#turns out the critic group supports trolls

[kagenoneko]

Some Observations

After calling out the troll in the Ace Attorney section on fanfiction.net, I have experienced a deluged of spam reviews on my fics. One of those reviews happened to be from a member of Critics United.

The Critics United reviewer happened to have only one favorite story. That story is a word for word copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hilter. Doesn't seem like a story that someone from Critics United would support, especially since it is a rule violating story.

Then I decided to do a search based on some words from the review and added site: fanfiction.net to the end of the search query. I found that using DuckDuckGo resulted in me find a bunch of other reviews that use that exact same phrasing. Using google resulted in me find this blog post on on flames.

As for the other reviews that I found, some are associated with a different user. Here is an image of one of the reviews:

And here is another example:

And I have also found a similar review that was from a guest and then there was a story that I found that had a ton of guest reviews that had this similar kind of language. The guest reviews are under different names most of the time.

So I decided to search the user who had left the review on my fic.

That search resulted in me finding some of their comments on a forum that was not associated with Critics United. Their comment was pro-Donald Trump and implies all members of Critics United are also fans of Donald Trump.

It also seems like a Critics United member might be supportive of John Phoenix spam fest going on the Ace Attorney section.

To pull all what I found together as a TL;DR:

-Critics United members post unoriginal flame reviews

-Their members are pro-Trump and some like a story that is a copy of My Struggle by Adolf Hilter.

-Support the people who post troll content on ff.net.

So yeah, these people are horrible.

[mariacallous]

Ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, a liberal Gen-Z-led group has purchased a handful of domain names related to the top Republican primary candidates in an effort to extinguish support from young voters.

“Republicans are not investing in outreach to young people, and we know why,” Jessica Siles, deputy press secretary for Voters of Tomorrow, said in a statement to WIRED on Friday. “Their regressive, radical stances on abortion rights, guns, climate change, and other top issues are overwhelmingly unpopular with Gen Z. Since Trump and Haley won’t accurately inform young people of their views, we will.”

Voters for Tomorrow has bought up new domain names—GenZforTrump.org and GenZforHaley.org—in an effort to sway young voters in battleground states from backing Republicans in the 2024 election. The websites will redirect to another site, GenZvsFarRight.org, which the group says will outline how “out-of-touch” the GOP’s platform is with the needs of young voters. On the redirected site, the group outlines Trump and Haley’s records on the environment, LGBTQ+ rights, and gun safety, among other issues, without explicitly encouraging people to vote for Biden.

To reach them, the group is launching a digital ad campaign across Instagram and Snapchat, hoping to reach at least half a million users in battleground states where they say the youth vote could make a difference for Democrats. “Gen Z will determine our next president,” the ads say, as they ask users to visit the websites for more information on Trump and Haley. Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida are some of the states where these ads will run, and the group plans to spend as much as it takes to reach at least half a million voters, Jack Lobel, Voters of Tomorrow's 19-year-old national press secretary, told WIRED on Friday.

For nearly a decade, domain trolling, or the act of buying up URLs related to an opposing candidate and redirecting them to unfavorable information, has become a popular digital media tactic for campaigns. In 2015, Senator Ted Cruz and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina had domains related to their GOP presidential campaigns swiped up by trolls before they were able to grab them. CarlyFiorina.org, at one point, displayed 30,000 sad-faced emojis to represent the workers she laid off at HP. In 2020, the Biden campaign bought KeepAmericaGreat.com, the Trump campaign’s reelection slogan, attacking Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

“P.S., If the GOP candidates had invested in young voter outreach efforts like we are, maybe we wouldn’t have acquired these website domains in the first place,” stated Voters of Tomorrow’s press release.

It’s impossible to know whether these domain trolls have the power to sway voter sentiment. But Voters of Tomorrow thinks they do. “Trump is the greatest threat to our generation, and we’re going to continue to expand that belief in our generation throughout this project because the stakes of the 2024 election are unprecedented,” Lobel said.

In 2020, young people came out to vote in record numbers and arguably helped turn the election in Biden’s favor. But a recent poll from the Harvard Kennedy School has shown that the same demographic appears less likely to vote in 2024 than in the prior presidential election, declining from 57 percent to 49 percent. The poll reported that a plurality of these voters distrust Biden and Trump to act on critical issues like climate change, gun violence, and health care, which could dampen their desire to vote in this year’s election. Those same voters said Trump was the better choice to address the current crisis in Gaza over Biden by 5 percentage points.

These numbers could spell trouble for Biden and the Democrats come November. Around 41 million Gen-Z voters will be eligible to vote for the first time in 2024, according to Tufts University. Of those voters, more than 8 million of them will be first-time voters, and could play an outsize role in electing the next president.

“Young voters have historically been left out of the political process, and that changed with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Young voters realized their power. And since then, we’ve been showing up in droves to shape elections,” Lobel told WIRED. “Going into 2024, we have to build on that power.”

[omar-writes-stuff]

Good morning 🌿

Unlimited has recently blocked me out of fear of being discovered and sent all their followers to do the same for fear that they’d actually use their brain and critical thinking skills and realize for themselves that they’re lying to all of us, but I’ll keep going nonetheless and break it all down 🌿

“Incorrect Kaeloo quotes” is also a fake account run by Unlimited, who strangely only ever says everything they want them to say to support them even tho they’ve never been in stm or never interacted with other server members apparently (just like raspberry used to do lol)

I’m not a troll and I’m not harassing anyone, the fact that I’m simply asking for proof and explanation goes to show you feel “threatened” by my harmless curiosity and autistic interest

I’m not tracking down a child because there is NO child, I’m trying to find their real identity and use logic to help everyone realize that the writer is actually Unlimited themselves (nobody has sent me proof of messages yet so my suspicions are only growing bigger)

I’m sorry but I have no idea who the people that made the doc are, my friends are from Twitter and they shared the document with me there but that’s about it :)

Never sent a single rude ask in my whole life, again, I’ve ONLY asked simple questions. If Unlimited is innocent then why are they so scared by my questions?

You turned off your ask box after sending yourself a billion insults and slurs and death threats in the hopes of framing others for it and painting yourself as a victim (again, it’s not working I’m afraid. Maybe 2 people from your group were dumb or naive enough to be able to fall for it when you made them believe it was “Jay from the doc”, but this trick is also poorly structured and bound to fall).

“Sharing a porn fic in the Kaeloo tag”? Weird Unlimited…is this you with all your underage followers?

Listen good Unlimited: You can try to lie and manipulate naive children by pretending to be a child yourself behind a fake account (groomer behavior btw), you can try to shame others for writing nsfw even tho there’s nothing wrong with it and you enjoy it and write it as much as everyone else (which is your fair right as an adult), you can try to insult yourself and try to blame it on someone else in the hopes that people will feel pity towards you (really Unlimited? “Acoustic? Cowardly bitch?” Learn better insults), but one thing will always, and I mean ALWAYS, stay true…

The truth ALWAYS comes out eventually.

Hope you all have fun and have a good day everyone, I’ll be spending a lovely day outside enjoying my life because, unlike Unlimited, I have absolutely nothing to hide. Mashallah, goodbye 🌿💗

[unpopularfanopinion]

if your defense of ao3 ignores the racism and zionism displayed by both users and staff then you are in no position to call people white supremacists. protecting bigotry under the guise of "free speech" while belittling and shouting down opposition is exactly what conservatives do. don't act like the people who disagree with you are republican adjacent when you've used their ideals to make your point as well.

i hope you snap your neck falling off that high horse lmao.

I am going to try to say this as simply, bluntly, and kindly as possible. I have not compared anyone demanding additional content moderation than the current legal stand they use to being white supremacists. I have compared them to conservative authoritarians. If you think being a white supremacists, or supporting white supremacy is inherently or intrinsically tied to conservative authoritarianism you are sadly mistaken.

A Frank Wilhoit gave one of the best description of conservatives and conservatism ever

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect

There is no marginalized group that is so inherently good and pure that they will not have members who desiring, power and control over others will try to place themselves as the protected in-group and others into the subjugated outgroup. (and oddly enough you're complaining about one such example of an oppressed marginalize group that successfully turn itself in a group of conservative, authoritarian oppressors. If you can't tell yes I am talking about the Zionists. While tight media control and propaganda helped them get away with it for so long, part if was also "Oh they were so harassed and oppressed in so many places and for so long. They has a people understand the pain of oppression. They wouldn't go harm another people.)

As I have mentioned in the past being conservative is more about a way of thinking and HOW you come to your positions rather than about the positions themselves. Studies have demonstrated that conservatives have a much stronger disgust reaction than liberals. So when an idea or concept triggers a feeling of disgust they immediately assume that thing to be evil, immoral etc. . . without truly taking the time consider if it’s actually harmful(or even disgusting sometimes it’s just different) This winds up making them fearful of change and non-conforming behavior.

This feeling of disgust also makes them feel justified in certain forms of bigotry making up all manner of excuses to call whatever disgusts them immoral. Such as supposedly leftist progressives being ablelist and claiming that any disabled person is basically a child and therefore featuring disabled people having sex(fictional or live action)is no different than CSEM.

Conservatism is more often less about the specific position a person claims to hold and more about how they got to those positions, and how they intend to fix the issues and problems that they find.

Conservatives hide behind claims of free speech when they wants to spam, harass, and troll people(and often using other people's equipment such as servers to do so) And I have noticed that when people like you actually seem to care about free speech on Ao3, when you want to spam comments, troll people, and harass people using Ao3's comment features either on news posts or on people's stories.

There is a lot to criticize about Ao3's response to reports of racist harassment, and how they resolve interpersonal disputes between volunteers, however none of that can or would be resolved by them even trying to make additional content rules or attempt to ban "bad fic" Because despite what you think someone writing a bad fic, or using certain tropes(tropes are tools, tropes are not bad) is not in and of itself harassment.

And also no, Ao3 staff telling one volunteer not to harass, and abuse another and reminding them of the professional code of conduct they expect from ALL volunteers is not proof of Zionism among Ao3's staff. Pretty much everyone involved in that fight on Slack on reprimanded for it but only one went crying to the internet about it. If that had happened between a Ukrainian volunteer and Russian volunteer and the Ukrainian volunteer quit would you be accusing Ao3 of being pro-Russia?

[redwineconversation]

in re harsh truths

I don't like getting involved in this sort of stuff but this is also really getting on my last nerves.

There is only one group of supporters who have a documented history of:

impersonating individuals, whether it be on a social media platform, on the hellsite known as the L-Chat, or just outright catfishing (???)

harassing players who leave the club

stalking players on social media

stalking and harassing the family members of a player, to the point of actually traveling to another country to do so

violating basic boundaries

inability to grasp human decency.

And I think we all know which group of supporters it is, and it's not Lyon.

Now I get it, Arsenal fans have never grasped the concept of critical thinking before, so really to expect them to display any of it now is on me. I should have known better than for them to even suspect that just because invasive behavior is the norm for them, it might not be for supporters of other clubs.

I don't know why that Dutch troll whose name is (_____) and who works (__ _ __________) has a complete and utter meltdown every time Ellie Carpenter commits the crime of humanity that is breathing. I don't know she continuously promotes the narrative that Danielle van de Donk must have cheated, despite written evidence by their darling Beth Mead stating otherwise.

I also, for the life of me, do not understand why (_____) cares so much about players she so openly dislikes. It requires time and effort that could so easily be spent elsewhere. It's not that hard.

It's genuinely infuriating to me that Arsenal fans seem to think that because they exhibit so much invasive behavior it is seen as the norm amongst them, that they seem to think other supporters act the same way. When called out on it, there's immediate defensive behavior, and it turns into a "well, you have no fans!" competition of handbag throwing.

Like Jesus Christ guys. Look at some of the shit you Arsenal fans deem acceptable behavior. Ask yourselves why you seem to think impersonating people is something that should be given a pass. The truth is, you know what you're doing is wrong. But you don't want to pretend that you are alone in displaying this gross behavior and so you pretend to be other fans doing the same just to manipulate the reality that, well, people see Arsenal fans exactly for what they are.

Arsenal fans have the reputation they do for a reason. Maybe they can focus on trying to change that rather than harassing my club's players or impersonating people on social media platforms.

[ms-revived-frogs]

Open letter to all terfs:

You’re revolting. You look at a group of people trying their best to survive, to break an oppressive view of the world, and you try your best to ruin them. Need I explain why painting a group of people as monsters, why encouraging others to oppress a minority, why raping (and yes, trans people have been and are raped by terfs) and killing a group of people is wrong?

You claim to be for Justice, yet at every turn you side with fascists who impose the very rules you claim to want to break! Hell, you enforce those rules yourselves, claiming that they’re entrenched in sex! You claim that women are inherently weaker, gentler! That no woman has broad shoulders or facial hair, that no woman has excess testosterone, that no woman looks like a man!

Don’t you see how repulsive you are to people not embroiled in hate? Don’t you want to do something to make the world better, not worse? Use your passion for good! If you can’t understand trans people, if you don’t care too, fine! Focus your passion towards something else, but don’t focus it on a small population of people who just want to live happily in their own skin.

Prove to me you’re not just bigots. Prove me wrong, and put away your hate. Prove me wrong, and improve yourselves. Or, don’t. And let your hate consume you. But just understand, trans people are never going away. You can’t stop them from existing. But you can make your existence better.

I feel like this is a troll just in part of how misinformed it is. But some things I would like to clear up outside of just pure insults are...

1) Radical feminists are not out there raping and killing trans people. I tried searching up for examples and found no such cases. Please feel free to send me any such proof and I will gladly avoid and cease support for anyone who does that to another person, trans or not.

2) Radical feminists do not say that women are weaker or gentler. Radical feminists acknowledge the reality that female bodies store more fat and less muscle. This is a biological fact. This doesn't mean women are weak, we have our own unique strengths as well. Just in terms of physical strength, specifically upper body strength, men tend to perform better.

3) Radical feminists do not say that women don't have broad shoulders or facial hair or higher levels of testosterone. I am a woman with broad shoulders and thicker than average peach fuzz (brown genes coming through!), and yet all the radical feminists I've met in here would still consider me 100% female. Because I am. And yes there are women with elevated testosterone levels, we see this often in women with various hormonal conditions or DSDs, and yet still, these types of conditions / disorders are often female-exclusive (ex. Intersex Turner Syndrome only occurs in biological females). Meaning that they don't disprove the sex binary and female as a distinct category, but reinforce it.

4) I and other gender critical / radical feminists have not always been this opinionated. I once identified as trans myself (I first thought I was "genderfluid", then FtM briefly). Even after that, I still remained "anti terf". It was upon watching this marginalised group grow a more toxic and toxic activist movement that made me reevaluate my opinions. Watching as lesbians and gay men were called bigoted for their "genital preferences"; watching famous feminists like Chimamanda Adichie be called transphobic for recognising woman as a sex class; watching women in general get called transphobic (and other names like "terf", "bitch", "cunt", etc) just for recognising their biological reality. It became apparent that the matter of trans activism was no longer concerned with genuinely supporting trans people - which I still do - but with exerting dominance over women and gay people. I still recognise and support trans people's rights to safety from discrimination, proper housing, the right to their own spaces, etc. These are all things that trans people are entitled to, and deserve, as a marginalised group. They are not, however, entitled to dominate over women legally or socially by erasing the status of woman as a female person - which has been recognised since the dawn of time.

5) I do not want trans people to stop existing, I actually want for them to get better care concerning their dysphoria and for them to receive better treatment in general. I will happily support their rights to things that really matter (like I said earlier, protection from discrimination, proper housing, etc). I just cannot deny my own status as a female person and that being what makes me a woman. Trans activism must be compatible with basic reality, or it will never be taken seriously as a movement for people's rights; you must understand that when your movement pushes against the reality of biology, people will rightfully misinterpret it. There is a way that trans activism and feminism can be compatible, but they will not be if trans activists keep erasing women and gay people, eradicating our sex-based spaces (see: Vancouver Rape Relief vandalism), and harassing feminists.

[kenzotheweebmaster]

Do toxic fans in some online spaces make it difficult to become or identify as a fan?

In the present world, social media holds an incredible power which can affect or influence an individual’s social life which either can be in positive way or negative way. Among in this present generation, people constantly feeling pressured especially among the youngsters to keep up with what is popular and trying to seek approvals from their peers. In this case, fandom community are often facing this situation every day. While social media can be used by people who are a fan of a particular something which either can be a fan of movies, anime, favorite celebrities, and so forth, utilizing it to express their thoughts, or opinions on the platform, as well as maintaining connections can contribute to a positive atmosphere. However, what will happen when social media cease to contribute to an individuals’ happiness, sense of belonging, support and empowerment, fulfillment and enjoyment, and stress relief, turned into a source of toxicity in the fandom community? According to Taylor (2023), the term “toxic fandom” is used to describe admirers of popular culture who engage in behaviors that are seen as inappropriate and unpleasant.  Especially on social media, toxic fans that bring their negative behaviors can lead to a serious issue among the other fans within the fandom community as well as people’s perspective from the outside to have different views on the community in general. Which brings us to this question arises; Do toxic fans in some online spaces make it difficult to become or identify as a fan?

Let’s look at K-pop fandom as an example here. When an individual is discussing a K-pop group on social media platforms, disagreement from other fans can happen. But disagreement from a certain fans, the individual may expose themselves to cyberbullying. Online discussions about K-pop group very often it can lead to intimidation, racial slurs, misogynistic remarks, and even explicit death threats if the discussion using a single term that goes against the broader K-pop community. It could be criticizing K-pop groups or labels, making statements that don’t portray the group in the best light, even expressing support for different K-pop acts. In addition to that, even discussing K-pop cyberbullying can lead to backlash and be blamed for pointing out the evident issue by bullies who can’t accept valid criticism. Not to mention, engaging with trolls is also pointless as they might label the individual who speaks out as an  ‘ anti ’ and using whataboutism to justify their actions. Even for a journalist, who are also a passionate fans, may downplay the problem ,saying its minimal and limited to a small group. (Raphael Rashid, 2022)

As a fan of anime, myself, sometimes I like to discuss it with other people on social media even with the people who just started to get into anime. From my perspective it is a wonderful sight and interaction because I met other people who have the same interest as mine and consider them as fellow allies. However, there are some fans who gatekeeping other fans from taking part in activities, for example discussing anime shows. According to Urban Dictionary, the term Gatekeeping is someone who takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity. In fandom context, it is someone who acts of setting up barriers, criteria, or requirements to determine who is considered as a “ true ” fan and who is not. Often these gatekeepers use the phrase “ you’re not a true fan “ as a weapon that they throw around and uses those weak justifications and labeling others encourage new fans to keep their developing interests hidden until they feel experienced enough to proudly share them. For example, when Megan Thee Stallion displayed and expressed her love for anime on social media, many gatekeepers expressed their hatred because the character she cosplayed doesn’t match her skin color and isn’t worthy of being identifies as a true anime fan. (Nicole Trinidad, 2021).

In conclusion, every fandom has its fair share of troublesome fans. Though it is fun and enjoyable to engage and interact with other people who has mutual interest in particular fandom, these toxic fans that belongs in the fandom community that has been mentioned above, does make it very challenging for other fans to discuss, and express their thoughts on social media without ever have to feel of being judged by those “ so-called fans” just because they view it as a fact, and think it in a very close minded. Nevertheless, there are also numerous respectful fans combating the negativity of the fandom, trying to make social media a good platform to have fun with others that have real passion, mutual, and love for something that they like.

List of References

Rashid, R 2022, Cyberbullying by K-pop Fans Must Stop, Medium, 18 Jun, viewed on 23 November 2023, https://medium.com/@koryodynasty/cyberbullying-by-k-pop-fans-must-stop-c7e1f978fa57.

Taylor, V 2023, Toxic Fandom: What Is It?, Medium, 31 January, viewed on 23 November 2023, https://medium.com/change-becomes-you/toxic-fandom-what-is-it-c8c1520beb06.

Trinidad, N 2021, Exclusivity within fandoms creates toxic environment, Daily Titan, 2 April, viewed on 26 November 2023, https://dailytitan.com/opinion/exclusivity-within-fandoms-creates-a-toxic-environment/article_f6a7c2d4-8d09-11eb-918c-9331db53d0ff.html.

[noteverythingisgrooming]

Meta Post #2: Fantasy, Real Cruelty

There was once a time when cyber-bullying was novel. The early history of the Internet, which included sites like Cracked.com, Something Awful, and 4chan, was rife with shock content, but likewise the early 2000s featured shock comedy, radio shock jocks, and abrasive characters in television series. Offensiveness was a kind of aesthetic adopted by a wide range of parties to affect various poses of masculinity, patriotism, wit, and individualism. To be rude to someone online was more about affecting a pose than inciting terror. Thus, when the news of Phoebe Prince's suicide broke, it was a story that captured people's attention, especially the attention of parents. Bullying has existed for a very long time, but it usually involved some risk on the part of the bully -- having to engage in a physical altercation or the risk of being observed and intercepted by peers. Now there was a way to coordinate harassment with low stakes, and in such a way that the victim could not even escape with physical space.

Now online harassment is a normalized part of online culture. Taylor Swift fans doxxed a music critic for giving a lukewarm review. Star Wars fans send each other death threats based on which fictional characters they imagine having a romance. Twitter trolls create sock puppet accounts to stir up controversy and in-fighting. White supremacists call the employers of people who criticize them. Q-Anon supporters flooded Wayfair, a furniture company, with calls about a trafficking conspiracy, and harmed real children in the process.

In each of these examples, the coordinating group felt justified in their actions. Something that they have seen or heard online has been labeled toxic, dangerous, or offensive, and there is a wave of online action to stamp this behavior out. While each case could be analyzed on its own terms, I want to turn these examples to the focus of the blog: obsessive policing against art on the premise that it will 'encourage' or 'cause' abuse in some way.

In short, this is absurd. The truth is that even the possession of real child pornography does not predict contact (i.e. offline) offenses against children. If possessing evidence of a crime against a child and consuming that evidence does not correlate with a contact offense, then how can people assert that art might do so? This has to do with two broader misconceptions: the idea that art can influence one's morals, and the idea that pornography is linked with violence.

To address the second claim, no causal link between pornography and rape has ever been proved, though the theory has been touted for decades. Sexual violence has fallen by more than half since 1993. Between 1992 and 1998, cases of child sexual abuse fell by thirty-one percent. Multiple reports confirm these trends. Crime overall has significantly dropped. Yet online fervor would persuade one that abuse and crimes have increased. One could make a stronger argument for pornography decreasing sex crimes than for it increasing it.

To address the first claim, art is merely one factor in an individual's life, only one source of influence. Generally speaking one is exposed to culture, as opposed to repeated exposure to a singular piece of art, such that one could not point to any single piece of art whose exposure was so dominating as to be the point one could trace a belief to. As Maria Caruso argues, influence is much more complex than simply declaring a piece of art 'harmful' and assigning it responsibility for the morals and behaviors a viewer may adopt. However, as with the concept-child, people are eager to construct simple solutions for complicated problems.

To delve into the minds of people who harm children is uncomfortable and disturbing. It is easier -- and in fact, more fun -- to investigate what a person consumes, and then make large and simplified leaps to what this indicates about their psyche, and thus their future behavior. From there, the cruelty starts.

As evidence shows, this cruelty is not based in any evidence that altering someone's consumption patterns will change their behavior, because there is no evidence that someone's consumption patterns predict their behavior. Often, there is no evidence of any harmful behavior at all, and the consumption patterns are used to create rumors about potential (i.e. invented) behavior. Fantasy is a complicated realm where people indulge in thoughts and art that they would not humor or perform in their real lives. On the other hand, the cruelty that people inflict on one another over that art is very real.

What compels people to harm real others over fictional others? Once again, motivations may be broad, conscious and unconscious. Certainly in the case of Isabel Fall, there was professional jealousy. In fan spaces, there may be the desire to control a space so thoroughly that they are not exposed to anything they dislike. Others might have been conditioned into a kind of anxiety-paranoia disorder by exhortations to 'challenge' 'problematic content'. The overall result is that it takes very little to trigger real harassment campaigns and moral crusades whose goal is absurd and impossible on the outset.

Fiction is fiction, Vladimir Nabokov stated. Literature is invention. Art is an invention. Somehow this division has broken down, to the point people confuse consumption of fiction with behavior in life. But it is not so. Fantasy cannot be used to justify cruelty. Cruelty is never justified. We will not eliminate cruelty and abuse by exacting it upon those we disagree with or find disturbing. As always, the solution is much more complicated than that.

[queerfictionwriter]

On Fandom Policing: Part 1

This is gonna be an unpopular opinion, but I'm gonna come right out and say it: the "please examine your biases" argument in fandom is anti logic in concern-trolling drag. It is functionally meaningless, and has no actionable or observable objective within it aside from "don't write this thing I don't like".

Asking someone to examine their biases is not inherently a bad thing. It's something we should all do semi-regularly, like checkups or cancer screenings. But the problem with this argument in fandom is that you cannot know whether or not someone already has examined their biases, and chosen to create something you find personally objectionable or Problematic™ anyway. Arguing that people should do this in fandom creates the expectation that, if everyone were to examine their biases, the Thing—be it a trope, particular pairing, or popular trend—would simply cease to exist, because everyone would realize that it is Problematic; AKA, Wrong and Bad.

But Problematic™ fiction is not the problem these concern trolls want to make it out to be, because we live in an inherently flawed, problematic world, populated with inherently flawed, imperfect, messy beings. And that means that nothing is perfect or unproblematic, and the things that are, are probably incredibly unrealistic. They also risk being boring as hell. (1) 

It also means that "examine your biases" turns into a Trojan Horse of fandom bullying and groupthink, where you have to, somehow, "prove" to the concern trolls that you have examined your biases before you're allowed to create what you want, or before you're allowed to enjoy what others have created and shared for free without fear of concern trolling or dogpiling. But you will never be able to prove that you have, actually, done the deep internal work they're asking of you, because it's internal, and fandom is not an accurate reflection of who you are as an entire person. The only thing they will have to go on, and the only thing they will judge you by, is whether or not you have continued to write The Problematic Thing they don't like, regardless of your reasons for doing so. (2)

And, even if you do stop writing The Problematic Thing they don't like? Chances are, whatever else you've written will be "problematic" in some other way. And I need you to know that that is okay, because no one piece of media—mainstream, indie, or fandom-generated—can provide all representation to all people, no matter how good it is. The point of creating good representation is to make sure everyone can have stories that represent the various facets of their identities, to see characters like them across different genres and mediums, so they can feel seen and validated and reassured that the world knows they exist. And that is a massive job that no single piece of media or single person can accomplish alone.

That's why good representation is a team sport, and in the same way that sports teams have different members specializing in different roles, not everyone can write great representation for every group. And, to continue the metaphor, creating good representation requires practise and help. Criticizing people for doing badly only discourages them and makes them more likely to give up, not create better representation. It takes time to learn what good representation is, and how to create it, and—like any other skill—it is unfair to expect perfect execution 100% of the time. People need the time, space, and grace to fail and do badly before they are capable of doing well. Assigning ill intent to people in that phase is unfair, and you cannot know from the outside who is in that phase unless you have a close personal relationship with them. And, again, like a sports team: if you want the individual team members to do better, they need support and coaching from people they know and trust, not a mob of strangers screaming and hurling criticism from the stands. (3)

The argument around representing a Problematic thing being equated to supporting the Problematic thing in real life is a separate, also garbage, argument.

There are a wide variety of reasons for people to write Problematic™ things that are not “they are a horrible human being”, including, but not limited to: processing their own experiences; being new to writing, a particular fandom, or writing a particular minority group and making mistakes as they learn; and enjoyment of darkfic and the catharsis it provides. 

This entire argument presumes and addresses good faith attempts at representation. I am fully aware that there are, in fact, bad faith examples out there, and a lot of bad faith erasure, but that is not the topic of this particular essay.

Part 2

[peakstories]

Common Questions and Information

What is peak trans?

Peak trans is the moment where you you begin to see the logical inconsistencies and cognitive dissonance within the trans movement which makes you realise that you can no longer (fully) support the trans movement.

The full, long definition which I like is this:

The moment when you realise that the trans movement is misogynistic, homophobic (and especially lesbophobic), full of autogynepiles, based on sexist stereotypes, full of circular reasoning, silencing (and attacking) those who disagree with them, silencing women who are affected by laws they wish to be put in place, ignoring science/statistics which go against their beliefs, based on beliefs rather than science and statistics, ignoring what people in their community are doing (as being trans is more important), and denying what other people in their own community are saying (because they’re not saying it). It’s the moment when you turn around and say ‘I cannot support this movement anymore’ because of all the reasons listed above.

But this definition from Urban Dictionary is also pretty good:

When the threshold of cognitive dissonance that the trans ideology requires of someone exceeds the limits of a person’s willing suspension of disbelief, and that person’s eyes open to where they can no longer agree with the narrative.

Who is this blog for?

This blog is open to everyone, regardless of if you are reading because you agree or hate-reading or just trying to understand other people’s side, my blog is open to you. I will only block people who harass me or attack people from the stories/on my posts.

What are TIM, TIF, and TRA?

TIM = Trans Identified Male (aka trans woman)

TIF = Trans Identified Female (aka trans man)

We use these acronyms in order to refer to trans people by their sex which makes things less complicated.

TRA = Trans Rights Activist. Basically a shorthand for anyone who unquestionably supports trans rights

Do you have trigger warnings?

There are two:

Trauma and Mental Illness

Eating Disorders

I am not the best at tagging so I may have missed some (which you can point out to me if you want to) but I try to make sure that they’re all tagged appropriately.

Where do most of these stories come from?

Many used to come from the subreddit r/GenderCritical and some from r/GenderCriticalGuys before the subreddits were banned by Reddit for ‘promoting hate’.

Some now come from the new Gender Critical group on SaidIt while others come from Spinster. Many are simply direct submissions.

How do you decide which stories I post?

I post all stories unless they have asked for their story to not be shared on different platforms or the story is riddled with slurs/obviously a troll. The moderators of r/GC, and now s/GC are very strict and good at removing those stories before I come across them, otherwise it’s just my own judgement on them.

What is ’peak queer’ and ’peak libfem’?

Much like peak trans, peak queer and peak libfem are reaching a point where you can no longer support these movement.

Peak queer, or peak TQ+, is no longer being able to support the micro identities which are often associated with trans activism such as pansexual/romantic, demisexual/romantic, allosexual/romantic, and omnisexual/romantic. Realising that many of these things are unnecessary identities for normal, human behaviour which exist because everyone wants to think that their feelings are special or unique.

Peak libfem is no longer being able to support the so-called ’feminist activism’ (really just conforming to patriarchal standards) which libfems support including sex-positivity/sex work is work, supporting make-up (culture), the massive support of trans activism at the expense of women’s rights, and calling everything a (free) choice so feminist.

What is a trans widow?

Trans widow is a term for people, although mainly women, who have married someone who later came out as trans which causes the end of their relationship. Their trans partner changes so much (including personality, likes/dislikes, the way they act, style, etc) in the process of transitioning/figuring out their gender identity that they become a completely different person. These changes mean that the person they originally fell in love with and married is effectively dead which gives them the name trans widows.

There’s a really good TEDTalk by a trans widow on the subject. There’s also an organisation called Trans Widow Voices to help support and raise awareness of trans widows.

List of Tags

Submissions and Tags: Stories which were submitted directly to this blog or which we reblog as we were tagged. (Links will eventually be added)

GC Reddit: Stories from Gender Critical Reddit (RIP r/GenderCritical)

GC Saidit: Stories from Gender Critical SaidIt

Spinster: Stories from Spinster

WoC Stories: Stories written by women of colour

Racism: Stories about racism by TRAs

TIMs: Stories with a TIM in (see above for definition)

TIFs: Stories with a TIF in (see above for definition)

Non Binary: Stories with someone who identities or used to identify as non-binary

Libfems: Stories which contain libfems, that is trans allies (especially allied women) who are not allies themselves and who also support choice feminism (eg: women can choose whatever they want with no analysis as to why women choose certain actions and why it could be harmful to them)

Peak TQ+: Stories about people reaching peak TQ+ or peak queer (see above for definition)

Peak Libfem: Stories about people reaching peak libfem (see above for definition)

Trans Widow: storiees by trans widows (see above for definition)

Misogyny: Stories containing some misogyny towards women

Internalised Misogyny: Stories about women dealing with their own internalised misogyny

Female Socialisation: Stories which include how women have been socialised a certain way, how TIMs don’t exhibit these signs, or denying that TIMs have not experienced this socialisation since they’re male

Silencing of Women: Stories which includes TRAs activly silencing women on certain issues

Female Spaces and Services: Stories which include female-specific spaces and services, normally being invaded by TIMs

Female Sports: Stories including TIMs in female sports

Male Privilege and Behaviour: Stories which include men (especially TIMs) acting with male privilege, showing typical male entitlement, overt misogyny and misunderstanding over what it is to be a woman, making male threats (ie: rape threats or anything about how they’re bigger/stronger/have a dick), etc

Stereotypes: Stories which show that TRAs really see gender as conforming to a specific set of stereotypes. 

Homophobia: Stories containing homophobia (including fetishisation of gay people)

Lesbophobia: Stories containing lesbophobia (including fetishisation of lesbians)

Conversion Therapy Rhetoric: Stories containing conversion therapy rhetoric. Lesbians must like dick, gay men must like pussy, etc.

Internalised Homophobia: Stories about people dealing with their internalised homophobia

AGPs: Stories about autogynephilia which is men who get aroused at the idea of being a woman

Trans Obsession: Stories which contain people completely obsessing either over themselves being trans or trans stuff, to the point it appears to dominate their life or at least dominates how they interact with others

Trans Entitlement: Stories showing trans people/their allies seeming to be entitled to certain things (including sex, certain spaces, etc)

Trans People in Their Own Words: Stories which show someone peaking at least in part due to actual things actual trans people have directly said to them

Trans Harassment: Times trans people and/or their allies have harass people

Trans Violence: Times trans people and/or their allies have been violent, including harassment with a lot of threats of violence

Trans Abusers: Stories containing trans people who are/were abusive

Trans Children: Stories containing trans children

Cult Tactics: Times when TRAs use the same tactics cults have used to keep people in line.

HRT and transition: Stories about people who have gone through or are going through some kind of medical transition from puberty blockers to HRT to surgeries

Detransition: Stories by or about someone who has detransitions

Biology is a TERF: Stories which contain TRAs not understanding or denying biology which includes: denying that sex matters in any way, ignoring sex based issues, complete misunderstand or even abuse of intersex disorders, etc

Eating Disorders: Trigger warning tag for mentions of eating disorders

Trauma and Mental Illness: Trigger warning tag for mentions of trauma (eg: severe abuse, rape, etc) or mental illness.

[yuta1forme]

like magnets | ten

summary: in which you and ten are up and coming choreographers who are forever at each other’s throats. but maybe fighting is just an excuse to get close.

pairing: ten x reader

genre: angsty fluff

warnings: some swearing, alcohol mention, loads of bickering

length: 4.3k

tag list: @sly-merlin​ @animegirl366​ @yonoohcore​

He’s confident to the point of arrogance. He knows exactly how to get under your skin. When the pair of you start fighting, all the other dancers make their way out of the studio, not wanting to get involved in another explosive Y/N-Ten showdown. He counters your every suggestion. He always has more critique for your performances than praise. 

And yet, he is the best dance partner you could ever ask for. He matches your poise with his passion. In dance, you both have found a middle ground. 

When Ten first joined the studio you really wanted to like him. He was a young, up and coming dancer from Thailand. What you had not seen coming was that besides being the same age, you and Ten had precious little in common. The day you first met Ten, you had decided in less than ten seconds that you two would never, to put this lightly, become the “best of friends”. 

You had entered the break room of the studio that day, late and soaking wet because of the heavy downpour that had begun the night before. Hungry and disgruntled, all you had wanted to do was to grab a steaming cup of green tea and the last of your favorite jelly doughnuts. Only the thought of those jelly doughnuts had you hanging on during your hour and forty-five-minute long journey to work this morning. They were your emotional support food, your one and only indulgence. After almost three years at the studio, all the other dancers knew not to touch your jelly doughnuts. All except for the bucket-hat wearing Thai newbie who clearly hadn’t gotten the memo. 

“Those were my doughnuts”, you had barely managed to huff out, focusing your mind on not raising your voice or worse, bursting into tears.

Now, if he had just apologized for eating them without asking you first, you both might not have started off on the wrong foot. No, the fucker just shrugged and said, “Didn’t see your name on them”. No shame in his eyes, not an ounce of regret in his voice. The powdered sugar from your doughnuts still around his mouth and dusted over his all-black ensemble. That fucker.

“So people just waltz into a room and eat someone else’s snacks where you’re from?”, you asked, your pitch becoming shriller with annoyance. 

“No of course not. Because where I’m from, people don’t leave their snacks where everyone can see them, without putting their name on it first”, he replied, cool as a cucumber. 

Taeyong had entered the break room at this point. He took one look at the powdered sugar on Ten’s face and the eyes-gonna-pop-out expression on yours and connected the dots. As one of the senior choreographers in the studio, Taeyong had developed a sixth sense for sniffing out conflicts before they broke out. 

“Y/N! I see you’ve already met Ten! He’s the new dancer from Thailand. Ten this is Y/N”, Taeyong had prompted by way of introductions, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and inching closer to the door he had entered from. 

“Oh, you’re Y/N. The one who choreographed the last Pink Cashmere comeback, right?”, Ten had asked, suddenly sitting up straight. Seeing that your conversation was turning civil, Taeyong had left the room just as quietly as he had entered it.

“Yes, that would be me”, you had responded. That was your first time working with an idol group and was a milestone in your career. You had spent weeks running on pure adrenaline and Americanos (and the occasional jelly doughnut), spending day and night listening to the new comeback track, reviewing concept photos and looking up old performances to get their style down just right. When you watched the girls perform the choreography for the first time, you were so immensely proud of yourself, you hadn’t stopped beaming for days. 

“I should’ve known it was you, it had your signature footwork style all over it”, Ten had said, nodding his head slightly. You had felt flattered at that, surprised that anyone had even picked up that you had a certain trademark in your choreography.

“But, I thought it was too showy if you know what I mean”, Ten had continued, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, a slight frown on his face. 

You were almost embarrassed at how much his words affected you. While you were used to internet trolls taking jabs at your work, it was something entirely different to hear full-blown criticism from your peers. As the youngest choreographer in the studio, you rarely got challenged when it came to choreography, with most of your colleagues wholeheartedly encouraging you to spread your wings and grow no matter the outcome. It probably was not intentional on their part but it had become a fear of yours - what if nobody would outwardly challenge your decisions because they thought you were too weak to handle the truth?

Still, you felt a need to defend your creative decision. You needed to stand up for yourself. “The girls are great dancers and I thought a more challenging choreography would push them out of their comfort zone. Sooji and Maya were actually part of a hip-hop dance crew pre-debut. They were itching to try out a new concept”. 

“But why not use more formations in the dance? It’s an eight-member group. You could’ve used that to your advantage”, Ten had countered. He made a good point. But you didn’t want to concede to him. Who did this man think he was? Walking in here and questioning your vision as a choreographer?, you though to yourself.

“Most of the other girl groups that came back around that time had similar songs but only Pink Cashmere had a distinct choreography. I wanted to make their choreography memorable”, you had said. 

Ten had remained quiet for a while. “I didn’t think of it that way”, he had replied, a thoughtful look on his face. “In that case, I think you succeeded at whatever you set out to do with that choreography.  It was definitely memorable, Y/N.”

He turned his gaze up towards your face and flashed you a sweet smile. He looked like a whole different person, almost innocently brushing powdered sugar off his cheeks like a mischievous cat who had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t have done. 

Your whole first interaction with Ten had confused you. First he walked in acting like he owned the place, critiquing your choreography as if he was a veteran dancer. But then he had just as easily praised your abilities. But at the back of your mind you had this nagging feeling that whatever Ten had said to you was not in an effort to undermine you, unlike some of the backhanded compliments delivered by your peers. He had criticized you because he thought you could take it, because he thought of you as an equal. And you kind of enjoyed that.

Arguing with Ten became a part of your everyday routine thereafter. So did labelling your snacks with your names and leaving passive-aggressive messages on post-it notes.

At nineteen, you gave up a full-ride scholarship to a prestigious law school in your country and moved to Seoul with a single suitcase and your old school backpack in hand. Your family had threatened to cut off contact with you if you left the country, but you left anyway; Your passion for dance was stronger than your fear of losing them. Dance was your first love. You lived and breathed it. Like hell were you giving up on your first love that easy. 

You worked odd jobs during the day and filmed original choreographies for your YouTube channel during the night. After struggling for over a year, your hope slowly dwindling, you got a notification that changed your life. Kim Jongin, one of South Korea’s ballet prodigies had shared one of your videos on Twitter. Your subscriber count had quadrupled overnight, with hundreds of thousands of commenters dubbing you a “prodigy”. Fate brought you to Jongin, who then introduced you to Taeyong, who brought you to SM studios. 

It was a dream come true - for years you had only struggled, floating in dark and murky water, swimming forward towards a hazy future. Now, you had thousands of fans, dozens of supportive friends, and a solid foundation from where you could dream. Your friend Hendery liked to joke that you would need more than twenty-four hours a day if you wanted to do everything in your planner. And truth be told, he was right. You had given up a lot to pursue your dreams. Given up on your family, most of your friends, your home country. You wanted to make sure it was all worthwhile. So you wanted to spend every day making the most of the opportunities that you now had. You went to bed each night with a head full of ideas and woke up every morning with the fire to bring them to life. 

Of course, dedicating your life to your craft came at a cost. The rest of the world had not stopped moving just because you decided to make dance your life. This dawned on you one rosy Valentine’s Day evening, when you, date-less for the fifth year running, quite naively decided to scroll through Instagram. Amongst the sea of pink, flowers and picture-perfect happy couples were two faces that made your stomach instantly drop - your ex and a stunning woman posing for the camera with their fingers intertwined. On her ring finger, a diamond the size of a blueberry. 

You remember the day you broke things off with your ex like it was yesterday. You were at the airport, waiting to get on your flight to Seoul, positively buzzing with nerves. You had waited until you were seated on the plane to send your ex a rather heartless text message saying you were breaking up with him to find yourself and that it was best if he forgot you. Very dramatic, even for you. But you were nineteen and had just watched ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. In return he had left you an equally dramatic voicemail, pleading with you to not end the relationship and proclaiming that he would never stop loving you. You had all but laughed at his message then.

You weren’t laughing anymore though. He was happily engaged, while you were lonely, lying in bed on Valentine’s day in a pizza grease-stained sweatshirt. You had spent the last few years working relentlessly which had given you a career that you could be proud of, friends you could rely on. But besides the occasional fling here and there, you didn’t have much in terms of a romantic life. You guessed you deserved this, that karma had finally caught up to you.  Didn’t stop you from feeling like shit though.

So you did what you always did when you felt particularly shitty. You went down to the studio, turned the music on full blast and dove right into a new choreography. You were freestyling, too lost in the moment to hear the door creak open.

“I gotta hand it to you, Y/N, that was pretty impressive!”, a male voice exclaimed. You had spun around expecting to see Sicheng or Hendery at the door. Instead, you were met with a tired but rather amused looking Ten.

He was dressed in a white silk shirt and a pair of black slacks. You noticed the roses in his hands, slightly wilted but still beautiful nonetheless. He was clearly dressed up for a date. He looked striking as always but you didn’t linger too long on that, thinking that it was your romance deprived mind projecting thoughts onto the first attractive male it saw. 

“What are you doing here? It’s Valentine’s day, don’t you have a crowd of screaming fans to attend to?”, you asked sarcastically.

“One date. And they stood me up, actually”, he replied with a bitter smile. He must have been quite upset if he didn’t have a snarky response for you.

You were truly taken aback. Ten? Getting stood up by someone? Ten, who could charm the socks off of anyone he set his eyes on, getting stood up on Valentine’s day? 

“But how?”, you blurted out, instantly regretting it when you saw the quizzical look on Ten’s face. Yet you foolishly continued mumbling, or rather digging yourself deeper into a hole.

“I mean, you’re just...so...you”, you said vaguely gesturing at his whole form. From his boyish good looks to his ability to sweet-talk, Ten’s charms were undeniable. Ever since he joined the studio, the number of signups for the afternoon classes had doubled. Dozens of people would come to the studio every day, just to catch a glimpse of him. And he indulged them all too, flashing them his signature grin or paying them a cheeky compliment. If only you weren’t all too familiar with the way he could run his mouth during an argument, you too might have fallen for his charms. 

“Sorry to disappoint you, Y/N, but I’m not quite the Casanova you expected me to be. But I will take that as a compliment”, he said with a wink that had you resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here though”, you mumbled out.  

“I like to choreograph at night. I think I’m my most creative after midnight. Besides I just got my heart broken and I should channel that emotional energy somewhere right?”, Ten said feigning nonchalance. You could tell he was genuinely upset from how his night had played out and couldn’t help but sympathize with him.

“Well, I’m here for reasons along similar lines. You could join me? Help me choreograph this new freestyle piece I’m working on?”, you had asked. 

Ten cocked his eyebrow at you, clearly not expecting you to extend an olive branch to him in this manner given how you were still being snarky with him five minutes ago. But he accepted your offer nonetheless.

You both entered your element pretty quickly, letting the music move your body freely. You worked out a simple choreography, cheering for each other when you came up with a particularly impressive move. You were having fun, even though you wouldn’t admit it to yourself. At least you hadn’t thought of your ex in the last couple of hours, mind completely occupied with the thought that you and Ten surprisingly made good dance partners. Perhaps the friction between the two of you translated to great chemistry when you were dancing. Taeyong would be pleased to know that.

“I’m beat”, you exclaimed, slumping down on the floor after the final round of practice. Ten sat down next to you, resting his back against the mirrored wall. The pair of you sat wordlessly for a few minutes, letting your heartbeats slow back down. You lay flat on the floor, too physically exhausted to move. As soon as you closed your eyes, your traitorous mind brought back the images of your ex’s engagement and you groaned loudly.

“Long day?”, Ten asked, giving you a slightly concerned look. You just chuckled bitterly in response.

“Want to talk about it?”, Ten pried in an almost uncharacteristically gentle voice. You wondered if he had ever spoken to you in that tone before. 

“I don’t know if we’re close enough to have little heart-to-hearts yet Ten”, you replied. There was an invisible wall between you and Ten that you were just not ready to tear down. The thought of sharing embarrassing details about your love life with someone you could consider a frenemy at best, too jarring. You didn’t miss the way Ten’s shoulders slightly slumped at that. You hadn’t meant to sound harsh, yet you felt somewhat guilty.

“But…maybe we are close enough to have a drink together?”, you asked, suddenly emboldened by a rush of confidence that confused even you. You took his cheeky smile as a yes.

You spent the rest of the night drunk and giggling with Ten. The thoughts of your ex were long forgotten. Perhaps you could learn to do more than merely tolerating Ten’s presence. Perhaps you could learn to enjoy his presence too.

Soon it became a ritual - if you and Ten were the last ones left in the studio, you would grab some beers and head to the roof. It was such strange departure from your usual selves that you often wondered why it was so easy for you to enjoy his company sitting under the stars like this when you would be at each other’s throats the rest of the time. 

Over time your conversations had gone from discussions about art, to plans of travelling the world, what you were currently binge-watching on Netflix, and everything in between. Still, there were some topics that you both steered clear of - talk of family and love lives was seemingly off the table.

Until one night after a couple of drinks, when Ten pulled his phone out to show you a picture of two women, one older and one younger. The striking resemblance between the faces in the photo and Ten confirmed that they were indeed his mother and sister. His sister was clad in a dark blue graduation gown and his mother was holding a beautiful bouquet of light pink roses. 

“She graduated last week, my baby sister”, Ten said practically glowing. The proud look on his face was a testament to the close relationship he had with his sibling. 

“You must miss her a lot”, you said, voice barely a whisper.

“All the time. My family are my biggest supporters. I don’t think I would have had the courage to move out here on my own if it weren't for their encouragement”, Ten answered. 

You hadn’t spoken to your family ever since you came to Seoul. In the past, the longing left a pressure in your chest that sometimes made it feel like your throat would close, choking you on your guilt. Now, it just left you numb. 

“What about you?”, Ten asked, cautiously prying into your personal life.

“What about me?”, you countered, diverting your gaze away from the man sitting next to you, instantly wary of how much you wanted to share about your past. 

“What about your family? Your old home?”, Ten asked. 

It couldn’t hurt sharing with Ten, right? It’s not like what he thought of you really mattered to you. Right?

“I actually don’t keep in touch with my family any more. They weren’t too keen on me becoming a dancer. It’s been, what, three? Three and a half years since I last saw them. When I first left home for Seoul”, you said, trying your hardest to suppress any trace of emotion in your voice. You kept your gaze focused on the city skyline ahead of you, too afraid to turn and see the expression on Ten’s face. You wondered what he thought of you, whether he thought you were stubborn. Worse yet, whether he pitied you.

After a few moments, Ten broke the silence. “I guess sometimes, not having a family is better than having one that doesn’t love you for who you are. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t possibly know how you must have felt, all these years. But I want you to know that the people who love you now, love you without any agenda. Not because they are related to you by blood, not because they are obligated to love you. But because they just love you”, Ten said, eyes shining with an emotion you didn’t know how to react to. 

“And they could be your family too”, he finished in a voice that was so warm, so gentle, you wondered if this really was the Ten who stole your jelly doughnuts when you first met.

You were speechless, processing his words for what felt like hours but was probably just a few seconds. Then you did the only thing your impulsive mind could think to do - you leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. In response, he wrapped you up in his embrace. You stayed still, focusing on the faint scent of his cologne on the sleeves of his hoodie. You breathed out a thank you, soft as a whisper. Whether or not Ten heard you, he moved his left arm slightly, gently stroking your hair and continued to chatter on about some entirely different topic. 

You knew that once the sun came back up and both of you returned to your lives inside the studio, this little moment would not be brought up in front of anyone else. That moment was just for the two of you to share and bury deep within your hearts.

You knew you were in too deep one day when Ten gave you a friendly smile in passing while making his way to the break room, and you felt your cheeks and neck heat up. You had finally let the Thai dancer charm his way into your heart. 

Typical Y/N, you thought to yourself, Falling in love with any cute boy who gives you attention. But he wasn’t just any cute boy. It was Ten. Ten, your frenemy turned close confidant. Ten, who would send you pictures of cute animals he saw on the street just because you once told him you wanted to adopt a cat. Ten, who took you dancing to a club in Hongdae when you were feeling low and all but carried your drunk ass back to your home. Ten, who over the last couple of months had heard every single one of your deepest insecurities and had still chosen to stick by you. Ten who had just left a box of jelly doughnuts in the break room, next to a post-it note with your name on it. To make matters worse, you were supposed to start working on a new collaboration together this week, a contemporary piece set to an R&B slow jam. How were you meant to work with him all week when you could barely make eye contact with him? You had to physically restrain yourself from facepalming.

You spent the week, evading conversation with him beyond work and some small talk to fill the silence. But none of your usual banter. You had even turned down his suggestion to grab dinner together several times that week, to the point that even typically non-confrontational Sicheng had picked up that something was off.

“Why have you been avoiding Ten all week? I thought you guys had given up fighting?”, Sicheng asked after he cornered you one day.

“Avoiding him? Now, why would I do that when we’ve been working together all week?”, you had chuckled nervously, desperately looking for an out from this conversation.

“He’s been sulking around since Tuesday, Y/N. He said he doesn’t know what he did to upset you”, Sicheng had asked you sharply. 

The guilt in your eyes must have been apparent because Sicheng dropped his voice into a gentle whisper for what he said next. 

“I know the two of you are as good at dancing around your feelings as you are at dancing on stage. But maybe try talking to him, Y/N? I think right now, you two might have more in common than you think”, Sicheng told you as he gave you a knowing look. 

The day of the performance shoot came and there was a noticeable awkwardness between you and Ten. You decided to cut the tension by apologizing to him, citing the nerves for the performance as the reason you had been on edge the whole week. Whether or not Ten believed you, he accepted your apology and wrapped you up in his arms. You wished you had psychic abilities so you could read his mind. Did he have the same butterflies in his stomach right now?

As soon as the music started any nervousness you felt around Ten melted away. Dancing with him was like second nature to you by now. The song started with you on stage alone, dancing under the single spotlight illuminating the stage. You could see him out of the corner of your eyes, following your every move and observing you with nothing short of adoration. You left the stage for Ten’s solo and you could feel the goosebumps on your skin from watching him perform. He was absolutely stunning, moving fluidly through the movements as though he was painting with his body on the canvas of the stage. You joined him on stage for the chorus, dancing apart but facing one another as though mirroring the other’s movements. Through the bridge you inched closer and closer to one another. You felt your heartbeat beginning to rise from the proximity. 

Both of you could communicate with each other with your eyes alone. You danced perfectly in sync with one another, pulling apart only to fall right back into each other, just like magnets. So different yet inseparable. You could see it in his eyes, when he looked at you, that the emotion in his mirrored yours. You knew you weren’t imagining it when he audibly gasped as you melted into his embrace for the final move. His heartbeat was racing a hundred miles an hour, just like yours. The pair of you stood there, lips just a few millimeters apart, breathing deeply as the studio erupted into thunderous applause. You were no longer afraid to admit to yourself and to the world, that you had it bad for Ten Lee. 

And when he kissed you on the rooftop that night, you knew that he had it bad for you too. 

[ryoyuftw]

Where have you read about critizism and calls for boycott of the ski jumpers? I'm norwegian too and I haven't seen or heard anything. I completely agree with the boys btw, but not with what you say about most norwegians. In my experience, toooons of people are critical of Johaug. I think its more the media and the officials that see her as this "cannot do anything wrong" type of figure)

Oops, way too long rant incoming😅

The media hasn't done the criticizing this time, but it's almost everyone who is commenting on the issue online, which is a very hot topic in comment sections/forums today. Like on fridiskusjon.no, vgd.no, vg/facebook comments to the news articles etc.

When it comes to boycotting, there have been several people saying "I'll boycott Vikersund for this unless they apologize" or "I'm done watching ski jumping because of this" or "I've lost all respect for the ski jumpers" etc. 90% of online comments are really "how dare you say this about lovely Therese, she doesn't deserve this stress right before the Olympics" and "how can these ski jumpers talk about cross country skiers when they're not nearly as popular/good" etc. People are even bringing up dsq's as if they can't comment on doping because they're apparently cheating in their own sport🙄

It's just sad to see all these negative comments being supported and upvoted, while any critical thinking about Therese's situation, and any mention of people actually agreeing with Johann and Daniel, gets buried, downvoted or accused of being trolls...

And there's also the sizable bunch that says "we're so disappointed in Clas, who we supported throughout his tough times, that he hasn't punished them more. He shouldn't let them go to the Olympics after talking so badly about their Olympic colleague” etc. Like that huge facebook group that was created to support Clas this fall were pretty much all criticizing Johann and Daniel, and Clas' handling of the situation, as if he should have kicked them off the team for speaking the truth.

I guess it's kind of my own fault for noticing all this when I'm seeking out the information, but this is also on popular foras where people are generally quite sane about topics, but then all talks about Therese turn into "poor girl, of course she didn't do anything wrong, and fuck anyone who implies otherwise."

[ingek73]

The Sussex Squad comes to Harry and Meghan’s defence in advance of Oprah interview

CR

By Cynthia ReyesContributor

Wed., March 3, 2021timer3 min. read

The battle between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex) and parts of the British media has hit a new and ugly phase that will likely get worse in the days ahead.

Harry and Meghan are finally telling their own story — to American and worldwide audiences, no less — and some British media are howling.

For four years, British newspapers, TV hosts and “royal experts” have told people what and how to think about Meghan Markle. In their hands, the accomplished Toronto-based actor, humanitarian and self-made millionaire was transformed into a grasping interloper from a “gang-scarred” California neighbourhood, who upset her staff by working too hard.

Prince Harry, meanwhile, previously portrayed as an outspoken and beloved prince, war-veteran and international humanitarian, was turned into a renegade weakling manipulated by his wife.

In recent weeks, however, the tables have turned. Meghan and Harry have won separate lawsuits against British newspapers and the couple scored two big opportunities to tell their story.

Harry’s interview with James Corden, host of “The Late, Late Show,” charmed millions of viewers. But his comment that the “toxic” U.K. media drove his young family from Britain, plus a clip promoting an interview with Oprah Winfrey this Sunday, have rattled both the U.K. media and Royal Family.

In the clip, Harry says his biggest fear was that “history” would repeat itself. No-one can doubt he’s referring to the way the media hounded his late mother Princess Diana and her death from a car accident, after being chased by paparazzi.

Meanwhile, the Royal Family and staff, already identified by some royal reporters as one source of their anti-Meghan stories, appear so anxious about the upcoming interview that two sensational accusations against Meghan this week have been linked to them.

In an echo of a 2018 allegation that palace staff found Meghan difficult to work with (partly because she worked too hard), a story appeared in The Times that linked a senior royal staffer to claims that Meghan bullied staff members. The Times also singled Meghan out for wearing certain earrings to an official dinner — a gift, the paper claimed, from the Saudi prince named in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Meghan and Harry’s lawyers quickly rebutted, saying the earrings were, in fact, loaned to Meghan by the Crown, and that the entire story was a conveniently timed smear campaign by media and royals. But the controversy raged on.

Enter “The Sussex Squad.” In the battle for public opinion, Meghan and Harry’s fiercest supporters are a grassroots group of women they’ve never met. Named The Sussex Squad by the Atlanta lawyer who helped bring them together, they hail from more than 70 countries. Many are well-educated, media-savvy women (and some men) of colour, skilled in fact-checking reporters and active on social media.

They’ve donated thousands of dollars to charitable causes backed by Meghan and Harry, from the Invictus Games for disabled veterans, to charities helping babies and children, educating girls, planting trees, fighting HIV/AIDS and preparing women to re-enter the workplace.

But the Squad’s daily work is battling the British media and, when necessary, the Royal Family. Responding to the Times’ story, members flooded Twitter with “receipts” — photos and stories highlighting expensive gifts the Saudi royal family has given the Queen and other members of her family. Their many tweets caused “The Royal Family,” “Buckingham Palace” and Prince Andrew’s former relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to trend on Twitter on Wednesday.

The Squad’s methods aren’t all exemplary. Under the anonymity of social media, they have been merciless, even vicious, when fighting against “paid trolls and royal gossips” (royal reporters and commentators) and anyone they believe unfairly criticizes Harry and Meghan. This causes concern in some parts of the Squad, but they argue, rightly or wrongly, that they have to “fight fire with fir

In the days before and after the Oprah interview on Sunday, watch for the battle to go into overdrive. Watch for media speculation and innuendo, some allegedly fed by “palace sources.” But don’t count out The Sussex Squad. It has the “receipts” and is not afraid to use them.

[love-takes-work]

Unpopular opinion: Rocknaldo was fine (not GREAT, just fine) and most of the hate for it is either a misinterpretation of its thesis or a feeling of betrayal over the social media promo for it.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

YEAH, people so intensely hate this episode and think it means something I never thought it meant. On the one hand I’m super supportive of people wanting to take different interpretations of things, but I don’t understand why some people keep saying “Rocknaldo” was a message to overobsessive/toxic fans or something. I didn’t see any message to fans in there and I don’t quite get what they think the Crew would be trying to say to its fans in such an unflattering way. It seemed like a straightforward message about fake allies to me.

“Rocknaldo” is actually my favorite Ronaldo episode. (Which kinda isn’t saying much since I’m not much of a Ronaldo fan.) But I really liked the idea that they’ve shown Ronaldo as a person who mainly pursues his interests for personal gain and recognition, and that was emphasized in “Rocknaldo.” In the first Ronaldo-focused episode, “Keep Beach City Weird,” he blurted out that what REALLY mattered is that something was finally happening to HIM. He became despondent when it turned out nothing was about him and he’s not at the center of anything. He wants to be important, and he frequently wants to do that at the expense of pushing other people down.

“Rocknaldo” was an escalation of that. He finally accepted some criticism about his behavior toward the Gems, but then his way of “fixing” that was to throw himself into an imagined version of their cause and immediately started telling others how they should execute their missions and standards according to his misinterpretations. They needed to show off their Gems, make a big show of not sleeping, and love and accept everyone (read: him). He wanted to be prioritized and centered in a group he wasn’t really part of and hadn’t authentically learned about. He wanted to walk in and be declared exceptional, wanted to insult Connie’s dedication to the group because he suspected she’s given preferential treatment for being Steven’s “girlfriend,” wanted to sulk and guilt the others about their failure to include him on missions he hasn’t trained for whatsoever.

I’ve met SO many people like him in my activism who are insulting and aggressive as soon as you don’t lick their behinds for joining and center them in your mission. If it ever makes them think they need to question their own inappropriate behavior or makes them feel that someone is more qualified to speak on a subject, there’s a huge outburst about how they’re NOT WELCOMING TO ALLIES or a catastrophic ragequit that blames the established members/leaders for trying to make the newcomer have a seat. If the cause doesn’t make Bloodstone feel good, out comes the shaming, the false equivalence, the claims that they WOULD have been an ally but YOU’RE JUST HOSTILE. Meanwhile they haven’t even been here long enough to know what the mission is.

And of course, “Rocknaldo” ends with Ronaldo backing away from trying to be accepted as a Crystal Gem, but concluding they couldn’t bring him into the fold because he is the ultimate outsider. His specialness and individuality was just too much for them. He honestly didn’t really get the point. And that’s how a lot of these things end, too. They just move on to something else where they can pursue their glory.

I’m not sure WHAT that whole thing is with people being super angry about the Bloodstone-related promo. To me it was utterly clear that we were not actually getting a new character and I did not feel like anyone trolled me. And I think you’re right--the “I expected X and I got Y” effect has marred quite a few episodes and arcs in this series, which is especially frustrating if the expectations WEREN’T actually based on anything anyone promised. 

There are actually some episodes I look forward to way less than “Rocknaldo” when reviewing stuff. And again I think it’s super weird that anyone spins this episode as a message to fans--that “the fandom is toxic” or “Ronaldo represents possessive fans” or something. Tons of professional reviewers saw it the way I did--as a “dangers of fake allies” episode. 

I argued with someone on Reddit about this once. (I’m just in the comments; I didn’t write the OP.)

Still happy to take unpopular opinions where I have to react and explain!

[kyloren]

Why Reylos Are A Bright Spot In The STAR WARS Fandom

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

full article below the cut:

Why is romantic love such a controversial thing in fandom? It’s something I ask myself a lot, as a person who writes about shipping and who desires the kind of love that stories tell me might exist. I’ve spent most of my life in fandom spaces—participating in conversations or observing and examining them—and have witnessed firsthand how objectionable fictional romance can be, especially in fandoms that appeal to and target men. Why is this the case, and why is romance a thing we use to punish women looking for escapism in genre stories?

It’s hard to say, but it remains an endemic and undeniable strain. Shipping, which is fandom code for wanting two characters to be together, is often snickered at or seen as some frivolous element of appreciation. It can lead to shaming that feels personal and accusatory, as if your interest in a fictional relationship is a roadmap to your own intentions and experience. This attitude towards shippers is especially present in the Star Wars fandom, where the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is steeped in a seemingly never-ending controversy. There are fervent supporters of the romance between these characters, a plentiful contingent of opposers, and those who don’t really care one way or another but still seem fit to criticize.

Why has the “Reylo” ship created such a stir? Let’s dig into this subset of the Star Wars fandom: where it started, why it’s accumulated so much negativity, and why the Reylos don’t deserve the bad reputation they’ve acquired, especially in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.

THE ORIGINS OF REYLO

The release of The Last Jedi was a rough time for a lot Star Wars fans. The film—the eighth in the Skywalker saga and the second in the Disney-era sequel trilogy—made a lot of bold storytelling choices, which divided the fandom into camps. Those who loved the meditations on the Force, Luke Skywalker’s troubled hero’s journey, the complicated characterization of Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose’s failed mission, and the strange developing bond between Rey and Kylo felt at odds with anyone who saw otherwise. Many disliked Luke’s arc, or the apparent sidelining of Poe and Finn, or the democratization of the Force. The disagreements spiraled into something bordering collective mania. It’s a debate that still rages today, and that seeped into the conversations we’re currently having about The Rise of Skywalker.

I loved the movie, but found the discourse numbing. Positive Twitter conversations were instantly marred by detractors, and every passionate argument was upended by accusatory nitpicks. I felt discouraged from participating in any of it, and I felt bitter towards the Star Wars community in general. Until I found the Reylos.

After stumbling on podcasts like What The Force?, Skytalkers, and Scavenger’s Hoard—all female-hosted programs—I realized there were plenty of encouraging conversations about The Last Jedi happening in fandom. I also realized most of them were Reylo-oriented. Suddenly, I was exposed to the exact conversations I always wanted to have about Star Wars: deep dives into mythology, redemption arcs, symbolism and dualism, religion, poetry. And all of that was encompassed in Reylo. All of these larger stories, focused through these characters joined by fate and purpose, who represented opposing ideologies of the Force.

There was so much to dig into. Rey and Kylo have a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, a romantic trope seen in fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, classic literature like Pride and Prejudice, mythological stories like that of Hades and Persephone, even modern genre television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s typically used in women-oriented storytelling, as it affords duality and compassion to both parties; a distribution of power that makes the women as complicated, compromised, and interesting as their male counterparts. Rey’s interest in Kylo adds a layered intrigue to a character otherwise patently “good” and “pure,” words commonly associated with women, forcing them into palatable, antiquated gender roles.

Their relationship feeds a part of the fanbase who craves that kind of female protagonist. One who represents their own burgeoning lust, complicated compassion for the men they chose to care about, and temptation towards things we’re told to fear. Through the Reylo relationship, Rey took on another angle, one that finally made Star Wars feel like a story for me.

THE BACKLASH

I also learned right away what it meant to be a Reylo in the Star Wars fandom. The relationship between the light-sided Rey and dark-sided Kylo was riddled in turmoil. In The Force Awakens, a scene where he straps her down and interrogates her is considered by many to be abusive. The language Kylo uses to seduce Rey to his side in The Last Jedi is also seen as manipulative and problematic. He tells her that no one knows her like he does. In their opinion, he’s attempting to groom her to his standards, to turn her into what he wants against her own will. Those against the relationship will tell you that it’s a dangerous and negative message to send to young girls.

And here’s where I’ll say something potentially controversial amongst my fellow Reylos: I don’t think these people are “wrong.” Because everyone’s experience and perspective is their own thing to interrogate, and it’s not up to me to tell people how to feel about something–even if I disagree entirely. What I do take issue with, however, is the need to interrogate someone else’s preferences or fantasies. There is an infantilizing element to the backlash, as if those opposed think that Reylos haven’t reconciled with the themes presented to them, and are merely choosing to ignore them because they think Adam Driver is hot.

The way I see it, relationships like Reylo—power fantasies oriented on the feminine psyche, with an antagonistic male—fulfill two things I love in storytelling. They are pure escapism; the happy ending those of us drawn to the incurable are never afforded. And they are instructive, as they exemplify the patriarchal schism between men and women: that we are not equal, but that women love men anyway because of the compassion that comes naturally to balance that division. It shows how we can mend those gaps through patience and understanding. It’s archetypical and fantastical, sure, but that’s what Star Wars is: a fairy tale that wrestles with society and humanity in broad strokes.

That said, there are other reasons for dissent. Some fans ship Rey and Finn, and see their romance as a better avenue for a healthy relationship. Some have experienced personal trauma and can’t abide a romance that mimics and negates their pain. Others just don’t see the Reylo thing at all. Absolutely all of that is valid. Shipping should never be a competition or an authoritative moral stance on any side. Rey/Finn shippers are just as valid as Reylos because it speaks to what someone personally craves and desires. The shaming shouldn’t exist on any side—but because it does, the passionate defense comes in.

REYLOS DON’T DESERVE THE HATE

That knee-jerk self defense has drawn a lot of ire to the Reylo community in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. On paper, the Reylos were given a lot of what they desire: Kylo Ren is redeemed and turns back into Ben Solo. Rey and Ben fight side by side and even share a kiss. But then Ben dies and Rey ends the movie alone, something that irked the shippers. They saw the ending as a grim conclusion for Ben and a way of punishing Rey for expressing her desires. To many, the ending feels hopeless and feeds into this stereotypical notion that for a woman to be strong, she must be single — as if romantic love weakens us.

There are other ways to read the ending, and many fans found power in it. That’s the beauty of film: that it’s entirely subjective. But in their profession of disappointment, the Reylos once again became a punching bag for the fandom at large. A recent BuzzFeed article compared the way Reylos reacted to The Rise of Skywalker to the way the Fandom Menace—a trolling, abusive, anti-Disney hate group—reacted to The Last Jedi. (Never mind that their “source” for this reaction was a tweet from a prominent member of the Fandom Menace, and that many of the complaints in question were either fabricated or from non-Reylo accounts.)

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

I also know that the Reylos helped me find my way back to loving Star Wars, gave me endless professional and creative inspiration for the last two years, and deepened my interest and love of storytelling and mythology. I know I’m not alone, and I know that the Reylo shipping community has made Star Wars finally feel like a fandom they were allowed to love. That’s something I hope fans with different access points to the world of Star Wars might think about before they wag a finger or call Reylos fake fans or mock their interests and experience. Star Wars can and should be for everyone, and how we find our way into the galaxy far, far away is a unique, personal, and beautiful thing. Love is what it’s all about at the end of the day. Even romantic love.

by Lindsey Romain for Nerdist [find article HERE]

[arcticdementor]

The hilarious headline in the Daily Beast yesterday read like a cross of Clickhole and Izvestia circa 1937: “Is Glenn Greenwald the New Master of Right-Wing Media? FROM HIS MOUTH TO FOX’S EARS?”

The story, fed to poor Beast media writer Lloyd Grove by certain unnamed embittered personages at the Intercept, is that their former star writer Greenwald appears on, and helps provide content for — gasp! — right-wing media! It’s nearly the exclusive point of the article. Greenwald goes on TV with… those people! The Beast’s furious journalisming includes a “spot check” of the number of Fox items inspired by Greenwald articles (“dozens”!) and multiple passages comparing Greenwald to Donald Trump, the ultimate insult in #Resistance world. This one made me laugh out loud:

In a self-perpetuating feedback loop that runs from Twitter to Fox News and back again, Greenwald has managed, like Trump before him, to orchestrate his very own news cycles.

This, folks, is from the Daily Beast, a publication that has spent much of the last five years huffing horseshit into headlines, from Bountygate to Bernie’s Mittens to classics like SNL: Alec Baldwin's Trump Admits 'I Don't Care About America'. The best example was its “investigation” revealing that three of Tulsi Gabbard’s 75,000 individual donors — the late Princeton professor Stephen Cohen, peace activist Sharon Tennison, and a person called “Goofy Grapes” who may or may not have worked for Russia Today host Lee Camp — were, in their estimation, Putin “apologists.”

…

For years now, this has been the go-to conversation-ender for prestige media pundits and Twitter trolls alike, directed at any progressive critic of the political mainstream: you’re a Republican! A MAGA-sympathizer! Or (lately), an “insurrectionist”! The Beast in its Greenwald piece used the most common of the Twitter epithets: “Trump-defender.” Treachery and secret devotion to right-wing politics are also the default explanation for the growing list of progressives making their way onto Fox of late, from Greenwald to Kyle Kulinski to Aaron Mate to Jimmy Dore to Cornel West.

The truth is, Trump conservatives and ACLU-raised liberals like myself, Greenwald, and millions of others do have real common cause, against an epistemic revolution taking hold in America’s political and media elite. The traditional liberal approach to the search for truth, which stresses skepticism and free-flowing debate, is giving way to a reactionary movement that Plato himself would have loved, one that believes knowledge is too dangerous for the rabble and must be tightly regulated by a priesthood of “experts.” It’s anti-democratic, un-American, and naturally unites the residents of even the most extreme opposite ends of our national political spectrum.

…

Follow the logic. Isikoff, who himself denounced the Steele dossier, and said in the exchange he essentially agreed with Meier’s conclusions, went on to wonder aloud how right a thing could be, if it’s being embraced by The Federalist and Tucker Carlson. Never mind the more salient point, which is that Meier was “ignored by other media” because that’s how #Resistance media deals with unpleasant truths: it blacks them out, forcing reporters to spread the news on channels like Fox, which in turn triggers instant accusations of unreliability and collaborationism.

It’s a Catch-22. Isikoff’s implication is a journalist can’t make an impact if the only outlet picking up his or her work is The Federalist, but “reputable” outlets won’t touch news (and sometimes will even call for its suppression) if it questions prevailing notions of Conventional Wisdom.

These tactics have worked traditionally because for people like Meier, or myself, or even Greenwald, who grew up in the blue-leaning media ecosystem, there’s nothing more ominous professionally than being accused of aiding the cause of Trump or the right-wing. It not only implies intellectual unseriousness, but racism, sexism, reactionary meanness, greed, simple wrongness, and a long list of other hideous/evil characteristics that could render a person unemployable in the regular press. The label of “Trump-defender” isn’t easily removed, so most media people will go far out of their way to avoid even accidentally incurring it.

…

The consistent pattern with the Trump-era press, which also happens to be the subject of so many of those Greenwald stories the Beast and the Intercept employees are complaining about, is that information that is true but doesn’t cut the right way politically is now routinely either non-reported or actively misreported.

Whether it’s Hunter Biden’s laptop or the Brian Sicknick affair or infamous fictions like the “find the fraud” story, the public increasingly now isn’t getting the right information from the bulk of the commercial press corps. That doesn’t just hurt Trump and conservatives, it misinforms the whole public. As Thomas Frank just pointed out in The Guardian, the brand of politicized reporting that informed the lab-leak fiasco risks obliterating the public’s faith in a whole range of institutions, a disaster that would not be borne by conservatives alone.

But this is only a minor point, compared to the more immediate reason the constant accusations of treachery and Trumpism aimed at dissenters should be ignored.

From the embrace of oligarchical censorship to the aggressive hawking of “noble lies” like Russiagate to the constant humbugging of Enlightenment values like due process to the nonstop scolding of peasants unschooled in the latest academic jargon, the political style of the modern Democratic mainstream isn’t just elitist and authoritarian, it’s almost laughably off-putting. In one moment it’s cheering for a Domestic War on Terror and in the next, declaring war on a Jeopardy contestant flashing the “A-OK” sign. It’s Dick Cheney meets Robin DiAngelo, maybe the most loathsome conceivable admixture. Who could be surprised a politically diverse group finds it obnoxious?

During the Trump years conventional wisdom didn’t just take aim at Trumpism. The Beltway smart set used the election of Trump to make profound arguments against traditional tenets of democracy, as well as “populism,” (which increasingly became synonymous with “the unsanctioned exercise of political power by the unqualified”), and various liberal traditions undergirding the American experiment. Endless permutations of the same argument were made over and over. Any country in which a Trump could be elected had a “too much democracy” problem, the “marketplace of ideas” must be a flawed model if it leads to people choosing Trump, the “presumption of innocence” was never meant to apply to the likes of Trump, and so on.

…

By last summer, after the patriotic mania of Russiagate receded, the newest moral panic that the kente-cloth-clad Schumers and Pelosis were suddenly selling, in solidarity with famed progressive change agents like Bank of America, PayPal, Apple, ComCast, and Alphabet, was that any nation capable of electing Trump must always have been a historically unredeemable white supremacist construct, the America of the 1619 Project. The original propaganda line was that “half” of Trump supporters were deplorable racists, then it was all of them, and then, four years in, the whole country and all its traditions were deemed deplorable.

Now, when the statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt came down, there was a new target, separate and apart from Trump. The whole history of American liberalism was indicted as well, denounced as an ineffectual trick of the oppressor, accomplishing nothing but giving legitimacy to racial despotism.

The American liberalism I knew growing up was inclusive, humble, and democratic. It valued the free exchange of ideas among other things because a central part of the liberal’s identity was skepticism and doubt, most of all about your own correctitude. Truth was not a fixed thing that someone owned, it was at best a fleeting consensus, and in our country everyone, down to the last kook, at least theoretically got a say. We celebrated the fact that in criminal courts, we literally voted to decide the truth of things.

This new elitist politics of the #Resistance era (I won’t ennoble it by calling it liberalism) has an opposite view. Truth, they believe, is properly guarded by “experts” and “authorities” or (as Jon Karl put it) “serious people,” who alone can be trusted to decide such matters as whether or not the Hunter Biden laptop story can be shown to the public. A huge part of the frustration that the general public feels is this sense of being dictated to by an inaccessible priesthood, whether on censorship matters or on the seemingly daily instructions in the ear-smashing new vernacular of the revealed religion, from “Latinx” to “birthing persons.”

In the tone of these discussions is a constant subtext that it’s not necessary to ask the opinions of ordinary people on certain matters. As Plato put it, philosophy is “not for the multitude.” The plebes don’t get a say on speech, their views don’t need to be represented in news coverage, and as for their political choices, they’re still free to vote — provided their favorite politicians are removed from the Internet, their conspiratorial discussions are banned (ours are okay), and they’re preferably all placed under the benevolent mass surveillance of “experts” and “professionals.”

Add the total absence of a sense of humor and the inability of “moral clarity” politics to co-exist with any form of disagreement, and there’s a reason why traditional liberals are suddenly finding it easier to talk with old conservative rivals on Fox than the new authoritarian Snob-Lords at CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Beast or The Intercept. For all their other flaws, Fox types don’t fall to pieces and write group letters about their intolerable suffering and “trauma” if forced to share a room with someone with different political views. They’re also not terrified to speak their minds, which used to be a virtue of the American left (no more).

From the moment Donald Trump was elected, popular media began denouncing a broad cast of characters deemed responsible. Nativists, misogynists and racists were first in line, but from there they started adding new classes of offender: Greens, Bernie Bros, “both-sidesers,” Russia-denialists, Intellectual dark-webbers, class-not-racers, anti-New-Normalers, the “Substackerati,” and countless others, casting every new group out with the moronic admonition that they’re all really servants of the “far right” and “grifters” (all income earned in service of non-#Resistance politics is “grifting”). By now conventional wisdom has denounced everyone but its own little slice of aristocratic purity as the “far right.”