#not surprised since it was a terf critical post

[untamedeventuality]

vent in tags

[codename-adler]

when you cannot handle class discussion;

a non-aftg post still addressed to the aftg fandom because i know the aftg fam got me.

CW below: Harry Potter and JKR.

TERFs et al. not welcomed, fuck off.

one of my uni classes this semester is called Children's Literature in English. i will abstain from relating my whole life background, but here is the issue: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is on the syllabus, due to be discussed for the next 2 weeks. other works on the program are: both Andersen's and Grimms' fairytales, Enid Blyton's The Twins at St. Clare's, The Catcher in the Rye, A Little Princess, Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese and Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls. (the latter is a whole other issue in itself that is not the point here)

the objective of the class is worded as followed by the professor in the syllabus:

This course will involve a critical study of children’s and young adult literature (in English) by analyzing historical and cultural connotations of childhood, adolescence, and related subjects. By analyzing a variety of texts students will explore several dimensions of children’s literature including children’s education, questions of race and identity, children’s understanding of abuse and trauma, young adult adventures and more. Literature in this course will range from the eighteenth-century concept of children’s texts, twentieth century popular school stories, as well as contemporary popular fiction including picture books and graphic novels. Students will be expected to critically engage with the texts and appreciate the sophisticated themes present in them. Children’s literature is often considered to be repositories of cultural values and deemed as agents of socialization—students will be encouraged to dissect these texts from their literary and political perspectives.

now. i've known about HP as assigned reading since the summer. initially i was very, thoroughly disappointed. and pissed. and helpless, because i did not know who the professor would be. therefore i had no clue as to how it would be handled, from what angle it would be approached. from the list of texts, i could assume a certain theme around school as a major setting for children's socialization and growth. fairytales is also always the starting point. but apart from that, no clue.

then the syllabus came, and it was grief all over again. because as you can see, nothing indicates that HP will be discussed with current events in mind. moreover, the thematic section under which it is to be read, in the syllabus, are: coming-of-age stories, adventure, YA fiction. so... nothing, you know. and so since August, i've been nursing this weird wound?

i'll admit, i was much, much, much more affected by the news than i ever thought i would. i haven't interacted with the texts and fandom for years. i actively avoid it. my ex-bestfriend who i've 'broken up' with in April was the only contact i had, because she is a die-hard fan that, although disagreeing with JKR, did not try to change the ways she engaged with the content. i rarely discussed HP with her, because i did not like it, and it was never as of major importance to me as it was to her; she has grown up with HP, whereas i only read the series around 14, never saw the movies in theatre, etc. that is not to say that i was not an ardent fan; i was immensely taken with the books, the world, that author herself. i was in awe of her genius. was.

all this to say, i have carefully curated what i'm exposed to and what i engage with. i've laid down pretty good boundaries. a little too good, perhaps, if my deep shock and perpetual grief are anything to go by. my surprise at my own feelings certainly does not help to lessen them and process them.

and now has come the time for discussion. i won't reread HP1, because i still have it pretty much memorized, and because i simply refuse to. i have so many other things to do and read and write for other classes and clubs, i cannot be arsed to give that book a single glance. but for the next 2 weeks, the next 6 hours of that class, everything will be HP and JKR. and i do not know how to handle it.

because. because the students of the class are, mostly, fans. still. and the professor too, i believe. i do not see a discussion on transphobia, homophobia, racism, antisemitism and misogyny in the cards. i'm really not getting the 'vibe' from the prof that there will be a portion reserved for those aspects. i hope i'm wrong. but i cannot prepare myself on hope.

just the discussion from some girls, during the break, about their favorite fanfics and eagerly and enthusiastically chatting about HP and the reboot and whatnot, i'm feeling awful. and, well, apart from me, these women are among the students that participate the most in discussion. (as it is, a discussion-/seminar- based course)

i understand, okay? i understand. that HP/JKR permanently changed the children's lit landscape and market. whether it was deserved/original or not, it remains that they have had a very important role in the history of kids' lit. it cannot be erased, though i wish it would. and that is, fine. nothing anyone can do about that. the mark (stain) is there to stay. i understand.

so i cannot change:

the syllabus

the professor

the students

history

i can only control the way i will handle this. i will try my very best not to engage in the discussion. though 15% of our final grade goes to participation, i have secured my full mark by now and know after HP i will pick up the work again. that is no concern to me. when i say try not to engage, i mean try not to waste energy and peace over whatever bs is bound to be said. i'm not afraid of outright far-right problematic 'opinions' or responding to them if be the case, but i doubt it will happen, which is a tiny bit of relief.

but i cannot skip those sessions. it remains that i must be present and actively listening. that is tiring and hurtful enough. and i do not know how to plan how to cope. i do have a dear friend i know i could talk to in person afterwards. and i have you guys.

so what i'm asking, after all this blah-blah, is advice, tips, ideas, to help me remain calm and well for the next 2 weeks suffering through the HP bs.

i sound dramatic af. i feel dramatic af. i don't understand why i am so affected. i don't even know for sure if the professor will skip over that crucial evil of JKR. i might be pleasantly surprised.

i'm happily open to provide any additional info if you have questions or need clarifications. i don't know how coherent i'm being. feeling real blurry rn.

yeah. that's all.

- Love, Adler xx

[the-harvest-system]

Hello! We're the Harvest system, welcome to our blog/public system journal! 

Our collective name is Harvey (very creative, we know /sarc) you can call us Nico too though! Please use he/they(plural) pronouns on us! 

Keep in mind, we're bodily a minor, and while we may make some dirty jokes, we do not want to have an nsft interaction/view nsft posts.  

Both our simply plural and pronouns.cc are a WIP however, they'll be linked as soon as we finish them. 

Autism, adhd and possibly social anxiety - so talking to/interacting with people is hard. 

We're a traumaendo/mixed origins system of around 100 (member list is unupdated) We form new headmates easily. Like, very easily. Fictive + nonhuman heavy. Disordered, probably DID.

We won't be sharing everything about our system, since we'd still like to keep some privacy for safety reasons. (You never know on the internet, it's even worse as a system)

ASK GAME ASK GAME ASK GAME

Collective interests include: hermitcraft, empires smp, life series, The magnus archives. That's it, yeah.

Most of us are dogkin/caninekin, almost all of us are non-human in some way, and we're collectively foxkin.

Follow our spotify for amazing music recs ;3

Spotify - LemonMuncher

Stances, DNI, tagging system, blinkies/userboxes and system members below the cut.

STANCES:

Pro endogenic (we're critical of the community but think that endogenics do exist)

Anti Radqueer

Anti TransID

Anti proship (we won't harrass people, we just find the whole proship thing very weird and uncomfortable personally)

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Pro good faith identities + we're mspec mono ourselves (pansexual gay)

DNI:

anti-endos

Proshippers/comshippers

Radqueers/TransID

MAPs, Zoophiles, etc.

Israel supporters

Singlets that can't be normal about systems 

Anti-alterhuman/nonhuman

TERFs

Transphobes, homophobes, racists, ableists etc. (Surprising there's any on this site but...)

TAGGING SYSTEM:

harvestposting - original posts

harvestinfodump - system infodump

harvesthottakes - opinions, mostly syscourse

*emoji* writing - the headmate that wrote the post

harvestfandoming - fandomposting

harvestsillies - stories from headspace + quotes

SYSTEM MEMBERS

note: updated barely at all, not all headmates are featured here, "neos" stands for neopronouns

🍁Maple/Harvest - they/fox/He, gatekeeper and the headspace personified

👁️Xel/Cyrus - they/neos/it/he, protector

🌞Grian/Sunny - he/sun/other neos

🌈Neon - they/neos/it

📼Tubbo/Tobias - he/neos, archival assistant

💥Inni/Tommy - he/him, adhd holder+social headmate

🪻Ranboo/Cranberry - he/they/neos/xe

🦷Lennox/Lynx - he/they/neos

🔑Karl/Grayan - he/him

🔪Wiktor - he/him

❄️Scott - he/aer/neos

🐟Jimmy - he/him, memory keeper

🏺Kaian/Joel - he/him

🫧Lizzie/Meri - she/sea/they/any

🌻Peril/Pearl - she/neos/they

🍄Shrub - any/all

💐Katherine - she/neos

🎆Gemini - she/they

🧨Fwhip - he/him

🌙Pearl - she/they, junior gatekeeper

🔦Grian/Elliot - he/they, archivist

🪦Cleo - she/they/it, protector

🌲Gem - she/neos/it

🐺Ren - he/paw/neos, caretaker

🌱Bdubs/Oakley - he/neos/it

🎙️Etho - he/neos, no role

📻Oscar/Scar - he/xe

🌿Jellie - she/xer, sassy shit of a cat (affectionate)

⚙️Mumbo - he/they/it/neos

🔥Tango - he/flame/it

🍃Joel - he/him

📟Doc - he/any

🧊Cub - he/ve/it

🪽Angel/Halo - they/he/she, comforter

🐅Cassian - they/he, protector

🌼Will/Finn - he/star/shark/bloom/⭐️/🦈/🌼

🥕Brownie/Arvey - social anxiety holder

🕯️Kit - he/they/it, traumaholder

⛓️ Icarus - he/it, comforter

📀Cyn - xe/they, mood booster

✨Milo - they/them, former host

🐾Alex - he/they/it

🦴Amaranthus - he/they, traumaholder

🪵 Cedar -they/them

✴️Felix - he/neos

🐾Alex - he/they/it, therian identity holder

🕓Bdubs - he/him, gatekeeper

🌸Lizzie - she/they

🎀Minx - he/she

🌊Raffy - he/it, animal headmate

🫚Ginger - he/him, animal headmate

🥀Valerie - she/her, protector, caretaker

🕊️Ophelia - she/her, caretaker

🎸Xavier - he/him

🦝Bastian - he/it

🦅Phenic - mirror pronouns, protector

🧸Scout - he/paw/it?

🐕Cody - he/him

🦊Fern - they/them

🍄Faye - they/them

🃏Finley - xe/ve/fizz

💻Alistair - they/them, social protector

🪶Grian - he/him, architect

🌳Scar - he/him

   + Jellie - she/her, non-fronting

♦️Max - he/him

🧪Zedaph - they/he

🌷Stress/Sylvie - she/her

👾Xisuma - they/he

🪓Fallon/Faolan - they/she/he

🧳Antique - they/them

☁️Ghost - she/hxr

+Two littles we'd rather keep private

[good-sapphicrwbyaus]

I usually write these kind of posts on my personal R/WBY account, but considering the topic I’m about to discuss it makes more sense if I do it here. Trigger warnings for transph*bia, TERF rhetoric and the s3xualization of minors underneath the cut.

So for those that don’t know, a well-known creator within the F/DMN known as y8ay8a has been shown to support TERF ideology via her Twitter follows & likes and she follows the Twitter account of “Gays Against Groomers” scumbags who spew a bunch of hateful/harmful rhetoric against the trans community.

I’m not going to bother arguing why this is obviously a bunch of bullshit to be subscribing to, especially since it seems y8ay8a’s been doubling down {at least on Twitter}. She’s “addressed” things on her Tumblr blog and I use that loosely because she didn’t actually address anything at all. So let me make it perfectly clear to y8ay8a, her fans and the rest of the F/NDM…

Regardless of what she says, she is transphobic, she doesn’t support the trans community and she is a TERF.

One cannot say that they support trans people {or as she put it “adults” I see what you’re trying to imply there, you piece of shit} and then subscribe to TERF ideology/anti-trans rhetoric. It doesn’t matter if you say that you follow trans creators, you don’t actually support them and you’re using them as a shield.

Y8ay8a, there are legit reasons why people are upset with you right now, people aren’t “bullying you” they’re literally getting after you because of the hateful beliefs that you seem to support. If you decide to keep ignoring the justified criticism that’s being thrown your way, then the only one to blame for your “cancellation” within the F/NDM is you.

Also I find it incredibly “hilarious” that you say that “there isn’t much drama to feed from my accounts tbh” when there’s actually a couple of things that you can also be criticized on… like how you’ve drawn multiple NSFW images of R/uby, most of which involve her being paired with adult characters such as H/arriet. It doesn’t matter if she’s a “fictional character”, she’s still a god damn minor you fucking freak… I thought that you & the bigoted groups/people you follow cared about the safety of children? How can you care about the safety of minors, when you’ve drawn NSFW artwork that involves a fictional character who’s underage? You do realize that you’re only giving the impression that it’s okay for others to sexualize minors whether they’re fictional or not, right? Gotta love the blatant hypocrisy of it all…

There’s also you shipping I/Ilia x S/ienna and drawing NSFW content involving the ship. The age gap between them is large and there’s a power imbalance because S/ienna was the leader of the WF {I/lia’s boss}. I’ve also seen that you’ve drawn NSFW content of N/ora x E/lm {large age gap} and S/alem x E/merald {do I even need to explain why this is fucked up}amongst other things.

I don’t want to hear the pathetic excuse of “but some of those were commissions”… you had the ability to say no and yet you still decided to take the money and do those art pieces anyways, there’s no fucking excuse.

For those looking for evidence, I obviously cannot show the images here. However, if you send me a DM I’ll let you know what her NSFW Twitter name is… just don’t be surprised if they delete the account for damage control. I’m not sharing the account name publicly, since I don’t want minors accessing it and viewing that filth {DON’T DM ME IF YOU’RE A MINOR}.

If anyone who follows me still follows/supports this creator, unfollow me immediately. This blog is a safe space for everyone who identifies under the trans umbrella, TERFS aren’t welcomed here. I myself am Bigender and simultaneously identify as a woman & non-binary {she/they}, so this topic is important to me.

As an LGBTQ+ space within the F/NDM, as someone who identifies under the trans umbrella and as someone who has many trans friends/loved ones, I felt that I needed to speak up about this. We don’t need people like y8ay8a within this community, especially if they refuse to acknowledge that they support incredibly harmful ideology/groups. If anyone claims that I’m being a “big, mean bully”, this is a grown-ass woman {if this isn’t how she identifies please let me know} who’s rightfully being criticized/called out for her alleged bigoted views… all of you {including y8ay8a} need to grow the fuck up.

[genderisareligion]

“aun cuando en este momento existen suficientes datos para saber que el sexo también es una construcción y que trasciende el binario macho-hembra”

even though at the moment there is enough data to know that sex is also a construct and that it transcends the male-female binary

A relatively well known feminist in my area, a professor who teaches feminist theory at one of our best universities, said this. This woman is very anti terf or whatever, but usually I hear this kind of argument from people with the most insane takes so I was surprised hearing it from her. She didn’t cite any of the “data” and I know this is a tired argument, but where did these people even get the idea that sex is a construct to begin with? Like what is the data? I want to see it, genuinely, I want to read where it says that sex is a construct that transcends the male-female binary and why that is so. Is it in reference to intersex conditions? Because people have recognized intersex conditions for a long time and nobody was saying that sex is a construct before. And in any case, if it is in reference to intersex conditions, wouldn’t a statement like that only apply to intersex people instead of it being a testament to the legitimacy of trans identity (which is how I’ve seen it most commonly used)? Or is it something else? I’m asking for real lol I don’t know much about the trans stuff and I want to know where they’re getting the information.

Also, completely unrelated, but I know you’ve said you’re Latina. Which country? Lmao I hope this does not come across as creepy, you do NOT have to answer me if you don’t want to lol. I just like to keep track of all the Latina women I follow.

Man I miss @not-your-intersex-pawn. Used to immediately refer people to/defer to her blog since it's always better to hear this directly from one of them. But you're onto something with "wouldn't a statement like that only apply to intersex people?" "TERFs conflate sex and gender they can't tell the difference sex and gender are different!" but constantly TRAs tell everyone of the likelihood of intersex conditions in the population to legitimize their likely non intersex related gender identity. Who's conflating what now? Lol. not-your-intersex-pawn and her orbiters constantly complain(ed) about and sometimes (even though they didn't deserve it) tried to politely explain to dyadic trans people why pretending intersexism has anything to do with you when it doesn't and LARPing as a community member because "I'Ve NeVeR hAd My ChRoMoSoMeS lOoKeD aT yOu NeVeR kNoW" is disrespectful.

Found this piece the day I found her blog many years ago. Glad Medium hasn't given it the axe yet

I also defer to some of the intersex organizations she recommended since despite what devout genderists would have you believe they're divided on what constitutes an intersex condition and their criticism of gender since minority groups are not monoliths.

Main thing I wanna impress after years of reading her blog is that some intersex people find it offensive for you to call them a "third" or "other" or "nonbinary" category and would like everyone to still refer to them as male or female with a sex specific intersex condition. I tag posts I find/have of hers now she may have mentioned it in there

"Sex is a social construct" lol when will any of these genderists actually tell me who managed to invent that? Seriously. What white colonizer somewhere managed to change the construction of virtually every single member of the species across the globe so that 99% of us are sexually dimorphic? Wild as fuck that this is being preached in academia.

As far as where they're getting their information, usually a game of social media telephone and only reading interpretations of the data that line up with their religious beliefs because "intersex people can be TERFs too!"

I'm Mexican 🇲🇽 But currently stuck in USAmerica lol. As I've mentioned my Spanish is garbage because I'm from like a "white washed" family (don't love that terminology but like we were Bush conservatives and lived in a mostly white community). When my Spanish is better I plan on crossing "the border" (the one they stole lol)

[backtothebog]

are you a) trying to suggest I said you are no longer young at 25 or are you b) claiming that 25 isn't young even though your source literally includes 18-25 as young adult? because if it was a) - was being sarcastic there, no need to hand me "receipts" because I (jokingly) called you ancient

also "young adult" doesn't necessarily have to equal "young person". (I would still say someone in their 20s is young, even if they passed on from "young adulthood" to "later adulthood" but that's a matter of personal definition)

I originally responded to you because in my og post I said "young people"

you said "im 25 and a student... guess im a child now"

and then I tried and obviously failed to answer that I DO think you're still young at 25 but I guess sarcasm doesn't translate well im written form

the point I was trying to make was that I haven't claimed that terfs specifically target children

I said young people are targeted. YOU (and many other terfs) twisted it into "urrrgurrr the TRAs say we convert children" which is a bit suspicious, given that it was the terfs that specifically threw in specifically kids/minors, not me

but nonetheless

yes, the post I took the screenshot from also specifically states "many users of all ages". I know. I read the post.

you literally included my tags, you already heard my opinion to this (see: "as if targeting people that are legal adults is better in any way"). How is it better that people of MANY ages (kids, young adults, middle aged people, the elderly, whoever) are targeted? how is it any better that trying to spread hate is age inclusive. and "many ages" literally, as stated above, can and does include children/young people. how is citing that a way to disprove "my" point (or whatever you twist into it) that terfs go after kids(/young people)?

and the terfs who came to my post usually were literal teenagers (often actual minors) or people in their early (ok in your case mid-) 20s. It was actual kids that came and criticized that I allegedly claimed terfs are child snatchers (and they didn't see the irony)

and I will be very surprised if you tell me you started to believe in this yesterday

how old were you when you got into it?

i now regret making the og post because I found out that EVEN the op I took the screenshot from was a minor after my post had already made some rounds (and that person has since changed usernames so I didn't delete) and I don't want to fight or target kids, no matter what they believe in

so no, it's not as clear as you claim it is. don't tell me that "student" is just meant to mean "person who likes to study"/"person who is open minded"/whatever without ANY connotation of age.

(also if we interpret student as kids or even as rather young people/adults, calling them "open minded" is obviously not wrong, but again suspicious. because not only are they often open to new information, they're also incredibly easy to influence, shape, manipulate... just leaving this here...)

yes, a student can be someone of any age. yes the post includes people of many ages. BUT aren't students predominantly young? BUT isn't child/teen/young adult/young person part of "people of many ages"?

and it was written by a kid

and the terfs that attacked me were mostly kids/very young

and this is was also supported by many ex-terfs/almost-terfs who responded to this post who literally reported what I assumed was happening

terfs really don’t even try to hide the fact that they actively seek out especially young people to convert them to their vile fascist views

[bondsmagii]

Hey read (some of) this blog post (long as hell), tries to pick it up where your old scp cult post left off: lackoflepers medium com/scp-is-not-a-cult-196e87ce6b11

(link)

this is insane. I've never written anything that's ever received a full response before, so that's exciting. what's even more exciting is that this piece does raise some really interesting questions, and is very well-written and thoughtful.

the strange thing is, I think we're both in agreement -- but I'm calling it a cult, and the author of this piece is calling it a "fledgling religion". I agree with this outlook, if I'm honest -- but at the same time I can't help but think that this has filled a hole in my cult theory, rather than poked a hole in it.

when I wrote the original cult post, the one thing I couldn't quite equate was the religion aspect. there was a lot of things to consider from that aspect, in terms of cults requiring a certain doctrine, rituals, etc, and while I was able to draw comparisons to the site culture and these things, it didn't quite fit. this article explains and illustrates exactly what all of these things are, and the sheer amount of similarities between the SCP wiki culture and religious fundamentalists. it's absolutely incredible, how it all still adds up.

however, some things are way off. I understand the author has a history with site and with staff, and they obviously understand that there's a complicated relationship between the two. the piece certainly tackles the question from an educated site-critical standpoint, but I can't help but notice some glaring omissions and in some places, assumptions which I feel are quite simply incorrect. under the cut we go, because this is long.

the author seems to be very ignorant of the site's cyclical patterns. one of their main arguments for the wiki's not being a cult is how people like Dr Gears and thedeadlymoose don't have more power over the masses, being such important figures. the problem with the wiki is that it is very cyclical, and big names of one era do not translate over to new eras. big names replace old ones, and the old ones either become fond grandparent figures (like Gears, who had the sense to take a step back before the tides changed against him) or they become irrelevant or reviled (like thedeadlymoose, or pixelatedharmony (Roget).) this means that if the former appeals to the group, they will get essentially a pat on the head and a gentle dismissal, or if the latter speak out they will be silenced, harassed, banned, etc. this is very cultlike behaviour -- if somebody goes against the grain, they become an immediate enemy of the people. the only way to survive fame on the wiki is to retire quietly, at your peak, and keep yourself to yourself.

going on from this, there are also different levels to how a staff member is seen. there have been eras of the site where the site admin might not be as impressive as one of the prolific writers, for example. who these days knows about The Administrator? it's all Dr Gears to them. different authors have different levels of unofficial authority, and the author of the piece doesn't seem to realise that it's a cult of personality as much as anything else. there are constant divisions among staff, even if they present a united front; frequently those not toeing the party line have been ostracised or purged, and this filters down to the average user. just because a person is on staff does not mean they immediately skyrocket to godhood, if we're using the religious metaphor. this is why it seems as though "staff" as a whole isn't uniformly worshipped -- they're not. there are complex currents of power at work here, and it's frustrating because at first glance it seems to invalidate the very real fact that a few site members have all the authority. the staff worship extends to staff members. those in lower tiers will act similarly to those in higher tiers as a new member would act towards all staff.

the author draws attention to thedeadlymoose's impressive efforts to bring the site forward from its 4chan beginnings and make it more inclusive to LGBT members -- something that has undoubtedly had an effect. however, the author does not mention that to date, the site's only successful splinter site (as in, a site that lasted more than a few weeks) is RPC, and while this website came about for multiple reasons, it's undeniable that one of these reasons was because of the fact that the wiki was openly supportive of LGBT people during Pride Month. it's also interesting to note that the author is also a member of the RPC site, so it's odd that this piece of the site's origins is not mentioned.

the acceptance of these pro-LGBT policies also seems to be less wide-spread than the author believes -- most people don't care, there does exist users who are homophobic or transphobic, and -- something I'm surprised wasn't mentioned at all in the piece -- when LGBT members of the site spoke up and said the new logo made them feel pandered to, and the resulting blowout made them feel targeted and unsafe, they were mass banned from the subreddit by a rogue moderator who, incensed by the fact his authority was so challenged, then ragequit and abused people on the threads for several hours. this is a typical staff response to discontent in the masses. so yes, thedeadlymoose did have some significant sway in the attitude changing somewhat, but it was not as widespread (nor as cared about) as the article's author seems to think.

now, I shall move on to specific quotations.

Furthermore, as a gaggle of creators, SCP should never feature the mass conformity of thought that defines a cult; theirs is an ecosystem that predicates itself upon creation, and obsessively on the new and original — that is to say, the different (but tempered).

while the author does elaborate on this idea of creativity and conformity, this is just wrong. again, I blame the author's ignorance in regards to the cyclical nature of the site -- which isn't the fault of the author, in my opinion. such cycles are slow, measuring out in years rather than months, which is insanely long for an internet community. in order to notice them, you would have to have been observing for some time -- which I have been. since I have been observing the site (which has been since its very creation -- I was on the 4chan thread in 2007 when 173 was created and I have seen the wiki from its infancy on EditThis over to wikidot) I have seen this happen countless times. a type of writing, be it style or genre, takes off. it could be LOLFoundation, grimdark, whatever -- it takes off, it runs the site for a year or so, and then it crashes and burns. when it takes off, there are rules for writing it that must be obeyed lest you be downvoted to oblivion. as the attitude turns against it, those who still write it are vilified and ostracised, and the new one takes over. there have been mass purges in the past, and there has always been, since the wiki's inception, conformity of thought. one of my oldest complaints about the wiki is that, for a site full of writers, they have no imagination and absolutely no desire to step out of the approved style.

To put it very broadly, things get accustomed to the status quo in a highly regulated environment, and get better at simply remaining and surviving in that.

this could be a decent rebuff to my previous point, but the fact is that while the SCP wiki harbours cultish behaviour, a vast majority of the users are casual readers who maybe write one or two articles. the stagnation is, at least partially, because of the fact that most users sign up, read some articles, think "cool, I have an idea for one!", write it -- and have it emulate the articles they've read, thus sounding similar in tone and content to the rest of the recent articles -- get a semi-decent response if lucky, and then move on after a few months or years.

the people who power the wiki, however -- who are prolific, who churn out insane amount of articles -- are suffering from what I outlined in my above point. a small percentage of the wiki dictates the direction it goes. it has always been like this -- and people who go against the grain that staff have employed, be it old user or new, will pay for it. this payment is often in downvotes, but occasionally comes in harassment, bans, or deletions, too.

Lastly a cult is really the most extreme version of a religion, it is a religion on steroids.

this is straight-up incorrect. cults began as religions gone hayware, yes, but the idea of a cult as a Jonestown-style compound in the middle of nowhere is outdated. cults are the most extreme version of an ideology -- be it religious, political, or otherwise. they are ideologies on steroids. thanks to the internet, they also no longer have to be in real life spaces. you can be in a social cult on Twitter or on Discord; you can be in a cult of ideology on an incel forum or in a social circle of TERF blogs. all of these things are cults. they have cult-like behaviour and thinking.

this is where the author proves my point beyond all doubt. the author says the following about the wiki's increasingly left-wing inclusive policies:

What was intended to be an executive extension in peace has, due to the force required to counteract the sheer hostility and persecution once leveled at this group at its peak, instead overshot its mark and has become a brutal bureaucratic sanctioning of political identity. (I can hear someone saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.)

the biggest shift in this cult-think, for me, was observed when the shift towards Terminally Online Woke Left attitudes began to be increasingly observed. I'm not talking about getting people to tone down the homophobia and whatnot. I'm talking about this culture of purity and suffering that the author outlines very well in the article; if you have read the article, I needn't go over it again. the wiki now holds a monopoly on suffering using the same kind of Oppression Olympics as other spaces devoted to purity culture -- and purity culture is a cult. this is straight-up fact at this point. it is my belief that staff identified the power available to them in a) targeting people from oppressed and vulnerable groups and giving them a so-called safe space and b) using their various oppressions to their advantage.

something that is prolific in purity culture circles is that somebody who is oppressed in any way cannot be held to blame for their actions. they cannot be a bad person. this is ideological armour, and staff wields it. they also use purity culture and apparently progressive ideology to shut down anyone who dissents, and to smear their name and have then ostracised as an enemy. why do they do this? liking the power and fame of their position is a big part of it, as the author outlined, but something major is missing.

throughout the entire article, the author does not once mention the detailed and extensive history of staff sexually abusing minors on the site.

this is well-documented by this point. staff has seen many predators in its ranks, including one of the most prolific site members of all time -- AdminBright, or The Duckman. staff has known about these staff members and has covered it up over years. I myself have heard testimony from countless victims, but whenever we raise enough of a stink, a staff member does an "internal investigation" and nothing comes of it. the fact that the cult-like behaviour of this website can be discussed without one of the cornerstones of cult activity -- using its members for financial or sexual gain -- is astounding to me.

to go on from this, there is also no mention of the SCP lawyer fund, which raised over $30,000 and then faced staff actively resisting transparency as to the case and the funds. financial manipulation is another major example of cult behaviour.

without acknowledging these two things, I do not think that a full argument against the idea of the SCP wiki as a cult can be possible.

the author raises a good point that illustrates both why staff acts the way it does, and why the users are so eager to imitate:

The answer is something that can turn someone into their nemesis; something that would make someone sell their soul for 1000 upvotes; that tragic commonality that binds all individuals who feel the need to write; the need to be received, but more, to be loved for it.

this is a big reason why staff clings to its power, and why people sell out their creativity, and why people emulate this behaviour, and why prolific authors burn out so fast. however, running through all of this at its core -- through the need to be received and loved -- is the power that comes with it. this is all about power.

to mention the specific example of LordStonefish, and his reaction when he found out that his interviewer was enemy of the people pixelatedharmony, now of "burning out, ragequitting the site, and going to talk shit on KiwiFarms" infamy:

[...] it was as if LSF was speaking to a leper, and that the ongoing participation in the salvation of public approval (not to mention site participation as well) was directly dependent upon LSF’s rebuke of pH as a demon who is only worthy of a terrible fate and, as we see in the screencaps, even death.

leaving my personal opinions on Harmony out of this, going from a perfectly civil interview to finding out that the interviewer was an enemy and not only dumping all of his private information to offset doxing, but also going into detail about some highly personal stuff for shock value... I don't think Harmony quite required that treatment. the fact is that, as the quote outlines above, the only way to ensure that he wouldn't be completely ostracised for fraternising with the enemy (KiwiFarms -- of which Harmony is apparently the ambassador) was to behave like a man shunning a sinner. Harmony has sinned -- she rejected the status quo, she defied the group and its authority, and LordStonefish, in order to remain safe from being tarred with the same brush -- has to react with suitable horror to her presence.

it should be noted here that while KiwiFarms has a reputation for being a hive of scum and villainy, its main reputation regarding the SCP Wiki has been for being the one place where complaints against the site are openly discussed, often by defected staff members such as pixelatedharmony and Cyantreuse, and perhaps most telling of all -- the place where a lot of accounts of sexual harassment and abuse have been filed. staff rails against it on the grounds of it being filled with people who use slurs and have questionable ideological beginnings (ironic, coming from a website which began on 4chan) -- but as a leftist myself with extensive knowledge of the wiki, I can confirm that no criticisms I've seen on there have been unfair or inaccurate, and in fact a lot of the evidence and testimony posted there is damning. it would be fair to not wish to associate with the site because of its content in other places, or even its past reputation, but the fact staff rail against it so hard when it's currently one of the only places (and certainly the only public place) where their deeds are on display? it's interesting.

of LordStonefish's reaction, the author says:

This is the behavior of a deeply religious figure.

it is. this is the reaction of a Mormon meeting an old friend who has left the church. this is the reaction of a Jehovah's Witness crossing the street to avoid a shunned neighbour. it is the behaviour, you could say, of a cult member.

in the conclusion, the author states:

And if anyone is to shoulder blame for the creation of this pathology and its complex, it are those true bigots of history and today, who don’t have the spiritual maturity to understand that someone’s sexual preference or identity shouldn’t be enough to categorically separate them from a definition of humanity; to beat, maim, and wish death upon them.

perhaps this might have been true, perhaps this might have drawn a thoughtful and damning line under the whole affair, if not for the fact that this behaviour has been occurring since long before the internet became known for its progressive and now increasingly often, ridiculous takes on inclusion and sensitivity. this kind of cultish groupthink has been ongoing since the wiki's very first inception. the cyclical worship of a group of staff members and other prolific writers (though the group are often one and the same) and their chosen theme or genre has occurred like clockwork since the late 00s. it has occurred when the website was still entrenched in its 4chan days and saying slurs was barely blinked at. it was still there back when staff was predominantly (or at least presumably) cis, white, and male. it was there when being gay was the butt of a joke and being trans was all but unthought of. it has always been there, and while the latest progressive policies and attitudes have had an effect on how the power is wielded, it has not changed the power itself. if the tides ever turn on the Terminally Online Woke ideology, staff will change with it and adapt their policies and ideologies to keep their power.

if anyone is to shoulder the blame for the creation of this pathology, it is the elitist attitude that has allowed a select few to be worshipped unquestionably. it is the power-hungry individuals who seek out fame and respect on a writing website and then use this fame and respect to treat others badly and their fear of a fall from grace to shelter others treating people worse. it is on the shoulders of the staff members who use their position to groom and sexually assault minors. it is on the shoulders of the staff members who keep it silent. as the severity of staff's secrets has increased, so has their attempts to silence dissent and reform at all costs.

the author agrees that this kind of religious think might lead to a cult in the future. the author says the cult will be a cult of vulnerability, but I disagree. I believe the cult is already there, and it is -- and always has been -- a cult of power.

[eastern-anarchist]

Some words about post-Soviet feminism

And on March 8, I would like to say about my problems with the word "feminism" in the post-Soviet space lately (this post isn’t about Western feminism!). Despite the fact that this was the first political movement that I became interested in, and that was in 2015. 6 years ago, post-Soviet feminism was a very fandom phenomenon, which was mainly concentrated in groups of various directions in social media. Sometimes it broke into the mainstream through liberal feminist magazines (like Wonderzine) and sporadic feminist initiatives. Now the section "Gender History" at conferences at the university is something commonplace. The fact that you are a supporter of feminism in the capital and large social centers does not surprise anyone. But here's the problem. In 2015, Wonderzine wasn't loved for its superficiality, and extremist currents like TERFs were very marginal associations. But in 2021, it seems to me that left-wing and intersectional feminism (as an ideology, and not in terms of the presence of its representatives) has disappeared somewhere, but the feminism of “strong women” / businesswoman / researchers with “successful success” on the one hand, and transphobia aka “gender criticism ”- on the other hand, expanding upward. When an female employer carefully chooses feminitives and talks about feminist optics, but prefers to pay her hired female workers either a penny or not a penny at all, then you understand that solidarity has turned in the wrong direction. And yes, of course, there are serious initiatives that hold marches and help victims of violence. Yes, they need help and support - including money. It just won't be a big secret that even they are mostly about women getting into relationships with men. Abortion and domestic violence are primarily about them, “corrective rape” of lesbians and violence between women - in the second or even third place ( I'm not even talking about covering less obvious problems). Since the political movement isn’t only about other people's interests, but also about my own, then I begin to get disappointed and understand those black activists who refused to associate themselves with feminism, because considered it too white and exclusive. Yet feminism is obviously diverse and has branches that are close to me and which I see as humanistic. Therefore, I don’t lose hope. Happy Women's Day!

[athena1138]

About Me/Tag List

I figured I’d go ahead and instead of just updating my tag list, I’d just create a full About Me because I don’t really have one. 

I’m absurdly shy, so instead of talking to other people like a proper member of society, I just go like/reblog every post someone shares until they either block me or they talk to me lol. (So, if I’m in your notes a lot, I greatly enjoy your presence and consider you a friend even if we’ve never said a word to each other.)  If you’re interested, my Ask box or my DMs are always open to people who wanna talk. I’m not a great conversationalist, so it’d be best if you just throw me into a topic instead of trying to make small talk.

My name’s Becca. I’m 25, live in the U.S., use she/her pronouns, and I’m queer. I would use a more specific label but frankly idfk what's going on anymore.

I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Mandarin Chinese, and I also speak nearly fluent Spanish and a bit of French. I’ve got 2 cats, Varric and Chowder.

Athena1138 is my name for just about everything--snap, insta, tiktok, twitch, steam, epic. I’m on both PlayStation and Xbox under Blackheart1138 because I was young and edgy. I’ve got an ao3 as PusillanimousBitch1138, and I’ve got other tumblr blogs, too. Pb1138 is my writing blog and Gossamer-Wings-and-Teeth1138 is my art blog. I have others but they’re not as active. 

I do not tolerate terfs or anything of the sort, nor homophobes, racists, sexists, nazis, white supremacists, Trump supporters, incels, MAPs/pedophiles, you get the point. If you’re into that kind of shit, you can go ahead and flush yourself down the toilet with the rest of it because I want nothing to do with you.

I stream at twitch on Mondays at about 5:30 EST, and I try to post YouTube videos of my streams on Sundays. Both names for that are athena1138 if you're ever interested.

My main fandoms seem to be Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Critical Role, Dimension 20, the Witcher, things of that nature. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, I ran out of steam lol. So this is my tag list if you want to blacklist something or whatever. The posts I tag the most consistently are posts that I make myself. 

shut up becca -- this tag goes with all original posts I make, no matter what they are. Sometimes I’ll forget, but I’m usually pretty good about adding at least this one. 

selfie / my face / me -- these are some of the tags I’ll use if I share a selfie. It doesn’t happen super often, but I usually do 2 or 3 at a time because I’m feeling myself. 

critical role spoilers / critrole spoilers / cr spoilers -- all 3 of these are the tags I’ll put on every post concerning the newest episode of Critical Role until a week after it airs. I.e., this week’s episode is 118. Every post concerning ep118 will be tagged with all 3 tags until the following Thursday. Unless I forget which happens, but usually only for a post or 2. This applies to all posts, even ones not made by me. If it’s a post that applies to more than just this one episode, I will also include the tags -- critical role / critrole / cr -- and I will also tag characters as needed. 

cat / cats / my cat / my son / my cats / my sons / my children -- these go with posts about my cats. Each cat has his own individual tag, either -- varric giovanni cathras / pippin armani took / riz chowder gukcat -- depending on which cat it is. 

It is important to note that I do not tag most posts which are reblogged. 99.5% of the time, I do a fast reblog. The other .5% is usually just me talking in the notes. I will sometimes tag things that I think might be triggers and will tag it like “ tw whateveritis “ but that’s for the really sensitive stuff. If I post a lot about something that you think I should tag, you can tell me, but I won’t promise to commit to tagging it. (Like, Cullen. I’ve been asked to tag posts about Cullen. Like no, dude, at that point you should just unfollow me because I post about him a lot.) I try to be considerate, but at the end of the day, this is my blog and I don’t have the spoons to try to conscientiously tag each and every one of the nearly-limit-reaching amount of posts I post every day. If you do have something you want me to tag, please send it to me in a DM rather than as an ask on anon. I tend to see anons asking me to do things like that as aggressive whether they intend to be or not, and will most likely just delete it, whereas with a DM I have a face to place it with and can check myself. 

personal -- posts where I talk about myself or my life or my family or my feelings. this one has been popping up a lot more lately. 

becca writes -- posts where I share my writing

becca draws -- posts about my drawings 

becca rambles -- posts where I’m just talking, probably about nothing super important 

becca rants -- rants. 

becca’s work -- posts about my job. Usually paired with the becca rants tag because my job is stressful 

becca’s family drama -- posts about shit going on in my shithole family. I’m white trash so there’s quite a bit of it. 

becca speaks -- kind of goes with becca rambles, but this one usually goes with asks, too. 

becca’s dreams -- my dreams. I have very detailed dreams that I usually remember, so the interesting ones get posted. 

my ocs -- my ocs. I’ve got like 54 of them by now. I don’t talk about them as much as I used to, but they’re still there. There are tags for groupings (like, wardens: missella/mireena/brilla/rastig , hawkes: belladonna/anna/nev/mariana ) but there’s too many to just tag them by name anymore. I’m also very tired and won’t write out every single grouping I have, especially since I’ll probably just churn a new one out and have to update it again. 

Which brings me to my final thing:  I’m a bitch, y’all. People are usually surprised. Most of the time, I don’t mean to be. I have a hard time reading social cues and more often than not, I don’t realize I’m being rude until way after the fact. It’s worse when I’m tired which is all the time nowadays. You’re free to call me on it if you care to. 

[gendercensus]

probablynotsamantha replied to this post to say:

I'm really not a fan of saying that terfs are allowed provided they're not being abusive or hurtful since their entire ideology is abusive and hurtful to the exact demographic this survey is targeted at, but I understand that this is your decision, I just wouldn't be surprised if once they figured out they could get away with it you'd end up with 8 gazillion adult human female responses

Believe me, I’ve thought about this issue extensively and I do share those concerns. I talk about it a bit in this post. In the end I concluded that:

Gender-critical women are going to be taking this survey whether I like it or not, there will always be malicious people who want to skew the results. Having a bit in the FAQ that addresses gender-critical women and explains that they can take part as long as they’re not abusive about it probably won’t change anything.

I agree that their attitude towards trans people is harmful, but I don’t think that their being able to participate in this survey (and, again, I can’t stop them) will amplify that harm.

Their participation won’t diminish the responses from people who aren’t gender-critical. One could simply automatically filter out responses that fit the gender-critical response profile (which is pretty easy to spot).

Ultimately, I don’t feel comfortable saying “anyone whose experience of their gender isn’t adequately described by the gender binary is invited to take part, except for this set of people.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, many gender-critical women’s accounts of their own gender and dysphoria are indistinguishable from a trans or nonbinary respondent’s accounts of their own experiences. Many gender-critical women have described themselves as genderless, talked about feeling like they don’t have a gender, and claimed they/them and it/it pronouns, for example.

This is very personal, of course, but I don’t want to alienate people who might find kindred spirits in the nonbinary community and find a little peace. I’ve had people reply to my explanation post to say that before they worked out they were nonbinary they moved in gender-critical circles and they’re glad I made the decision this way.

[bi-dazai]

a summary of the whole contrapoints thing from someone who has been spending most of her time on twitter and seen it first-hand throughout

(im using screenshots, some ive downloaded from trusted twitter mutuals and some ive made myself. since i have the shinigami eyes extension and many of my twitter mutuals dont, some scs will be inconsistent. i have checked each downloaded sced tweet to make sure theyre real.)

please dont try to start an argument on this post, im just summarising whats happened. ive already argued myself out over on my twitter and whatever point youre trying to make has literally already been said 20 times before.

Basically in late august/september natalie said some inflammatory shit about pronouns and nbs and “binary transes” which she’d said stuff along the lines of in the past. both nb and binary trans folks have criticised her lightly for this kind of attitude in the past as well. she has a pattern of behaviour (including being very...lenient towards terfs) but the stuff she was saying and the bad takes were tolerable, if incorrect and a little ignorant. what she said this time was basically “asking for pronouns in trans spaces is good i guess but it hurts passing/semi-passing transes like me” which is a take that makes no goddamn sense and is extremely ignorant towards both nb folks and trans folks who do not have the luxury of even trying to pass. she exaggerates the actual effect it has on her as well. basically the entire tweet reads really badly (the discussion was about asking for pronouns in trans spaces):

peter coffin made some batshit crazy takes (as usual) including inventing the term “enby cultural capital” which he refused to actually evaluate on past asking people to read a book (if you cant clarify your point on your own then you have an issue). he started tweeting like a madman and making it painfully clear how hard he will go to bats for natalie despite him being nb himself (many people joked/suspected  that its because he wants to fuck her, same with philosophytube, and honestly looking at how they see her that isnt hard to believe).

natalie went off twitter for a while, eventually leaving an apology that was actually alright and made me and several others believe she would return a little more understanding of trans intra-community issues, especially in terms of class because she has always had an issue with ignorance from that angle. she said she had a friend called gwen taking over (nobody knows who this is nor had they ever heard of this friend, leaving some people suspicious that she may have made her up. im not going to confirm or deny this because i have no clue.)

idk what peter coffin was up to because at this point i and most ppl had officially stopped listening to him but i believe he was angrily tweeting about cancel culture. a lot of people were as well, even though the bulk of the criticisms of natalie had been written and expressed in a mature, appropriate way. some of my twitter mutuals who had been involved in discussing natalie’s past trends with these issues as well as her lack of class consciousness and (probably) accidental antisemitism began to get messages from what was very clearly alt-right trolls trying to doxx natalie. it was real information, which is extremely concerning, but no person published it and her criticisers that got those dms were vocal about not bullying or doxxing natalie. natalie wasn’t pushed away because of “cancel culture”, and “cancel culture” really isnt a real thing and many contra fans believed this too until she came under criticism, which highlights a pretty weird mentality but whatever.

anyway, she came back this week with a new video titled “opulence” which i dont care for watching so i just read about it from my twitter mutuals who did. since i didnt watch it ill only summarise its criticisms very basically. 

to put it simply the main criticisms of the video were that she conflated trans aesthetic with literal opulence and class again, which people weren’t a fan of. she talked about her experience over the last few weeks, spinning it her way because how else would she spin it, thats to be expected. it was mostly just the usual contra, flawed takes and a bit of class ignorance...except for one blaring massive issue which is absolutely undeniable proof for where she’s heading with her politics and her content.

on that video, natalie invited infamous transmed, the guy who outed lana wachowski for money, buck angel, to collab with her. this guy is infamous in the trans community for being a cis bootlicking bigot. he makes kalvin garrah look like a lovely guy. he’s been around for a very long time and he’s very famous for being a massive asshole. heres just a taste of the kind of attitude he carries:

contra has previously spoken up about why you shouldn’t platform bigots. so her platforming a bigot has some very very obvious implications.

needless to say, people were and are pretty mad and very disappointed. a large majority of her fans have been against this.

 when oliver (philosophytube) promoted the video on his twitter many replies to his quote tweet were his fans begging him to be even mildly critical of contra. 

on contra’s subreddit (for clarification, natalie isnt a mod there and im not sure about how involved she is on the sub) there was even a thread created in which MANY of her fans on there expressed criticism of contra’s views. the mods then locked the post, deleted comments, and banned the use of the word “truscum” because it was offensive i guess? it was a move very close to “terf is a slur” territory

furthermore, some pretty infamous transphobes have been in support of her and buck angel in the past, including ian miles cheong which is...wow. some of these are scs from a twitter mutual, but the ones with red names are from me - i have the shinigami eyes extension, so basically any person with a red name is a known transphobe (im surprised buck isnt marked yet lol).

finally, ill put some threads here that give a pretty good analysis and view of the situation imo

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: September 2020

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of September 2020 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Remember how proven liar Boris Johnson said he had a world-beating oven-ready Britait deal, which was also the basis of his election slogan campaign of “Get Britait done” and the lack of support for the deal is the reason he sacked 21 of his own MPs?  Just asking, because he tore the whole thing up and said it was unworkable - which also led to Brandon Lewis saying in Parliament, so it is now forever enshrined in the Hansard, that De Pfeffel merely broke international law “in a very specific and limited way” - you know, sort of like how the Manson Family broke the law in a very specific and limited way

The bold vision of a new BBC shared by Tim Davie was revealed when he threatened comedy shows with the axe if they kept making jokes about Britait, the Tory Party or Donald Trump on his first day on the job, because as we all know the best form of comedy comes from punching down rather than up, which is why Little Britain definitely hasn’t aged appallingly

Master of decorum Donald Trump couldn’t even wait a few short hours after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death before he started rallying the foot soldiers about cramming somebody more fitting with what he wanted into the Supreme Court

Mayor of Amity Island governor of Florida Ron DeSantis continued his bid to be recognised for having the worst response to the Covid pandemic in the congress of having the worst possible response to the Covid pandemic by deciding that, actually, the state of Florida needs to lessen its Covid restrictions at a time when cases of Covid have begun to rise alarmingly in the state

It’s no surprise that proven liar Boris Johnson lied in Parliament by referring to Serco’s failing test & trace app as “NHS Test & Trace” - however the biggest issue is that the BBC had been using the exact same phrase for at least two weeks before that

Nobody was surprised to hear smirking cretin Priti Patel personally using the term “activist lawyers” that the Home Office (headed by P. Patel) had previously used to dehumanise and demean people upholding those pesky immigration laws that the Tory Party really don’t like getting in the way

Tax dodging orange goblin Donald Trump was asked a simple question: Do you think that white supremacists are a problem?  We are still waiting for an answer to that question...

Okay, so now the Conservative Party are cracking down on people breaking lockdown, with threats of a £10,000 fine - rather than circling the wagons around them and throwing out one cock and bull excuse after another like they did when Dominic Cummings broke lockdown to nip off to Durham after testing positive for Covid on what just so happened to be his wife’s birthday

You know that Matt Hancock is good at his job when, having been sent out in front of the cameras to defend The Tory Party appointing ex-Australian PM and all-around arsehole Tony Abbott as a trade advisor in spite his history of misogynistic, homophobic and “Let’s kill the elderly so we can survive Covid” comments the best he could do was say he was a good negotiator...which promptly led to all manner of comments about Harold Shipman being a good GP and Fred West laying one hell of a patio 

According to Jacob Rees Mogg the public having a legitimate complaint about it being damn near impossible to have a Covid test is nothing more than “endless carping” and not, say, legitimate criticism of a woefully underprepared government trying to coast by on the bare minimum who have the gall to try and blame the public for their long list of catestrophic fuckups

It was no surprise to hear proven liar Boris Johnson hand-wringing about “the freedom of the press” after Extinction Rebellion finally realised that being annoying idiots is far more likely to gain support if you’re being annoying idiots with a purpose - just as it was no surprise to hear that proven liar Boris Johnson had no opinion whatsoever of Tim Davie telling BBC newsreaders to fall in line with the corporation (read: Tory) line or they’d be sacked

Once again there was a chance for Keir Starmer to show that his talk of being “true Opposition” is more than a soundbite and, once again, he wimped out on it when ordering Labour MPs to abstain from voting on the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill for fear of being accused of being “anti-British” by voting for a bill created to stop prosecution of British troops for using torture instead of voting against it - and then sacking Nadia Whittome, Beth Winter, and Olivia Blake from their junior ministerial positions when they were three of the 18 Labour MPs who voted against it

It clearly never occurred to Marsha Blackburn when she was browbeating people about the Constitution of the US never being rewritten that the Constitution of the US has been rewritten several times already.  There’s a reason they’re called “Amendments” and not “Footnotes” you know...

Smirking cretin Priti Patel proudly stated that, if she saw her neighbours, she’d gladly call the police due to them breaking the law.  This was around 14 hours after she’d voted to break international law in the Commons, or a few short years after she broke ministerial code by nipping over to Israel to have undisclosed meetings with israeli officials, which begs the question about whether her neighbours are just as willing, doesn’t it?

Judging by Alan Sugar tweeting out conspiracy theories about Covid being created in a Wuhan lab, I think it's safe to say that no Apprentice game show host is capable of not acting like a complete arse on Twitter.  Luckily for the UK, Sugar isn’t Prime Minister - he’s merely a member of the House of Lords...

It’s been a while since WWE acted like totalitarian dicks to the wrestlers employed independently contracted to them but they managed to find one by telling every single one of their employees independent contractors that they could no longer use Twitch or Cameo as it was decided this was being “detrimental” to the company...you know, the bunch of carnies who sign billion dollar deals with our journalist-murdering, woman-oppressing, Yemeni-slaughtering, 9/11-planning “allies” Saudi Arabia, don’t have any for of healthcare for their employees independent contractors, continued a pay per view even though one of their employees independent contractors died due to a stunt going wrong that was linked to the company cheaping out on a safety harness, and apparently not knowing that the term “independent contractor” doesn’t mean the company can sign them to five year deals but sack them at any point - and then prevent them from working anywhere else for 90 days

We had confirmation of Alison Pearson possessing a terrifying combination of pig ignorance and outright sociopathy when she began a Telegraph article with the following: “My son has Covid-19.  Good.”

Sour grapes from Lisa Nandy over people forgetting she was in the Labour leadership race judging by how she apparently didn’t listen to a party pledge to tax corporations and instead spout off a bunch of nonsensical gibberish that sounded uncannily like Britain First rhetoric under the belief that sounding like Britain First is guaranteed to win back working class Northern voters

Litigious TERF JK Rowling revealed her latest book is about a man who murders people while dressed as a woman, which definitely hasn’t drawn any form of comment whatsoever...

You would like to believe that reports of Limestone Games not only effectively stealing the game Aeon Must Die! from the actual dev team who were forced out of the company by a culture of abuse and harassment by a shady cabal who took over the studio would have eld to the game’s release being postponed, especially after it emerged that assets used in the game’s trailer were infringing on various copyrights - but instead Focus Home Entertainment responded by twiddling their thumbs and doing nothing

I’m sure there’s no connection between Alan Sugar demanding people go back to work as if the number of Covid cases has been rising to an alarming degree and how Alan Sugar is bemoaning that his commercial property portfolio is not making him “enough” money due to people staying at home.  None whatsoever...

The fact that those moron parents in California started a wildfire after setting off fireworks for their baby’s gender reveal party that led to over 20,000 people having to evacuate their homes is dickheaded enough - but the fact that it’s not the first case of this happening, as a similar incident happened in Arizona back in 2018, makes them look even more dickheaded

If you want to say you put Britain before anything else, like Andrea Jenkyns did in her latest Twitter tsunami of childishness and spite, it doesn't look good when you say you're pro-Trump before pre-De Pfeffel as it defeats your own argument almost as fast as being Andrea Jenkyns - or, you know, failing to spell the word “British” correctly when accusing people of being anti-British

It would have been wise if West Ham announced that manager David Moyes and two players had tested positive for Covid before their match with Hull - not after the match had kicked off, leading to Moyes legging it out of the stadium

Whatever it is in the mind of DeAnna Lorraine that snapped and had her babbling insane nonsense that The Masked Singer is part of a covert plot to have people wearing masks probably can’t be repaired, and appears to have also caused her to accuse anyone who thinks she does sound insane of being acolytes of George Soros

Professional victim Laurence Fox somehow believed that posting a chat log of a conversation between himself and Rebecca Front and then howling about being “cancelled” - and then a few hours later had to very publicly backtrack, no doubt because his agent had several dozen words with him

I have no idea why David Cameron convinced himself that showing himself helping out in the Chipping Norton food bank was a good idea, considering he’s the reason why food banks exist in the first place

How nice of Manchester Metropolitan University to tell the students who were confined to accomodation so unable to go out and buy food, who were paying £9000 tuition fees for face-to-face tutoring that was done via Zoom that makes such good value of the hundreds of pounds of rent they have to pay per month when they could have had those same lectures from home, that they’re not allowed to protest about this situation and had to take any signs posted on their windows critical of the government down immediately

In normal circumstances Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden sneaking girls into the England team hotel would look pretty stupid, especially in Foden’s case considering the odds of his live-in girlfriend not finding out about this are practically nil, but during a global pandemic it looked so incredibly boneheaded it’s lucky they play for the Manchester clubs otherwise the front pages would be calling them ignorant traitors or some such bullshit

Nothing sums up Premier League referees quite like them clearly not understanding the current definition of the handball rule, but rather than actually look it up they make it up as they go alone leading to more penalties being awarded for handball in the first four rounds of Premier League fixtures than in entire seasons - not helped by Premier League referees also operating VAR, where they seem to have a policy of “If you ignore my cock up, I’ll ignore yours”

And finally, inventing yet another terror atrocity, is Donald Trump and his batshit insane proclamations about cans of soup being a much bigger threat to American lives than, say, and AR-15.  But then again, it’s not like his support base has a habit of throwing cans of soup at crowds of people

[blossoming-witness]

So the other day I finally went full TERF on my personal facebook and felt pretty good. 

Actually no, I didn’t go full TERF. 

I’ve always been super afraid of talking publicly about my opinion regarding queer theory / trans activism, but I always post about feminist activism. My page is mostly a blog for me to talk about abortion, femicide and discrimination, and I have a lot of followers there who care about my opinion on those subjects, but I always try to avoid queer topics. But I finally dared to talk about “inclusive language” (this topic is more prevalent in spanish since we have gendered adjectives) and was surprised to find a lot of my followers actually agreeing with me and that made me feel sooooooo good. I’m really happy to see more and more people being critical about queer theory, we need that so much...

[terfslying]

How TERFs treat people who have complaints / problems with the community

LesbiFairHere has recently made a public post about leaving radical feminism, discussing the reasons that she feels that her being young and vulnerable was part of why she joined radical feminism. You can read her post here if you’re interested. She contacted me when she was getting hateful responses, which seem to be continuing for the minute, and I wanted to do a post on the general situation.

As background, I just want to establish that LFH actually (as far as I can tell) was genuinely a TERF, despite some comments / reblogs trying to say that her blog is new and she was never a TERF. In fact, I found she posted in Dec last year that she was having problems with the radfem community, so she’d been having doubts for some time.

tl;dr - LFH’s blog shows months of TERF activity on the archives page. Other radfems also acknowledged she’s been around for a while.

Posts from LFH herself, just to give some examples of her previous interactions with the radfem community on tumblr:

Dec 2018: Was the OP for anti-Yaniv posts

Dec 2018: Reblogged user boxes like “This user is homosexual, not kweer” and “This user is a real girl”

Jan 2019: Reblogged ‘Drop the T’ post

Jan 2019: Reblogged ‘Master Post on what TIMs and TRAs say’

Feb 2019: Reblogs stuff likening SRS to genital mutilation and misgendering

A radfem discourser in response to a callout commented on the original post:

“I will say I find it odd that this info is out there about their behaviour but also that I remember her being a radfem for quite some time now? Maybe like a year or two around when anti-map discourse was a hot trend on here” - EdibleMeteor, here (edit: not a radfem that was my bad)

Option #1: Deny that they ever were a radfem in the first place or that they know anything about radfems

“You’re not leaving the ~*radfem community*~ because you were clearly never a part of it. You don’t even have a basic understanding of gender critical feminism, let alone have anything accurate or of value to say about it“ - tamaramaclaywasaterf, this post

“You are the shit that needs to go [...] she’s no lesbian & what she wants to change is being honest that she is a bihet. But she’s just yr sideblog sock puppet anyways fuck off forever” - td-rudefem4life, here

“Maybe come up with some actual critiques of radical feminism instead of pulling made up BS from your ass” - manic-pixie-dream-goblin, here

“everything you’ve spoken about in this post is blatantly untrue, and the fact that you posted any of this at all means that you didn’t read a word of what anyone said while you were with us. in fact, most of this is just flat-out projection. i’m sorry for you, and i hope someday you’ll really learn and understand radical feminism.” - a user whose name I will never be able to spell, here

Option #2: Just tell them that they’re an awful person and that they should die / get fucked / call them slurs, etc.

“You were obviously just trans all along simply pretending to be a radfem so you could make this little post. Let me tell you something - actual radical feminists would NEVER switch positions [...] and no feminist could ever be conservative. You are more conservative than any feminist woman, you vile piece of shit. Anyway, rot in hell, homophobe.” - Xxposinglesbophobes, here (note that LFH didn’t say she was a conservative)

“Please go get fucked by your trannydick cuck boys. I’m glad I’m [n]ot a worthless sack of shit :)” - Helladea, here

Option #3: Assume the blog (and any attention it might get) are made by your Enemies (TM) (bigots, trans people, men, libfems, mras, etc.)

“Typical lying snakes using straight up projecting to pain radfems as boogeyman made of straw” - in Happibeans’ callout post here, claiming that LFH is racist/violent in radfem chats. She states that the chats are the reason LFH chose to leave radical feminism. Which is kind of interesting since LFH left posted about having doubts over 5 months ago.

“This account is 100% a troll that pretended to be a lesbian 3 days ago and now is a traumatised bihet that wants dick” - td-rudefem4life, here

“tbh a lot of the most vehement, aggressive, unhinged “radfems” active in the community scream ~infiltrator~ to me. if more of them are exposed or expose themselves as libfems or mras posing as Crazy TERFS!! ™ itd be no big surprise either.”  - scenewannabe, here

“I’m beginning to think that OP was an infiltrator/troll to begin with” - Sundazesun, here

What does this show?

Ultimately, I do not know if LFH really did make racist comments or have other problems in the radfem community.

What I DO know, though, is that people have been falsely claiming she is a trans women, that she is bisexual, that her blog is new, that she said she wants dick, and that she never understood radical feminism in the first place, 100% based on her criticisms in the post about how she felt ‘lured into’ radical feminism in a vulnerable time in her life. And, possibly if the accusations are misleading/untrue, they could be just straight-up slandering her.

EVERY person in a community, no matter how noble their goal is supposed to be, should take very seriously complaints people have of being hurt by that community. If you don’t, and that person’s complaint IS real, then you’ve doubly victimised them and created a situation where someone else in the same vulnerable situation may be hurt after them. That goes for trans-inclusive people too (especially ya’ll who send anon hate, for srs).

[sorantia]

On the Criticism of Sinfest 6-2... Oh God it’s so cringeworthy.

Literally, cannot, even. Where do I even begin with this... lol. Notable points: *Johnbies with coloured hair: Basically.. millenial johnbies. *This... Gender Church symbol also being used as snowflakes. “Liberal snowflakes” *Dr Feelgood’s Miracle Gender Tonic (obviously representing the whole hormone replacement therapy) *Gender stereotyping portrayal: On the male side, we have a bomb, guns, and a skull, all above a brain, obviously representing the inherent violent behavior. Then on the female side... we have flowers, vines, heart, more flowers, stilettos, and lipsticks. *And they’re all men. Yikes. One thing that has yet to make an appearance, is a transgender johnbie (or janebie). Personally, I hope he doesn’t go down this route, but quite frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if he did, at this point. I did hoped that he wouldn’t tackle the whole transgender issue (since obviously another one of radfem’s primary beating topic) but he did. ... It is incredibly hard to believed that Sinfest went down this route. I was a fan of sinfest, but not anymore. I lost a lot of respect for Tats since he started the whole gender bashing. I was fine with johnbies, I was fine with tackling the swerf issues (because let’s be honest, there’s a lot or problem with sex working, but banning it all together and painting it as evil is not the way to go) , but UNLIKE Swerf... Terf is nothing but hate. Period. In pissworld news: People that criticizes Tats’s the Anti-trans direction of sinfest continue to be labeled as “trolls” by Celina (aka Z6IIAB), and suddenly stopped posting. I’m sure they’re not banned or anything.

[absynthe--minded]

Whatever text or media you were consuming, and you started making meta to point that out. And you were the person who started it. Suddenly one day one of these cishet men decides they don't agree with you, blocks you and starts making counter meta along the lines of "based off of my understanding of the text, there is no sexism or lesbaphobia." Like of course he wouldn't see it the same way you do but that doesnt mean he's right. He cannot experience what you as a lesbian woman can

So I think Tumblr ate the first part of your ask? I saw it, but I couldn’t answer it. I’m gonna respond as best I can though.

First, I hadn’t blocked her because of anything she said regarding race in Tolkien. I blocked her because she was making statements regarding the role of Nenya in the maintenance and preservation of Lothlórien that were contrary to written, Lord of the Rings-published canon. I do that with a lot of people, for various reasons that have nothing to do with my respect for the person. I respect her, and I’ve never attacked her. Honestly I probably should have just unfollowed. I’d forgotten that I’d blocked her, and forgotten entirely that she existed. I said as much in my note to her, which I’ll happily publish in its entirety if you or anyone else wants to see i.

I didn’t start this because of her. I’m rereading The Fall of Gondolin on my own, and independent discussion with a blogger who as far as I know doesn’t interact with her led to discussion of this theory as a part of greater fandom discussion. I’d stopped interacting with her before this became Her Thing, basically. She wasn’t even in my orbit until I started examining things. In fact, when I realized I had blocked her thanks to her post, I unblocked her.

Nowhere in my posts did I say I was interested in disproving her - like I said, I was barely aware she was still active. This wasn’t at all about shouting over her, or stating that she was wrong. I’m allowed, as an academic, to think that a conclusion is poorly supported and to try and verify it. Academia is, in my experience, built on defending ideas with analysis and research. I’m open to whatever conclusion I reach, and if that conclusion is “here are sources to back up her claim”, then great! I’m glad. I’ll have my answer, and when people try and disprove her I’ll be able to contribute sources. I’m trying to educate myself, and explore things on my own personal blog, not get into fights with people I haven’t thought about for a year and a half.

On to the second part of your ask. Let’s say that I became known in some circles of the Internet for arguing that a particular character in a fantasy novel is the Predatory Lesbian stereotype. People are allowed to disagree with me. I encourage that.

If a cishet man started saying “I don’t think this particular text written in another country in another era is exhibiting the Predatory Lesbian stereotype, because that stereotype didn’t exist in the cultural context the book was written in. I’m not denying the text was lesbophobic, but I don’t think that your lived experiences as a lesbian count in this particular situation, so I’m going to independently research and better understand this specific form of lesbophobia”? I’d be fine! Excited to see what he found, even! He’s right - my lived experience doesn’t count here! I’m not magically better at spotting all forms of lesbophobia, or sexism, or homophobia, or ableism, just because I’m an autistic lesbian. It’s not erasing me to say “I think you’re wrong.” That’s just the nature of the beast. Especially since he’s not saying the text isn’t lesbophobic, just that he disagrees with me on the nature of the lesbophobia.

If I bring my own interpretations to the text and I say things like “read through a modern lens, this character looks like a Predatory Lesbian” and my analysis is open and public? I want people to disagree. Bring sources, bring journal articles. Treat me like a colleague, which means “tear my work to shreds”. Criticism is part of the discussion.

Of course, it wasn’t ever about her. As I’ve said multiple times to many different people, I’d forgotten entirely about her, and I blocked her for reasons that had nothing to do with this. I said as much to her, and honestly I’m surprised she’s so angry when nothing I’ve said was meant to be secretive or anything less than public. I don’t delete posts unless I find out they were originated by TERFs or exclusionists or other bigots, there’s no secret lost evidence of my hatred for her.

I’m allowed to try and educate myself in a context apart from her discussion since it wasn’t her discussion I was responding to and as far as I know I’m taking the right route for someone who’s not on that particular axis of oppression. I’m willing to talk to her, and I’ve said as much, but she seems bent on misinterpreting what I say and taking my words out of context.