#The people are homophobic and spread misinformation like wildfire

[goldemas1244]

Malaysia is like a mini America

[real-total-drama-takes]

ranking social media platforms for the td fandom:

-td instagram. everyone is so nice and just vibes, posts nice art, is respectful of eachother’s ships, and there’s basically no discourse.

huge gap

-td tumblr. ngl there’s definitely annoying discourse and i think people here can be unnecessarily mean, but it’s similar to td instagram. nice art, funny posts, and not super cringe.

even bigger gap

-td twitter. very very cringe and annoying, everyone is a 14 year old noco shipper which says it all lmao, and a lot of them bash any noah/cody ship that isn’t noco. like i’ve seen them hating on nowen and alenoah??

-td reddit. cringe supreme, shitty content, and full of homophobes and transphobes who downvote someone with harmless hc’s.

-td tiktok. horrid taste in ships, misinformation spreads like a wildfire, fujoshis everywhere, AWFUL character takes, (defending canon sierra’s actions) lethal amounts of cringe with those awful gacha life edits.

.

[thetiredstuff]

What is with this fandom’s weird obsession with creating and spreading misinformation? Normally I see it being done to Jensen, but as the post you just reblogged proves, they do it to Misha too. I’ve been in a lot of fandoms over the years (some of them way more toxic than the spn fandom), but this has never been a thing in any of them. I don’t get it.

Hi anon!!!

Damn for a second there I thought I had reblogged misinformation and was starting to panick because I try my best to not do that

but yeah i've never been in other fandoms so i don't know about those but I do know (at least in my experience) that it started happening after a new wave of spn fans joined. I think after episode 18 aired, so the ones who are here largely because of destiel and who are all pretty much my age surrounding early 20s. (not saying everyone fits that descriptions because I fit it pretty well so ... but definitely a trend i noticed)

And for some reason a lot of them find it hilarious to spread misinformation posts. And some are indeed funny! When ya know they also mention it is in fact a joke. Because some—like that misha one—are sent out into the tumblr stratosphere without any mention that it is in fact fake.

And some are more harmless than others but for the most part they can be incredibly harmful: I'm thinking back to like a while ago (several months or a year ago) when someone made a manip of Jensen tweeting a homophobic tweet and that just isn't funny. On the contrary it's just very damaging to not only Jensen because he didn't actually say it but also and in that instance more directly to the other fans who love Dean or Jensen or Destiel and then maybe aren't as active on Twitter and see that he's homophobic with no mention that it is in fact fake.

And then other people outside this fandom, still on tumblr, pick up on it and before you know it, it's preading like wildfire except it isn't even true. But the damage is already done.

And while that "Misha is now into NFTs" post is of a different variety, it carries the same weight behind it.

It's very irresponsible and also just damaging to these people's carreers. Like imagine if you're going about your business and then all of a sudden you start seeing screenshots of supposed tweets you tweeted but they're expressing homophobic views?

Like people do get fired for that, people do get reprimanded for that.

It isn't funny to me.

And in the age of so much misinformation and fast-paced sharing, it is really important to watch what you are saying and if you are sharing something to disclose if it is a joke or not.

Of course, that responsibility also lies with those who reblog those fake posts immediately but it isn't always clear whether or not something is fake.

Those "ha ha funny fake posts that make people think actor A is an asshole because it looks real" might be funny to those who create it and their friends who are in on the joke, but the moment it spreads further than that small friend group, it is in fact not funny. Because it can be very damaging to the actor and also to the fans who enjoy his work or characters.

[blackandblueandstars]

The Rainbow Alliance

Just a short I wrote.

Trigger Warning: Violence, homophobia, transphobia, war, religion

The rest of the world thought they’d been defeated. That’s what every major news outlet reported, that’s what The Sovereign wanted them to believe. Even half of America believed it too.

Zo rolled her eyes as she scanned through the headlines:

Saviors gain upper-hand in American civil war

America, land of the free, falls to theocracy

The Sovereign passes new laws to root out sinners, unfaithful

Of course, there was some truth to each headline. The Sovereign, the new government entity established by the Saviors, had gained more influence, winning over some less devout states. And their new regime was, undoubtedly, something from a nightmare.

“Hey,” Zeke said casually, dropping into the chair beside her. “What’s the word?”

“We’re all dead and the rapture is upon us,” Zo joked heavily. It didn’t feel so funny anymore.

“Ezekiel,” a voice called from the kitchen. “Come get your food.”

“Ma!” Zeke admonished, moving quickly toward the kitchen. “You know I go by Zeke now!”

Momma T, as she insisted Zo call her, scoffed in response. “I spent 12 hours in labor with you, son. I’ll call you whatever I please!”

“Yes ma’am,” Zeke mumbled, exiting the kitchen with a bowl of oats. He sulked back to the table before digging in to the meager portions. Zo watched, doing the math in her head. They needed more rations, that’s all there was to it. They had, maybe a week...if they scaled back.

“We’ve got to do something,” she thought aloud, chewing on a hangnail. “Something that changes the tide, something that shows the world we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere.”

“Here and queer,” Zeke added with a smirk. It was true, the majority of the Renegades were part of the community, or were here because they knew and loved someone in the community. They were the first group the Saviors went after. Low-hanging fruit, so to speak. Zo had thought they’d put these archaic times behind them, that they were a minority. She hadn’t realized how many people were secretly homophobic, transphobic, bigoted. Whatever you want to label it, they wanted her dead. Her, and everyone else that wasn’t “traditional.”

That had been almost a year ago now. A year that America had been in turmoil, fighting each other, killing each other. At first, it was the extremist groups. There were handfuls on both sides, and they fought each other in the streets, and even fought amongst themselves. They were spreading misinformation like wildfire. It was this effective campaigning that won over those who were more moderate...some might call them normal. It was like a set of dominoes, once it gained momentum, there was no stopping it. Collision was inevitable.

Zo, admittedly, had joined pretty early on. She’d always been involved in activism, and when things got bad...well, she needed to be there. And what did she have to lose? Her parents, her family...they either sat back and watched it unfold, or they defended the Saviors. Eventually, they joined them. Or died. Only a few joined her in the Renegades.

Ash walked into the room, rubbing their eyes. Zo chuckled when she saw them. They never were much of a morning person. “Hey Ash!” she shouted, making them jump.

“Oh,” said Ash. “Hey.”

“Rough night?” asked Zeke, pulling out a chair for them.

“Every night is a rough night,” Ash replied, dropping their head to the table. “How do you guys sleep through all the noise?”

Zo shrugged. “Used to it, I guess.”

Zeke leaned in conspiratorially. “I listen to music, crank it up real loud. Definitely does the trick.”

Ash sighed. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” they replied. They were new to the Renegades, having made their way to the mainland from Hawaii. Zo could tell they’d wished they hadn’t come, but they didn’t have much choice. Hawaii was Savior territory now.

“We need more supplies,” Zo said, changing the subject. “We’re not going to last long on what we have.”

Zeke nodded, looking at his empty bowl. Zo could hear his stomach growl, but she pretended not to. “Yea, the kids need more than gruel,” he said, lightly. “Surely we can find some fruit, or something? Maybe raid a grocery store?”

Supply trips had become more difficult as time went on. The Saviors had started to guard the necessities, knowing it was an easy way to force a confrontation.

“We’ll have to do some scouting,” Zo said, frowning. “Zeke, why don’t you and I go? Ash, you can work comms from here.”

Ash’s eyes darkened slightly and Zo worried they were going to fight her. Instead, she nodded. It wasn’t fair, she knew that. But it was a matter of life and death, and if they were found...well, it was better if they looked as innocuous as possible. Even the thought of it made her sick.

Sighing, she stood, tapping Zeke on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go change.”

She popped into the closet, stripping out of her black combat attire. She ran her fingers over the rainbow patch she’d sewn on herself, all those months ago. She hated recon missions, hated having to change from the clothes she felt comfortable in to…

Her eyes ran over the rack of blue jean dresses, finding one in her size. She slipped it on then pinned her hair, making sure her neck was still covered. Her hair had grown so much in the last year. Just another reminder of how they had to hide themselves to survive. It was like being forced back into the closet all over again.

She wiped the tear from her eye, pulling on the flat-soled shoes and heading out to meet Zeke.

“How do I look?” Zeke asked, spinning around in his slacks, cardigan, and suit jacket.

“Positively boring,” Zo said with a grin. “Couldn’t have done better myself.”

“You ready?” asked Zeke.

“Never,” Zo sighed, picking up the bag beside her. It held some essentials, but was also filled with gospel pamphlets, a bible...it had to look the part. “Let’s go.”

[freedom-of-fanfic]

I have been reading and reblogging some of your posts and wanted to thank you for that detailed account. I have been out of fandom for a while, and antis really baffled me at first. But now I have a question: Could you talk some more about how current antis relate back to the LJ social justice scene and when the morph from debating fanworks to dissing people happened? Thank you!

I’m glad you’ve been enjoying this blog!

I think this reddit post does a nice job of summarizing the history of fandom and how it’s led to our current point. But I’m going to go more into how tumblr’s very structure led to a ‘race to the bottom’ sort of enacting of punishment via social justice.

Almost all of this is from personal observation, having been here since late 2010.

To get more into the actual history of it: Racefail ‘09 is the name given to the big, public 2009 debates about racism in genre fiction (published fantasy and sci-fi), which happened primarily on livejournal and private websites. (Racefail was itself the result of the rising awareness of social justice in the real world thanks to the democratization of information via the internet.) Racefail raised a couple of big questions: were non-white (and non-straight/non-cis/non-male) creators being silenced and erased in published genre fiction? And were the stories being told primarily racist/sexist/homophobic and lacking in representation for non-white/Western cultures (and LGBT+/queer/female stories)?

From everything I’ve read I feel like a lot of good came out of these talks; in particular, it greatly raised the awareness of social justice in genre fiction and fandom spaces - which had been there before, but not quite so prominent.  But one major bad came out of it: it revealed, via the shitty behavior of one member of the genre fiction community, how social justice could easily be used as a silencing tactic by applying arguments meant to dismantle power structures to individuals who may (or may not!) benefit from those power structures.

Fast-forward to 2010-2012 tumblr. LJ has undergone multiple journal purges and partial restorations, been bought out by a Russian company, and - final straw - changed the way anonymous threaded posts were handled, ending its value as a space for anon memes like kinkmemes. Fandom dispersed. A not-insignificant number of us eventually end up on tumblr, and those of us coming from LJ have brought with us a greater awareness of social justice, particularly lgbt/queer culture and feminism.

At the same time, Facebook has opened its doors to everyone instead of only allowing college students to use it. Facebook has almost single-handedly popularized the notion of making your offline life publicly available online.  Gone are the days of keeping your age, real name, and offline identity hidden; we share everything except maybe last names and exact locations.

Tumblr democratizes the fandom experience like never before. Livejournal and forums had moderators; tumblr has none.  Communities are gone - instead we have tags where people gather to talk about shared interests. People who previously felt shut out, forced to be ‘lurkers’ because they had nothing to say, could now have a blog and share the work of others via reblogging. The main way to gain social capital is by having the most followers and therefore the most widespread content.

But tumblr is a weird experience compared to other blogging sites because at the time it was the only one with a ‘reblog’ function. any one post can go absolutely viral and the people who see it beyond your immediate circle will lack the context of the rest of your blog. This means that either every single post needs to be entirely self-contained … or get wildly misunderstood. (Guess which one happens.) It also means that that the posts that spread the fastest and furthest are the short, witty ones or - you guessed it - the controversial ones. Finally, people tend to not fact-check - if something is interesting and seems believable, people reblog it uncritically. Tumblr’s dashboard structure actively encourages people to not leave their dash to look at provided external links - you’ll lose your ‘place’ on your endless-scrolling dash, and the little ‘home’ button in the corner is reminding you how many new posts have been created since you last refreshed. You don’t have time to fact-check.

Controversy without context is polarizing - without the original context, people provide their own context and agree or disagree based on a bunch of assumptions. Tumblr is a breeding ground for this. Opinions don’t get more nuanced - they get more vitriolic, more sharp and quick-witted.  And with people not bothering to fact-check or click linked information, misinformation spreads like wildfire.

The early experience of fandom on tumblr is one of widespread acceptance. Possibly because FB does this, people feel safe to share their age, sexuality, and gender on their tumblr profiles - and those identities get more and more specific as people learn more about gender identities and sexual orientations that are off the gender binary. People spread educational posts about queer/LGBT+ culture, feminist theory, and racism alongside fandom posts.  The importance of minority representation in the media is a hot topic and posts that criticize media for their lack of (or bad) representation get thousands of notes. Social justice theory - fighting the appropriation of colonized cultures by imperialists, promoting the voices of the oppressed over those of the privileged, the right to be angry because of the oppression and trauma you’ve experienced, not tone-policing people who have been hurt, and not erasing the experiences of others - are widely discussed.

A lot of good came out of this, too, but I believe a natural backlash resulted. Earnestly working to promote the voices of the least privileged and trying to avoid silencing or erasure, what started as an effort to even out the social strata gradually became a kind of reversed social strata. People who were oppressed on any axis could not be corrected by anybody of lesser oppression - it was considered to be silencing. People could not say their feelings had been hurt by a marginalized person’s word choice - that was tone policing. 

And this led to a secondary, and probably lesser conclusion: people who identified as ‘privileged’ - that is, white, cis, straight, mentally well, able-bodied, (and male) - felt guilty for all the privilege they had. and the promotion of marginalized voices over their own - the tendency to tell people, regardless of the validity of their points, that if they were privileged their voice did not matter - to escape their privilege, at least on tumblr.

I think we hit Peak Tumblr in 2012-2013-ish. Non-human and nonbinary identities proliferated. Asexuality awareness exploded, as did other lesser-known sexualities and paraphilias.  People wondered what it meant to be trans in a world with no gender binary. People self-diagnosed severe mental illnesses.  And this unto itself wasn’t a bad thing!   Probably many people learned a lot about themselves from the openness and acceptance.

However: there’s no way to know how much of this was from people self-discovering and how much was from people who realized that unless they had some axis of oppression they could point to they could be silenced.  And people were extremely open about these identities as well: despite all of the talk about social awareness, interactions on tumblr suggested that most people still assumed that everyone else was white, cis, straight, able-bodied and mentally well (and therefore completely unaware of social issues and in need of education). And due to how tumblr’s reblogging system could separate posts entirely from the context of the original poster’s blog and personal details, this assumption happened a lot!

Whatever the actual numbers of people who were self-discovering versus self-deluding, this extreme acceptance got its own natural backlash. It wasn’t possible for everyone on tumblr to be oppressed, but everyone on tumblr seemed to be finding some way to be marginalized - they weren’t cis, they were ‘a demigirl’. They weren’t straight, they were ‘gray asexual’.  There had to be some way to distinguish the real marginalized people from the fakers.*

Enter gatekeeping - which seems reasonable enough at first, given the sheer number of people who are claiming to be part of the marginalized club. People start making fun of ‘transtrenders’ and ‘starselves’ and say ‘heteroromantic demisexuals’ are ‘just normal’. People call one another ‘cishet’ specifically to erase their gender identity/sexual orientation.

This environment makes tumblr ripe for radfems, who greatly benefit from people putting limits on what identities other people can have. And radfems feed the gatekeeping mentality, leading to more and more policing of one another on tumblr instead of acceptance.  Instead of trusting others to be honest about their gender identity, sexual orientation, race or mental health, people increasingly decide the identity and experiences of others based on whether or not they say and do the right things.  Conversely, if you say or do the wrong things you are ostracized and your identity is erased using the reverse social strata of tumblr: ’cishet’ becomes shorthand for ‘ignorant asshole’ - and ignorant assholes are not to be listened to.

One no longer has to identify wrongly to have the wrong identity to be worth listening to. One only has to do the wrong thing.

So how does this tie back to debating fanworks vs dissing people?  Well: tumblr isn’t just the home of social justice. It’s also the home of fandom, and these two spaces heavily overlap.

Like our genre fiction friend that I mentioned back at the beginning of this long-ass post, tumblr had already begun - with the best of intentions - to silence people for having the wrong level of marginalization.  And when radfems and gatekeepers entered the scene, one’s level of marginalization became a function of how you behaved.  Now you had to behave right to have the right to be listened to - and fanworks, far from being the exception, are the rule for determining if people behave ‘right’ in fandom spaces.

In other words: debating fanworks/fan opinions and dissing people have become the same thing.  If a fanwork is for the wrong pairing, that makes a person a bad person.  And bad people are only able to create bad fanworks.

This attitude is how you get things like ‘if you ship [x] you’re straight’ and ‘oh, you ship [x], your opinion on this unrelated social justice issue is invalid’ or ‘i’m not surprised to find that this person is [x]-phobic, they created problematic fanworks.’

And that’s where we’re at today.

Man this is much. I’m sorry for your eyes.

*And in case it isn’t obvious, I think policing sexual orientations and gender identities is nonsense - demigirls and gray-ace people count as much as everyone else.