#Last time I tried to play devil's advocate I got threats sent against not just me

[faranae]

Rant Incoming:

I’m not blind to the fact a few thousand of you are probably only here for my rants at this point, but for those of you who are here for my more wholesome takes and guide-related content I encourage you to please block the #discourse and #fandom drama tags. As always, your dashboard content is in your hands. Please stay safe out there, and try to prioritize your own mental health over sipping the latest tea.

This post may include some vaguely accusatory language directed at a lot of “you”s and “they”s, but I am not singling out any one individual here. I’m just very frustrated and disappointed in humanity right now and no amount of editing is going to scrub that squeaky clean. 

Now, with that said...

Y'all really out there actively threatening a woman's life and livelihood in the middle of a global pandemic over:

A: An opinion on a kid's movie;

B: Two paragraphs in said opinion warning that toxic fans might pull exactly this, which the author admitted herself was childish and apologized for very quickly;

C: Some reblogs screenshotted out of context and posted to Twitter, some months or years old.

Cancel Culture™️ is horrifying.

I've been sitting here for days watching maliciously crafted screenshots circulate on Twitter; screenshots taken in such a way that masks they are of reblogs, not original posts. To anyone who uses Tumblr regularly it's obvious, right? We all know that left-hand bar means quoted text that doesn't necessarily belong to "OP" or reflect their views (usually).

Twitter users and global news outlets, not so much. 

Some people are taking advantage of that social media divide to blow this discourse way out of proportion in an attempt to decimate an innocent woman’s life and livelihood. Bot accounts are repeatedly posting accusations against OP with no proof only to disappear without a trace once their "tips” take off. 

I sincerely hope that none of you reading this are taking part in the current brigade. If you have, I implore you to take a step back and ask yourselves if you have the whole picture. Ask yourselves if you truly believe you have the right to threaten a regular person over a difference in opinion, even if you think it's a bad take. 

Try not to assume malice when ignorance could just as easily be the underlying factor. This is why civil discussion even when things get heated is so tremendously important. 

Nobody deserves to have their life threatened over a fandom, no matter what their opinion is. Nobody deserves to have fame-chasers jump out of the woodwork claiming OP is a "racist ableist abuser of minors" without proof just because they're globally trending on Twitter. Nobody deserves to have their entire livelihood put at risk over a kids' movie.

This is a regular person, not some hot-shot politician or celebrity who has an agent to go over their posts with a fine-toothed comb. She doesn't deserve to have those other posts she didn't even write taken and added as fuel to the fire for the sake of drama. Folks are adding lies to the pile of “evidence”, either through malice or misinformation, and claiming they're some “smoking gun” with regards to both her strength of character and the supposed skeletons in her closet. 

Even if they were: Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now. Full stop. 

Actually, once more for the people in the back who don’t understand why Cancel Culture™️ is so dangerous: 

Our skeletons give structure to who we have grown to be in the now.

Even if you think someone’s suffered a fracture or two in their life, you don’t invasively cut them open to check the bones directly. You take an x-ray, say “Oh yeah, that was broken once but the patient has taken steps to make sure it isn’t impacting their current quality of life”, and move on. 

(Or, alternatively, point out “Yo man you might wanna have that looked at further because I’m pretty sure it didn’t set right the first time.”)

I hope you can forgive the shit metaphor.

The point is be kind. Even if you don't agree, try to take the road of civil discussion. Keep a level head. Ask questions. Educate yourselves if not others, or leave it alone if you genuinely don’t care. 

It's a choice we all have, and it’s all some of us have left. 

-

Disclaimer: I suppose I technically know Hailey/Squigg in passing - she’s a friend of a friend, though since we frequent different social and academic/professional circles we’ve never really been acquainted proper. Does that still introduce some level of bias? Of course it does. However, I can condemn the mob mentality currently surrounding her without agreeing with the post she made. 

This isn't black and white. She is more than a subject of discourse. She is a passionate theorist and a talented storyteller. She is an industry professional with several fantastic portfolio projects under her belt. She is in my limited experience kind and empathetic and more than a tad mischievous, but also opinionated and far from perfect. 

We all have moments where our mouths outrun our brains in the moment; Not only is Hailey no exception, she near-immediately took the steps to correct her slip-up when she realized part of her wording was pointlessly accusatory. You’d be surprised how rare that is. Unfortunately the post had already taken off and Cancel Culture™️ deems the appropriate response is to glass the planet rather than acknowledge any gestures of correction or goodwill. 

Anyway!

Standing up against bullying and cancel/doxx culture isn’t bootlicking, it’s just common sense. 

Be kind.