#puritanical

[jpceye]

The Facade of Iron Circus Comics and Spike Trotman

I feel like this needs to get some more traction on social media…

#comicsbrokeme trended recently, with comics creators and artists telling horror stories of extreme low wages, cruel bosses, and the constant struggle to make ends meet.

One company, and one person came up in an alarming amount of posts… Iron Circus Comics and its founder, Spike Trotman.

What Trotman has been accused of is not just run of the mill mismanagement or low wages, though they are infamous about underpaying and missing payment dates. They will actively and precisely bully, berate, and mentally destroy creators working under them. Trotman uses their clout as an internet famous comics publisher to keep people in line, and a recurring threat that if creators ever spoke out, Spike would sic their fans on them.

If you ever wondered why so many creators from Slipshine and Iron Circus up and vanished, THIS IS WHY. Several artists and creators have said that Spike Trotman sapped them of their desire to make comics.

This is downright sociopathic behavior to be sure. But then one starts digging into Spike Trotman’s past, and there’s a lot of skeletons in the closet. Squee Rat and Darth Versace were their previous handles on the internet. Squee Rat may sound familiar to people who have heard of the ‘Burned Furs’ movement.

Burned Furs was a puritanical, homophobic, transphobic offshoot of the furry fandom, founded by Spike Trotman, who also wrote the ‘Furry Manifesto’, which outlined their goals of getting rid of pornography, degeneracy, and expression of sexuality in the furry community. They distributed pamphlets at cons encouraging ‘degenerates’ to kill themselves.

A very inconvenient past to have when your brand is leftist and sex positive. Spike very much knows this, and they have tried to scrub all evidence of their past as Squee Rat from wikis and articles about Burned Furs.

Right now, Spike is hoping that this all dies down. In fact, they just had a big party for the success of the Lackadaisy cartoon pilot.

Especially ironic given that Spike once encouraged people to eat one meal a day to make ends meet in the comics industry.

What you can do is make sure this reaches the eyes and ears it needs. Find the dissenting voices against Spike and Iron Circus, and boost them as much as you can.

They shouldn’t be able to hide behind this facade and continue to hurt people.

[skepticalpigeon]

According to the National Library of Medicine, abortion was allowed until quickening (16-20 weeks) in early British colonies in North America. This means there are now around 20 states with abortion views more extreme than those of actual Puritans. Do with that what you will.

[nathaniel-history-and-stuff]

I had been wondering about why some people have such strong reactions to works of fiction that they find to be morally problematic. Apparently for some of us this makes works of fiction feel threatening or makes it impossible to engage with it.

Much arguing and confusion tends to ensue when on one extreme it is argued that any story where someone who does something bad isn't punished or killed by the end of the story makes the story and the author morally corrupt. On the other extreme are people who don't think any fiction can be criticized as immoral because it is fiction and not real and don't understand what comes off as puritanical and lack of nuance.

Well, apparently this phenomenon has been studied a fair amount under the label of "imaginative resistance" to engaging in stories and characters deemed immoral. It is apparently pretty deeply baked into individual personalities and psyches to different amounts, so a lot of these debates is people who think and feel differently about stories assuming things about other people's real-life morality or their (lack of) media literacy.

From Jessica E. Black and Jennifer L. Barnes, "Measuring the unimaginable: Imaginative resistance to fiction and related constructs":

[dynasoar5]

tumblr hit me with the mature label, rip

[bloodybosom]

[slightlyspooky]

Spotify is advertising a Doja Cat song to me but censored so when it gets to the chorus it's half dead-air

The word devil is censored?? Either advertise the song or don't‽

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[ajthebumblebee]

Some of you guys say "Puritanical" when you really mean "Perfectionist" or even just "Critical."

[reviviscencegruiform]

“I’m an empath so I need you to stifle your emotions so they don’t harm me!”

Fuckin' suffer then.

[howifeltabouthim]

He doesn't know anything about art, and worse, he doesn't care.

Catherine Lacey, from Biography of X

[themistressofdolls]

I see companies have learned nothing from photobucket, imageshack, majhost and many others who walked this same path destroying decades of internet content out of ether puritanical bullshite or trying to grift by pushing predatory monetization practices to nickle and dime users.

I will give you a hint all these image hosts are ether dead now or completely irreverent.

[bellemorte79]

AND I am TIRED OF IT.

fountain in italy

[misscromwellsmonocle]

Art in the Age of Digital Puritanism (2022) by Iness Rychlik The artist reposted it in 2024 "because it feels relevant in social media today".

[umpteenth-chance-blue]

Okay so tumblr now allows mffn but apparently the Church Lady still runs the algorithm.

[teachaos]

When are these non-voters gonna realize that using an ongoing genocide as a moral gotcha doesn't paint the best picture about them?

[silvandar]

We have circled right back to bootlegging porn like it's 1921 and boobs are whiskey in the USA.

And it IS the USA doing this have no doubts. All these payment providers are either US owned companies, or terrified of losing access to that market, and so are upholding the insane puritanical bullshittery (permanently) masquerading as The Land Of The Free.

So yes, please protect your smut suppliers, but also please fight tooth and nail against this nonsense! You can start here:

You may not see a link between drawing anthro titties, and sex work, but Mastercard and many other payment providers do, and will come for your cat girl porn as soon as they can.

Sex Work Is Real Work.

i dont know who needs to hear this but as a general PSA for those who pay people online for goods and services: KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE BUYING. While it might seem funny to write a clever note along with your transaction, any sort of hint that you're buying something nsfw or even mildly suggestive poses a huge risk that the person you're paying is getting their method of payment shut down permanently. transaction services are stricter than ever. "thanks for the boobs" is a pipe bomb that only needs one pair of eyes to be noticed. loose lips sink ships