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How to spot a smear campaign:

Victims’s “crimes” will be enlarged, and even if they’re small missteps, they will be treated as if only the worst person on the planet would do such a thing

Accusations against the victim will always be a reach, aka, they did ‘this little thing’ but it actually means they’re a racist/murderer/genocide supporter/fascist/have blood on their hands, even when the person’s actions never conformed to those crimes

All and any actions of the victims will be misenterpreted in the worst possible way, anything the person does will be taken as an offense and intentions will be read as hostile and manipulative, regardless of how clear they are

All victim’s actions will be taken out of context; ie, victim said something cruel to someone, but they take out the context of the victim being abused, threatened, tortured, forced into defense mode and finally attacking out of desperation to defend themselves and get free

The victim will commonly get provoked into giving a bad reaction, (anyone gets defensive if they’re accused of the crimes they never did, or simply triggering insults until they snap), and the reaction will become the new ‘proof’ that the victim is in fact, evil and guilty

A lot of pressure will be put on you to react ‘correctly’ to the smear campaign; if you don’t accept to demonize this person at once, you’re getting scrutinized, shamed for your lack of morality, told that you support all these horrid things and that you are just as despicable

You will notice a trend of people ganging together based on their demonization of the victim; they will set a standard where you’re accepted and welcome if only you also will demonize and hate this person, and if you don’t, you’re blocked, cast out, and accused of causing harm

It will feel very easy to accept to demonize this person, and going against it will feel risky, like going against the grain, doubting the word of the many and risking being demonized yourself.

The smear campaign continues all the way until the victim is chased out of the community and denied a voice, even if the victim commits no further crimes, awful things will be said about them, their past ‘misdeeds’ continually brought up, until the victim is commonly believed to be worthless, and becomes completely isolated, scared of society and alone

There will be no limit to what is considered okay to do to the victim of a smear campaign; even if the victim is accused of minor bad behaviour, it will become okay to threaten, insult, shout slurs, trigger, provoke, humiliate, manipulate, and repeat any kind of abusive behaviour to the victim, all because ‘they’re bad so they deserve it’.

People leading the smear campaign will switch between being ‘extremely grossed out and enraged’ to showing absolute joy and satisfaction when they find a new reason to demonize and smear the victim. People truly horrified of someone’s actions do not get a leap of joy when a new disaster happens, they’re not beside themselves to abuse the perpetrator all over again.

It will never, ever be acceptable to show any mercy to the victim. Forgiveness is out of the question, trying to understand them is out of the question. Even reading or listening to what this person is saying will be banned and forbidden, unless it’s for humiliating purposes. They will be shown as absolutely irredeemable, and associating yourself with them as evil and unforgivable. You will be instructed to block or unfollow or report the person based on what you’re told, without any significant proof.

Do not fall for smear campaigns. If a large amount of people all agree that a person is the worst, but their story is exaggerated, out of context, sounds fictional, and doesn’t show any proof, and the people switch from being enraged to eager, doubt it. Participating in a smear campaign will help the abusers isolate and abuse someone, and you do not want to be a part of it. They will also smear anyone who stands up to their abuse, so you’re helping the abusers to create a place where pointing out abuse gets you cast out of the community.

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Dude... First off, it's not that deep. It's a fun, silly blog for people having fun.

But lets talk about you implying every single nah on every one of these is people saying they aren't interested themselves. I personally have voted nah for a few different reasons, depending on what it is. (This wasn’t one of them, I voted heard here, but my point stands)

Sometimes someone votes nah because they aren’t interested. Sometimes they vote nah because they don’t think the submission is even remotely a hear me out and, therefore, don’t see why they need to hear the reasoning. Sometimes they say nah because they both don’t find the submission attractive and they know the source material, therefore knowing the character’s personality and know that it would do nothing to change their mind. Sometimes they say nah because they just have 0 chances of being convinced that the submission is attractive, no matter how it’s spun. And, while I haven’t ever done it, sometimes people vote negative options in submission based poll blogs simply because they don’t like the source material or creator.

Don’t assume you know why nearly 120 people said ‘nah’ to Homer in drag. There’s a chance each of them have their own reasons.

Homer Simpson in drag (at the end of "Werking Mom")

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I am begging people to learn how to accept multiple truths and situational morality instead of this weird hill to die on pure truth stanning culture that appears to be getting more and more popular in fandom spaces. Learn how to identify the nuances, please, I am begging.

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Me Giving a Pressed Conference: our advocacy for the disabled must include the addict, the imperfect victim, those we despise; the right to autonomy and life cannot devolve into a popularity contest

Reporter I Hate (Not Sexual Tension): Does that include all the attendees of the Bored Ape NFT event who went blind

Me: *Blood streaming from my nostrils and eyes* david, it includes everyone

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I got an ask about Dream's ADHD and him bringing "it" out or something? I'm still waking up and deleted the ask in this tired state. I mentioned his ADHD in a not properly tagged post so I'm gonna assume the anon will see this

If you do want to hear my thoughts could you maybe resend the ask and be a bit more clear what you meant by "it"? As long as it's not solely related to the recent drama I'm willing to answer. I think my tired self thought it couldn't possibly be solely that.

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jack said that he hated dream and dream hated jack, and they both knew that, but they kept it ‘civil’

now I don’t know to what extent this is true, we can’t just trust his word, but if this really was the case then why are people exaggerating it so much? like if they said themselves that they were civil then why is twitter blowing it up as some massive thing that dream was a flipping monster or something?

(this is coming from a dream fan but I have no hate to tommy and jack, they’re great content creators too. I’m more angry at the way people have reacted to the clip)

Twitter's just like that from what I understand. Like even out of fandom spaces at least 90% of that site is in attack mode.

And unfortunately Dream has some of the worst both stans and antis. You put some of the most overreactive people on a site that literally encourages rage and interaction bait and… yeah…

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x$com

#_constel_

#status

#1855742549744402917

Replace $ with . and # with / to get the link to the clips for full context.

Alright so unfortunately because I checked it out while logged out (I didn’t want it messing with my already flimsy algorithm) I only got to see the first four. Which was more Jack than Tommy tbqh

That being said what I’m gathering is how I felt beforehand + Jack is incredibly biased based on a bad first impression but trying to be mature about it.

Like my initial thoughts said: it seems both were kinda in the wrong with Dream definitely overreacting to Tommy taking personal jabs. Which I know is just something Tommy likes to do. My only issue on that is one I share about all people who that’s their favorite way to joke with others: you have to make sure the target is ok with those jokes and know what the boundaries are. (Something I believe he has improved on mostly)

But at the same time Dream needed to take a step back and calm down before he spoke on the matter publicly (something he has since improved on I believe). It’s important to not immediately act on anger, especially for us with ADHD. Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria is a bitch and can make you say/do things you didn’t want to.

So yeah TL;DR, both parties made some mistakes 3-4 years ago and have since improved on what actions they did wrong to where they won’t repeat that hopefully. Sucks that this argument probably was the starting point of a broken relationship tho.

Anyway I am highly unlikely to say anything more on this subject. Thank you for baring with me today and being willing to help out. Have a good day no matter what your personal take on the situation and peace ✌️

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Got someone sending me a link to at least a clip if not the clip. Will watch it as soon as I can and add commentary there.

TY

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The specifics of the clip was that Tommy, at 16, wrote in his diary to be EXTRA careful around dream specifically, because it's too scary/not worth it to accidentally upset him, and said he never would treat a 16 year old the way dream treated him. Philza and jack manifold agreed that they never would have treated a kid that way. It wasn't in general "don't be rude" it was "hey watch yourself around dream and don't do anything that could upset him. Walk on eggshells with him, it's not worth the fallout and pain"

And also because dream fans will take any negative remark about him and turn it into a big deal immediately 🙄

Maybe I had misinterpreted things but I had read from those who got the patreon clip that he clarified he wrote “don’t upset Dream” and yet did so anyway. But like with others (including this message) it’s second and third hand atm for me (can’t watch clips rn even if I get access to any as I’m not home). That’s part of why I just want sent the actual clip(s), so I can hear the actual wordings and such straight from Tommy and determine myself what it is. Because right now, to me, it sounds like “both were definitely in the wrong, just in different ways.” Also this is issues from at least 3 years ago being aired out unprompted but that's neither here nor there.

And unfortunately both Dream stans and Dream antis like to take anything negative said about Dream, no matter how small, and turn into a big thing, just in different directions. Two sides of the same coin, as all stan/anti situations are.

For now I'm sticking with my thought of "both did bad and they really should handle this privately, not share ir publicly for their stans/antis to be able to get fuel"

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You probably should actually watch the episode before making discourse posts about it. Not mad or anything just a neutral observation

I definitely hear you, and understand this viewpoint. But I also am not great at focusing on most podcasts and really don’t want to listen to a full (min length) 40 minute podcast episode for a (max) 10 minute section.

I also read somewhere that they also locked some bits behind their patreon which like, good on you get that bag, but I’m not spending 7 bucks for any reason other than actually enjoying the podcast series.

That being said if anyone has a clip/compilation of the full Dream related parts I’ll gladly check it out when I can!

(Also despite the name of the blog this isn’t really a discourse blog and more a “place to rant about potential controversial or divisive topics” blog)

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Look, all the info I'm getting is second hand from those who listened to the podcast and third hand from those who spoke with those who listened I'll admit but

From what I'm gathering all I see was revealed was "Dream was rude" and "Tommy had to remind himself to not be awful to Dream", both if which... Aren't news?

Dream was rude. Like 90% of that server was rude to each other. This isn't like some big revelation. That’s what happens when you get a bunch of people who most are in the range of 16-25 in age and few even knew each other beforehand. This isn’t new.

And did we all forget that Tommy had to be told by others as well as Dream himself to cool it with the insulting jokes? That he took the jokes too far? Like I remember back in 2020-2021 Wilbur, Tubbo, and BadBoyHalo all had to tell him as well that he was taking things too far.

I also read somewhere that in that same podcast Tommy admitted to ignoring Tubbo's safeword that basically said "hey the jokes at my expense aren't funny anymore" because he thought it was funny? I am definitely taking that with a bigger grain of salt than the rest but yeah.

(Also what Jack said of Dream taking credit for everything contributed to the server is literally verifiably false. He made one joke matching energy with what Tommy said, likely as a joke, and ig Jack and Tommy decided that was serious)

This doesn’t strike me as a “Dream was awful to everyone and overly sensitive” as much as it does “Tommy realized he made a few mistakes but wasn’t the only one”.

I feel Tommy and Jack need to do like everyone else did who mostly/completely cut ties and just not talk about it anymore

Again, I haven’t listened. I could be wrong. I just feel we need another viewpoint on this topic than just that of obvious Dream antis here on Tumblr…

(Note: I have become mostly neutral/uncaring on most CCs from the DSMP. This is about critical thinking and not automatically having knee-jerk reactions to things and not about defending or attacking anyone who can defend themselves or doesn’t deserve being attacked. Even if conveying that is hard for me.)

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Some ppl are like "I'm a kinky sex-positive pervert freak!!!" and then make fun of virgins and asexuals..... sure, reclaim freakiness but keep working on that because teasing ppl for their sex lives (or lack thereof) is, unfortunately, very normie mainstream vanilla behaviour. the right to sexual determination includes NOT having sex. 101 shit. Like this isnt subversive dude, it's using the edge of an ideology for bullying

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here’s my one whole discourse post for pride month. you fucks will never ever ever wean off the radfem shit if you keep trying to give “cis men are evil” nuance. no, it’s not bad because they could be closeted or questioning, it’s bad because gender essentialism is a fucking brain poison and it makes you stupid

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Also, while I'm at it, don't hate follow period. Don't willingly interact with things that make you unreasonably angry. Don't do check ups on people if you aren't actually willing to be open to them possibly changing. Just drop them from your life!

I haven't posted an original post here in a long time but here we go since a lot of people (especially on other sites but some here to) seem to not get this here it is:

Sending someone hate, rape threats, death threats, suicide bate etc is scummy at best and downright evil at worst no matter who you’re sending it too!

I don’t care if the person “deserves it” or not, I don’t care if the person’s awful or not, I don’t care! If you really don’t like someone unfollow them if you’re hate following, block them, block their name/username/whatever, ignore them and move on! If what they did is really bad (see: illegal) then be sure to share that fact (with a few pieces evidence of the action so that it’s clear it isn’t fake)

Sending the aforementioned messages makes you a terrible person, and depending on the type of message it’s also illegal. If you want to be better than those you dislike then be better and ignore them! It’s really not that hard!

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I haven't posted an original post here in a long time but here we go since a lot of people (especially on other sites but some here to) seem to not get this here it is:

Sending someone hate, rape threats, death threats, suicide bate etc is scummy at best and downright evil at worst no matter who you’re sending it too!

I don’t care if the person “deserves it” or not, I don’t care if the person’s awful or not, I don’t care! If you really don’t like someone unfollow them if you’re hate following, block them, block their name/username/whatever, ignore them and move on! If what they did is really bad (see: illegal) then be sure to share that fact (with a few pieces evidence of the action so that it’s clear it isn’t fake)

Sending the aforementioned messages makes you a terrible person, and depending on the type of message it’s also illegal. If you want to be better than those you dislike then be better and ignore them! It’s really not that hard!

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No matter how progressive or well-read you are, there are always going to be moments in your life where somebody pushes back against something that's so culturally ingrained you never even considered it before. And you'll say "Huh, it never occurred to me to challenge this but you're right" and that doesn't mean you were "morally toxic" before, it means you're a non-omniscient human capable of growth.