone watching this conversation that might not understand why some muns are so against this, some reasons are:

clogging up their notifications

the aesthetic was their picture, edit, quote, etc. and not meant to be shared off their blog/only by the partner(s) tagged in it

when you reblog from someone, their URL is obviously attached, spreading them to another dash full of people - they might like you, but not want some of your mutuals following to their blog

their muse doesn't get much interaction, but other muns keep reblogging memes/aesthetics from them when they won't write with them or send anything in

they feel used for the above reason or any variety of other reasons

I'm really sure you know that, Anon, but I think it's important that we all understand where we're coming from because there are so many different preferences and experiences. It's really not good enough to just feel like everyone can do whatever they want, so long as it isn't harassing anyone else/they're being respectful of others. Because can feel that way all we want to while still getting upset when we lack the understanding of preferences that are extremely different, or even in opposition to our own.

We can't effectively respect each other without that sort of understanding of even the things that annoy us, you know? So, I try to promote that understanding and explain things for people who might simply see this on their dash.

Like the "hobby not jobby" thing! I don't get that, I think it has some concerning IRL connotations people are not recognizing, and it's a great way to treat other muns like shit while justifying the behavior. It's in opposition to what I do not because it exists, but rather, because it is weaponized in order to excuse bad behavior and vilify muns who do not engage with the hobby in this way. It doesn't have to exist in hostile opposition to how I enjoy RP, the use of it has made it this way, is what I'm saying.

But I understand where it came from and what it means for the more rational, adult muns here who feel this way. To them, it's just that this is an ultra casual hobby. The way I engage with RP is like a full contact sport lol it requires a lot of effort and engagement, and the effort and engagement is fun. They way they engage with RP is an act of disengaging, it is more like what watching TV is for me - they're just here for some light, quick entertainment.

Understanding this difference is understanding that not everyone who feels so casually about RP is a jackass insisting that everyone else better feel the same way, that their way is the only correct and good way. I'm still not interested in writing with them, it's far too different for that to work out, but it allows for delineating who is enjoyable on my dash/OOC that is into casual RP and who needs to stay behind a block somewhere because they think anyone who has RP as a primary hobby is trying to ruin it for them somehow, attacking them by existing, and the following list of terrible things as a person.

I think that all problems in the RPC could be drastically mitigated by a combination of understanding and mutual respect. People who are alright with others treating them like a meme resource absolutely can and should interact with people who don't feel that way without a problem, for example - all that takes is being aware of your mutual's rules and respecting them.

Damn near 100% of the PSAs out there honestly should not ever have to exist, they come down to the same factors of just exercising some easy respect for each other.

Again, the trouble often comes in at those very differing factors we need to be mindful of. When we feel like the weird one out in the RPC constantly, whether something is actually othering us or not, it starts to feel like it is. We start finding reasons and evidence, and much of the time, at least among those whose first inclination isn't to label OP as various terrible shit as a person, that takes the form of "not everyone."

Well, of course, not everyone! But unfortunately, when we are of the minority opinion/experience, we sometimes have to just realize that very thing. It isn't personal, and that while someone has caused issues coming from this side with that difference, we are not for our mutuals, so this isn't about us. We're actually doing the thing the PSA is speaking of by not pushing our preferences on others. If that PSA is just speaking from a place of the majority experience and nothing more, we're just annoyed with it for that reason and nothing else when it comes right down to it. We're just kind of sick of being in the minority opinion on this issue, and now are geared to feel like we're being hounded by most PSAs.

It's not an easy thing to get over or work with, it's not even something that gets to be faultless, but it definitely makes the experience less irritating when we can get to a point of stepping back and analyzing the situation without those emotions intensely in play. Seriously, if I allowed the issues I have with most PSAs out there to be evident by reblogging them with refutations or anger? That's all I'd spend my time doing, that'd be my hobby and not actual RP...and I'd absolutely be the most hated and blocked mun on tumblr in short order no matter how valid my points were. (And, I think, with good reason, I really do not support reblogging that sort of thing with negative commentary.)

What helps? Make your own positive PSA about your experience! Make one of those "reblog if" posts, I have never seen one that says "reblog if...you are alright with your mutuals reblogging memes and aesthetics from you without reblog karma."

I'm being dead serious, I encourage you to do that! It's great when you're of the minority opinion and do something like that because you can literally see not only that you're not alone at all but also that it's made other people feel seen. If you do that, let me know, I'll reblog it, even.

[captainshadowgirllostfan]

You literally do not understand what accusations are do you?

You admit that there was no proof, and yet you still post them? Why? For what reason?

Don't act dumb about what anon. We are literally reblogging from the same post, and the pushback was the question of where the first anon who claimed there was racism in the Sasuke fandom is coming from.

I guess your only pathway here is to act dumb isn't it.

If one had a bad experience and are asked to clarify but then act victim about being questioned...that calls into question whether that bad experience was true or not or if the falsehoods created was to paint a certain fandom in a bad light.

You literally posted that you're cutting off this post because it's getting heated and a lot of your posted replies is from the anon that claims there's racism in the Sasuke fandom and the Sasuke fandom, or a portion of it, paints Killer B with the stereotype of an angry black man.

So if you're doing that, then your claim of posting all of the posts you get is a lie and it can clearly be seen whose side is more prevalent. The one being accused which is those within the Sasuke fandom, barring that one post of Killer B being a war criminal, is not even shown

And you claim those are the only posts you got yet you cut it off because it got heated?

There are those who also have come out and said they've sent you opinions related to this that you haven't posted.

So I can know if I got it through word of mouth and frankly I'm inclined to believe them over you because of the majority of anti Sasuke fandom posts you've put and the majority of people who were frankly pissed. You literally have a reply on this post questioning where Anon found this. There's a poll going on related to this post. I have no reason to believe you.

There were those who questioned, and the anon rant you posted without any sort of evidence was gaslighting any question to their claim. Calling Killer B a war criminal is not anti-black or racist. A majority of the Naruto characters are war criminals anyway.

What do you know? You just posted the posts in the reply to me.

See that's why there were those out there. That one person, who claimed you weren't posting any pushback against that anon because you cut-off replies. As long as you have that one person and a majority of posts maligning an entire community with a lack of defense "opinions" then it calls you into questions.

What's more from the get go, you should understand what is opinion and what is accusation. If in general, there are a lot of blogs and people claiming a certain thing, then okay this is a general opinion regardless of whether it's true or not

If this was commonly, anon could provide a list of links showcasing what they are saying. But they don't. They double down on victimizing themselves and claiming they are being gaslighted when, in reality, they are gaslighting others from questioning them, especially when they post such a barefaced accusation.

There's also someone who posts hate against the Sasuke fandom often that tends to reblog from you

You claim you don't get submissions frome Sasuke fans but when you have these people attracted to you, you wonder why

This post has been deleted, but they constantly post maligning content against Uchiha fans and characters. They also harass a friend of mine often, mislabeled their gender which showcases transphobic bias based on language, as if women themselves are somehow incapable of showcasing what is stereotypically male behavior and can't be aggressive time to time, especially in the face of abuse.

If you think the post you chose to not share until now has no base. You are sincere wrong. You have only to look up dinainparadise to know. Or witness blogs such as this. It could be one person, it could be many.

And you can be free to hate Sasuke

But the moment you go after people is where you cross the line

And that is exactly the kind of behavior you are endorsing OP. Don't act ignorant. If you need to change your blog, change it but don't call yourself a general Naruto opinions blog when opinions seem to cater certain groups over others. As if someone from the Sasuke fandom isn't right to be outraged when their character is maligned.

Also, understand the difference between accusations and opinions because what you post can also be called libel. And generally, that's grounds for lawsuit and should be put down, but Tumblr sucks at creating a safe space.

[ladyluscinia]

Ok, several helpful people in my replies and one very helpful link later, I at least know what people were talking about.

For anyone else confused, curious, and too checked out of Twitter (or just bored of fandom drama) to look into it...

Here's the tweet at the center of it all:

The opening definitely has all the pieces needed to make a bad first impression: "The Rat Man", "everyone loves to hate him", "want him to suffer horribly", cutting off just after the "racism, colonialism, classism" but before actually saying what the essay is about (thankfully not any of that). Let's sum it up with I'm not surprised that fans saw this tweet and were immediately under the impression that their fanzine was going to have an Izzy discourse essay in it breaking down how he sucks.

People are not exactly known for going to check the full article before responding to the headline and excerpt, especially when you only (maybe, if it had shipped) had the full thing to consult if you paid for it. This apparently went over predictably poorly as soon as people started asking questions.

The essay itself is here (also viewable in this (more Izzy critical) post which has a link to the original tweet as well):

EDIT: apparently the op of that post decided that two Izzy fans defending the essay and saying both sides needed to calm down was unacceptable and turned off reblogs, so glad I put a copy here too

I think it's fairly shallow and makes a number of interpretive assumptions that it doesn't acknowledge or defend, but both of these things are more artifacts of brevity than anything else. For a meta arguing Izzy's role and POV across the entirety of Season 1 it's only 11 paragraphs long (not counting intro lines or odd formatting breaks), while my meta probably most comparable in scope is my main Edward one at closer to 40 paragraphs + 5 direct quotes, and that one still doesn't fully back up its points because it leans on another 14 (?) linked posts in the body of the text.

I'm on the wordy side, but I feel like you could have covered just 1x10 in this word count and not hit everything, so not surprising that condensing to just broad strokes had people going "Wait where's the counterargument???" Like, the meta itself is not particularly hostile or offensive. Mildly annoying if you disagree with it, and with an intro / title that maybe should have been revisited, but not an act of staunch anti-Izzy warfare.

The core of the complaint from the Izzy side, btw, seems to just be that there wasn't any other argument. There wasn't any other meta submitted at all, actually, which does seem like an oversight on the mods' part. No other views on Izzy, and no risk whatsoever of someone having to read a show analysis they didn't like about Edward / Stede / Jim / etc. Everything else is just fun fanart or fanfic. Which still mostly seems like a "get a bit annoyed" problem and not a "how could you let them publish this and I would never have given you money if I knew" problem, but what is fandom without overblown situations?

On the anti Izzy side (which I'll admit I've seen very little of because of my Izzy liking crimes 😔) I've seen a few mentions of harassment of the mods and author because of this, which it is Twitter so I wouldn't doubt it. I do avoid the cesspool for a reason. There are a lot of replies just mentioning and / or being dramatic about their arguably legit annoyance, and in terms of numbers I don't exactly use Twitter but it doesn't look like the post was that big...

...so I'm feeling like the "oh look how many whiny Izzy fans it caused to have a meltdown" and the "huge unjustified backlash by Izzy stans" mentions are also being overblown. This seems like more of a "got annoyed with fans I don't like already" thing, too.

My final conclusion:

Twitter kind of sucks, a bunch of people got annoyed, the fanzine maybe should not have published just one meta in the first place, and they definitely should have realized that their tweet excerpt looked like the opening to 50% of the "Izzy is pure evil and fans who like him are suspicious as fuck" essays and changed it.

Also the meta itself is a pretty meh overview and not an anti Izzy manifesto, the idea that the author should have been censored because their meta counts as some kind of attack is absurd, and, again, Twitter sucks.

Has anyone actually broken down what all this "anti Izzy meta in a zine" drama was off Twitter? Or at least in one place that can be linked and viewed without a Twitter account?

I keep seeing references to it, but they are all so disparate that if I wasn't fairly confident there was only one recent zine drama...