#the internet really has corroded the divide between private and public its incredibly frustrating

[soracities]

Fandoms are guilty of similar in such an obnoxious way, it made me quit fandom - like, your stereotyping about things that make some characters seem as gay as you want them to be, isn't funny or ok to say just because you and your followers happen to be gay. Nothing exists in a vacuum and some of what people are so comfy saying and spreading around on 5k-note posts is just the same old homophobic shit everyone heard in the 90s. It's never been funny and isn't now. You wanna reclaim something for irony's sake, do that amongst friends, not perpetuate that shit on the internet where anyone might have to see it. Then again, most of the people who do that crap weren't even alive in the 90s or earlier. Some concession can be made for youth, but it comes off as immature and just plain gross every time. Thanks for writing about that kind of thing because people really don't think before they say shit.

I think I've come across this sentiment a few times and I'm really sorry you had such a frustrating (and I can only imagine quite hurtful) experience through it all. I was never involved in fandoms online but the more I hear, the more convinced I am that it was probably the best thing given my personality as a teenager and young adult. It's incredibly difficult and infuriating because I've seen how the internet does allow you to connect in so many amazing ways, but it also creates this very real and deeply isolated echo-chamber that can so easily eclipse everything and everyone else outside of it and I really think we could all do with just a little more intentionality and awareness of that fact.