#and for my likeminded folks

[neutron-stars-collision]

As a helpful soul showed me (and as I discovered on twt)… They are never beating the allegations.

[hellowhyareyouhere]

yes, next on the vashussy and wolfblood booba agenda is...

[sequencefairy]

(Under a cut so people can skip if they want but I have Opinions™ about some of the Watcher shows)

So, I am one of those people who stopped watching Puppet History fairly early on in it’s run. I watched the first season, and I think probably most of both the second and third seasons, and then I’ve just fallen off entirely. I was talking to a friend about why I dipped, and initially I posited that the reason was that I got busy and got behind and just never caught up, but there’s plenty of things that I miss when I’m busy and still manage to catch up on, so it’s clearly not a priority for me. 

I thought about it some more, and wondered if maybe it was the songs. I don’t like them. Never have. They’re not my thing, I usually turn the episodes I have watched off before I get to them. They give me wicked bad secondhand embarrassment, which is totally a me thing, and my own baggage, and not the fault of the show. So that’s probably a contributing factor to why I never bothered to catch up, but it’s certainly not the reason why I stopped watching, since I was quite happily just skipping them in the early seasons.

The next thing that came up has been the increase in amount, depth and complexity of the Other Story that is happening behind the puppet show about history. And to be quite frank, this is the primary reason why I think the show used to be a good show and now it isn’t and hasn’t been for a while.

PH currently suffers from the same problem that AYS has long suffered from - they don’t know what they want to prioritize in the show and so none of the competing options get the time or attention they deserve. AYS seems to want to both be funny and spooky, but Watcher already has a funny spooky show - that’s TMS. AYS should lean into the spooky aspect, but because the format demands that Ryan and Shane break the atmosphere and tension of retelling of the spooky story, it doesn’t work as a spooky show, and because, let’s face it, riffing on a horror story is not really the best subject matter for jokes, it’s not that funny either!

Similarly, PH used to be a show about history, told a bit irreverently, with a game show aspect associated so they could have a reason to have guests. It had the vibe of Ruining History, extrapolated, and I loved it. I love learning about historical events that we don’t usually hear about, especially ones that are a little salacious and a lot silly. Unfortunately, PH is now a show that is not actually about history anymore and has become a show that is about this ongoing backstory that requires you to pay attention and watch episodes in order and keep up.

This is why I don’t watch anymore. 

Even if the bulk of the ‘lore’ is kept to the ends of the episodes, they still cut in and out in the episode, so there’s no way to just watch the history bits that I like, without also watching all the other nonsense, which just feels like the hot daga with more money. At least the hot daga had the decency to be attached to the PMs, so I didn’t have to skip through BFU episodes in order to watch the show that I want to watch. 

If they want to make a show about the puppets and their rich internal lives, by all means, Watcher should do that. But like, not at the expense of what used to be one of their flagship shows, and is now something I fully ignore for the six weeks it’s on youtube every year. I don’t think I’m alone in this either, there’s definitely folks in my regular circle who have dipped on this show for reasons similar to mine, and I’m sure that means there are others out there.

I’m happy that Shane’s having fun telling this story, but I also think that because of this, the history parts of the episodes have gotten shorter and less well done and I’d love to see them re-focus and re-prioritize. If the show isn’t going to be a history lesson anymore, then fine, let it not be, but just like AYS is undercut by the way they don’t seem to be able to decide whether it’s supposed to be funny or scary, and so it ends up being neither, PH is neither a good history show or a good show about a time-travelling puppet.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

"If you ship these characters together at all you've fundamentally misunderstood the plot of the story"

Bro I get this if like. It's a case where people genuinely are misunderstanding the story

But like bro you know shipping is inherently neutral and doesn't necessarily tell you anything about how someone interprets a piece of media, right?

You know that people who ship something don't always want the thing to be canon, right?

You know that people shipping something doesn't change canon

Right?

[bisexualdeans]

not to be emo not to be emo not to be emo not to be emo but. linkin park. new music. actual new music. actual new [YELLS INTO THE VOID] 

[max1461]

There's three types of people. Uh wait. Six.

Foodie with no historical bent. Casual gamer. Maker of sexual conquests. Hedonic, and concerned with image in a small-time way. Lives for the moment. Little aesthetic awareness.

Woman who is really interested in the biology of her reproductive system, says "I mean, I just feel like I should know how my body works". Likely to have tattoos. At least some aesthetic awareness.

Fascist; for instance a Christian father. Grandiose. Sees himself in history, or on the biggest stage he knows. Power hungry in a lustless and angry way. Overinflated sense of aesthetic awareness with little depth.

Technician (maybe thinks they are a scientist). Trained among likeminded folk from a young age; groomed for their role. Used to be mostly men but you see some women these days, I think women are better at resisting the training. Little aesthetic awareness.

Romantic in a sense. Capable of true love but not of far vision. I believe this is the type of the ordinary person, though the other types are often louder and more visible. That's heartening. Capable of aesthetic sensation but unsure how to find it; wanders around in the dark.

Romantic in the full sense. Capable of true love and far vision. Great aesthetic awareness.

[takusan-no-ai]

Green Cop

PAIRING: Zhu x Male Reader (Romantic) (Fluff)

SUMMARY: Zhu and (Y/N) meet at a gardening club, but he isn’t aware that she is an officer.

There was nothing like a day off spent in town, the sun shining down and the air fresher than daisies. Zhu stretched after having a small cup of coffee. Lumina square had recently opened up a new hangout near N.E.P.S.; a gardeners club to be exact.

Zhu looked at the flyer in her hand. “I finally have a nice place to visit on my days off and interact with likeminded folks,” she said to no one in particular.

“Because my genius level of skill and knowledge in gardening frustrates you for all the hard work you put into it?” Qingyi asked, suddenly appearing behind Zhu. The woman nearly fell out of her seat in shock.

“What? No! I really do appreciate your insights Qingyi. It’s just that I’ve been wanting to talk to others just as passionate about gardening as I am. I don’t want to waste this opportunity.” She stood up with her head held high in determination. “I will make a friend!”

Finally arriving at the small gardeners club, Zhu was met with a terrible realization; everyone around was a bunch of introverts! They all kept to their own small patches of dirt, only doing the bare minimum of communication. Zhu looked around nervously, not knowing what to do.

“Excuse me?” A young man said while walking up to her. He smiled, the sun shimmering behind him, creating a divine portrait before her. Zhu quickly composed herself and smiled back. “My name’s (Y/N). I know the atmosphere can make even the most social butterfly camouflage into the background. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.” Zhu introduced herself, blushing softly.

“Thank you. I’d actually like to see what can grow in this soil and pick a plot for myself.” (Y/N) nodded at Zhu’s request and showed her the ropes of the gardeners club. Days were spent together. Meeting up, talking about plants, maintaining the greenery, and shooing away destructive critters.

Before she even knew it, Zhu was looking forward to seeing (Y/N) on the weekends. Her coworkers could tell she had something to look forward to, with how she’d doll herself up for what was a simple checkup on her tomatoes at the club.

Sadly, she had to work overtime on the weekend, which meant she would be late to watering her plants; and she took note of a raccoon that had been eyeing her tomatoes recently.

Sighing, she picked up her phone. “Hey (Y/N)? Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure thing Garden Goddess. What’s up?”

Zhu had to hold back a chuckle,“Garden Goddess? Thats new. But anyways, I’m running behind with my work and don’t want my tomatoes to get unhealthy or eaten. Can you check on them for me please? I’m almost done here so just a quick update is all I need.” She could hear him humming on the other end of the phone, as well as an engine starting.

“Sure thing. I’ll wait for you.” Zhu nearly dropped her coffee mug.

“There’s really no need for the hassle–,” and just like that he’d hung up. Moments later she received a text, only containing a laughing emoji. She huffed and puffed her cheeks, blushing from his light teasing.

“I really don’t want him to see me so underdressed…huh?” Where did that thought come from? Zhu had no idea. But her beating heart and reddened face only encouraged her to work faster. Sadly, that didn’t last too long, as it had began to rain shortly after she had finished her call.

Finally! She finished work and rushed to the club, not even grabbing an umbrella or changing on the way out. Thankfully, it was close by. Zhu made it and looked around, spotting (Y/N) sitting on the bench, her tomatoes covered up safely, and him holding his umbrella above a small family of raccoons who were shivering cold.

“(Y/N)? What are you doing? You’ll get sick!” She scolded him. (Y/N) looked at her with a large smile, only for his eyes to widen in confusion.

“Wow.”

“…What?”

“I didn’t know you were a cosplayer Zhu. So that’s your profession? It suits a beauty like you.” He said with a smile. On one hand Zhu wanted to blush and correct him. On the other, much larger hand however, she needed to take him and the raccoons somewhere safer.

She led him towards N.E.P.S, and placed the family of raccoons into a box after drying them off and feeding them some complimentary fruit. With everything taken cared of, she sat back and finally relaxed.

“So…you’re not a cosplayer?” He asked. Zhu perked up, realizing she had one last loose end to fix.

“Ha. No, I’m officer Zhu Yuan. And…I wanted to know if…you were free next Saturday?” She asked, growing progressively more embarrassed.

(Y/N) smiled and clutched her hand. “I can’t deny an officer, now can I?”

- Fin

[ddarker-dreams]

ur writinf for blade has the same effect on me as heroin. if i could somehow crush up all of your blade works and snort a line of it, it’d give me a feelinf of euphoria like no other thank u for doing god’s work 🙏

I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so glad to have found likeminded folk... he is very gorgeous to me. with every new piece of blade lore unlocked, my love deepens. his unique way of expressing concern for firefly in the latest update 🥺

[tirfpikachu]

for those who weren't let in during my shadowban era...

COME JOIN OUR AWESOME TIRFY NUANCEFEM GANG ON DISCORD!!!!!! even if you don't specifically use the tirf term for yourself, as long as you embrace nuance on trans topics, support adult transition for dysphoric people (critically ofc) and aren't trans-exclusive in your feminism or lgbt activism (and are 18+) we'd love to meet ya! :]

this is a very chill and friendly discord server with tirfs/trans-nuanced radfems who want to support dysphoric folks while also supporting female/"afab" rights. we often discuss the rampant misogyny and homophobia in mainstream tra spaces, as well as bullshit said in radfem spaces; nothing is above criticism here. if you'd like to have likeminded friends to talk with, perhaps even host meetups if there's folks near you, interact with this post and i'll send ya the link!

make sure to read the rules & write an intro before interacting!!! i will be letting a few ppl in at a time, so that everyone can be properly welcomed without too much chaos. reblogs are appreciated!! <3<3

[bonefall]

Hi I hope this isn’t strange but I am autistic and your AU is my new special interest. I have read all of your linked posts and I check your blog every time I log on because I love it so much, and I imagine all of my ClanGen cats having BB type societies. I just wanted to let you know that your work is really awesome and I’m really grateful that you share it all with us!

Not weird at all! I'm an ADHD/Autism mix. Like a labradoodle. I'm just scratching my own itches with my expansions really and it scratches the same spots in likeminded people. I think most of the folks who kick around here are also autistic.

[batboyblog]

Love for our DC boys and politics with a lens on realistic impact? Yeah I’ll follow that.

well thank you,

as I've said before in real life I'm a pretty serious person, and during 2016, the campaign basically took over my life (working on it) and so I made this Tumblr as a place to put everything not serious in my life, at first my enjoyment of comics, which I've loved since I was a small child, and later branching out into other things as well.

but you know real life, I'm a very political guy and I felt like 2024 was not shaping up the way I would like and weirdly of all the social medias, this is the one I'm the best at? and also lent itself best to long posts with links to back them up? and also its a basically forgotten social media as far as campaigns and politics go? like if you're on twitter or YouTube or Facebook you're getting bombed with ads, and the campaigns have accounts pumping out content. But in an election that could come down to less than 100,000 votes, what about the thousands of people who use Tumblr as their main or even only social? well I figured I may as well try? what the heck, be the change you want to see.

people too often bitch about "why don't Democrats do X!" well, political parties need people to do their messaging, memes, ideas, vibes etc spread people to people and can't be dreamed up in a smoke filled back room and beamed into brains. So This is my little effort at counter programing, and I'm very glad the doom is over and the vibe has shifted, I hope I can keep the vibe going and push people to get involved. For too long people have sat it out, getting involved will make you feel better and you'll get to meet and talk to the people who make choices, tell them what matters to you.

Volunteer

trust me its easy folks, just sign up for a convention watch party, and go hang with likeminded people and listen to the ways we're gonna change America for the better, just do that for me folks, and who knows I might be the guy you're having a beer with.

[valentinekau]

A Moderneopets Lament, and my last request.

Hiya, the name's Velu, I was recently removed without warning from Moderneopet's art panel for what they called "targeted harassment". I was kept in the dark about what this harassment was but was allowed to think I was offering concise critique with the purpose of keeping things on model as per the artist rules. (there is a post here on tumblr that i will reblog in a moment that succinctly explains) If you've played modneo maybe you've seen, and enjoyed my pets! And if you have, thank you from the bottom of my heart! This was my first attempt at pet art and it was cathartic getting to be a part of a panel of likeminded folks who were open to critique and discussion!

and one that i was excited to debut, finished, and uploaded ready for release as my apparent harassment and infractions were happening unbeknownst to me!

I have been extremely silent after the removal, outside of contacting Hazer, and, after leaving the server and closing connection to anyone who hadn't friend requested me, contacting the only mod I'd had the pleasure of speaking to privately outside of the art director at the time. I do not speak up online about most anything due to being a quiet person, but I'm burned at the turn of events POST being kicked off, and i would like it to be made public the requests I made, and the promises given to me about my artwork.

Since I did not know why I was being kicked off, Hazer was open to my request, so my pets will hopefully be replaced sooner, rather than later, because due to this clause I cannot ask him to remove them because of an issue that was never communicated with me.

I, perhaps out of the want of having even an inkling of what i'd done, contacted a mod to see if i could get info. I had my guesses, and i felt defeated. Hazer specified "Your suspension from the team was brought due to the multiple threads that have been in made in staff channel over the months for you and wrens behaviour", so since none of it had been brought up to me, i went and asked, and was told they could likely do something for me.

I waited 24 hours, i asked for an update. I went onto moderneopets to find this.

I asked the mod for clarification, and i was blocked. So! That's that, i lost access to a community i was enthusiastic about, was told i was targeting and harassing, was offered clarification, not given any, then blocked! Communication is so important, and the last bitterness i'll feel is that while i attempted to discuss and compromise and work with the rest of the team, no one felt the need to tell me something was wrong. So i want to hold them accountable, please get my pets off your website, thank you.

[dootznbootz]

Have you ever read a fic/headcanon post you liked so much that it influenced your characterization of Odypen?

I love this ask so much, Dear Anon, holy shit. Thank you so much! I'm so excited to talk about this!

Because...I...I purposely basically shut myself OUT of the fandom until I had MY own characterization down because I wanted to basically have a read of the texts, and then have my own ideas/opinions.

I actually had so much fun with it too!!! :D I wanna ramble about it lol

Ngl, I noticed a SHITTON of like, "hivemind fanon headcanons" in the fandom. Or at least a lot of people sharing the exact same one.

And while there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, I also know that people sometimes will just be a "Yes Man" with ideas and that MAYBE that's a bit of fanon. And that my own reading could be completely different.

I REALLY love this story/myth and so I just really wanted to go into it "blind". I even just RESEARCHED on my own. I have not read a single translation introduction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ THAT'S how much I wanted to really form my own beliefs before anything else.

And I just had so much fun reading and studying and ANALYSING the texts so then I could really pinpoint exactly WHERE I get a certain headcanon from (most of the time. lol some headcanons are simply for fun and don't have too much textual evidence)

I mean...How many Penelope's have you seen that are feral? 👀 Who is prideful, snarky, reckless, stubborn, ruthless, etc.? (I HAVE read some angry Penelope fics yes! And they're wonderful! ...But that's not necessarily MY Penelope. My Penelope curses and says "Bet" before rushing at something 10x her size. Mine has a temper and WILL lash out. She was just extra careful with the suitors.) Yes, she's intelligent and patient and thoughtful...but Odysseus ALSO has those traits somewhat as well.

THEY'RE LIKEMINDED. BOTH are a person of "many twists and turns". It's why they're fucked up lil soulmates 🥹

There's a few HEADCANONS that I really love that I plan to use and try to credit the OG person though! Just that they're small-ish and not really a big thing on characterization.

My fellow fuzzy worm, Char, (@fangirlofallthefanthings) has OdyPen call Telemachus their lil "droplet" which is super cute.

Someone on tumblr, (I think it was nerdygirl2023??? Idk for sure though, I'll have to recheck later lol) mentioned how Amphitrite kind of helps Odysseus about the Oar quest which I REALLY love. (please let this sad lil fuck rest ;~; I want him in Penelope's arms PLEASE. If I don't go with that idea, Penelope goes with him. Either way, I'm not separating them for at most a few days.)

Other than that and maybe some small things from other works that SUPPORT my headcanons. (Odysseus' behavior towards Circe in Epic kind of supporting my "Odysseus is asexual/demisexual" headcanons, etc.) but most of my stupid silly stuff is from my own silly head :P

It's not like I don't like anyone else's headcanons lol xD It's just that certain things would not fit well with my lil weirdos as it would be out of character for THEM, you know?

Ngl, I sometimes get a lil embarrassed by how DIFFERENT my ideas are from others :') Or even just how few I've seen that are like my own. I love my ideas but it's like I'm a lil bee outside the hive where everyone else is working 🙃 I don't like that I'm so "picky" about my ideas but I just am ;~; (Especially about Penelope's characterization.)

I've seen some posts and "incorrect quotes" that fit my sillies but that was still AFTER I've established my weirdos :P

...I almost wonder sometimes if folks are inspired by MY Sillies 👀 as I've seen some stuff that really makes me wonder lol

[astriiformes]

To be completely honest I have been doing some Wrestling as of late (by which I mean. since October) because despite all the joy finishing my conversion last year brought me, debilitating moral OCD and the Ongoing Situation do not mix well. Which has been really hard because it's very difficult to be like well, I'm so glad to have joined this community for real and properly just in time for it to suddenly be a source of immense difficulty for me, too. And I'm trying my best to be involved in organizing efforts and to connect with likeminded Jews but it's still been very hard.

And on top of everything having another friend starting their conversion exploration journey recently has been making me realize how strange and lonely and isolated mine was, because it was so affected by the pandemic and lockdown and I didn't get to join my classmates in doing activities outside of class or celebrate holidays with other people or even go to our shul until fairly late in my journey. And of course I had all the other hiccups, like working with three different rabbis due to circumstances out of my control. And it was so worth it and the right choice, but still deeply imperfect in ways I feel sort of melancholy about.

But this last week I'm suddenly finding my place in ways that have been missing for a bit and it feels so important. The Jewish printing symposium I attended was so amazing, and I finally set up my recurring donation to my synagogue now that I'm officially a member and seeing my name and my Hebrew name next to each other in the online portal is making me smile, and some other people from my shul that I don't know very well but would like to get to know better invited me to a second night Seder at their place later this month that I think will be really good, and I'm doing research for a paper on medieval Jewish science for my medieval history class and reading excerpts from the De'ot ha-Filosofim and Midrash ha-Ḥokhmah and Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, and I've been working on my Yiddish and listening to a lot of Yiddish folk and punk music along with it, and today I think I'm going to finally talk to the LGBT history curator about the queer Jewish archives event we're doing in May, and it feels like something important has clicked back into place, that I think is going to make me both happier & more effective at the organizing work I want to be a part of but haven't been able to engage with fully for months now.

Anyways I feel like this Pesach is going to Get me because of the timing of this all, and also I already had some really, really hard stuff happen to me last Pesach that I have mostly processed but has still had some far-reaching repercussions, so there's an element of anniversary trauma (?) meets healthy processing that I know is going to happen, too.

But it's still a good reminder of why I chose all this, and that religion & spirituality & community really are incredibly important to me, even when they're difficult (maybe even especially when there's difficulty) and also that I am tougher than I give myself credit for and not totally a victim of my own brain! Which is! An important feeling, if not necessarily an easy one.

[dgdraws]

Maybe saying this on my 18 follower art sideblog is silly, but I want to offer some gentle pushback on the sentiment that's been going around re: notes on art and lack of engagement.

TL;DR make it your practice to be the person who rbs art with nice tags and you can build a community of likeminded folks

There are myriad reasons why online comment culture has shifted, I'm not gonna waste time pinning that stuff down, bc it's actually immaterial to my perspective, which is:

You can find or create a community of people who will lift up your art. But it requires that you participate in the culture you want to see more of.

I had been a lurker on this site for a decade. I held back participating in discussions, creating or sharing art, engaging directly with anyone outside of following blogs and rbing posts without commentary. And during that time, I made no connections, no friends, built no community.

I was afraid of scrutiny. I have felt the humiliating lurch of earnest engagement turning to dread and exposure and a deep regret of allowing myself to be vulnerable. I pulled up the ladder behind me so I would never have to hear the slightest dismissal or repulsion or ridicule from others. In so doing I also cut myself off from praise, understanding or connection. If no one gets a chance to let me down, then it's as though they're holding me up, right? Wrong!!!

I paid good money for a therapist to help me work out the lie there. The realization that I felt isolated and misunderstood because I never gave people the opportunity to show up for me was so hard to grasp. How could my safety net be the cause of my profound loneliness? But it is true. The people in my life couldn't disappoint me, but they also couldn't help me or support me or really love me the way I needed.

Opening myself up to disappointment has been a long, tough road (and goodness knows I'm not ready to let my parents let me down (again) yet). But my relationships are strengthening. My sense of identity is more stable. I am not inconsolably lonely deep in my heart anymore. Because it turns out people do show up when you give them the opportunity.

Not every time. Not every person. But enough of the time that it builds resilience. Every time I reach out and someone reaches back, I get a little braver. I trust a little more.

To bring this back around to online culture and community: I started receiving interest (and notes) after I started showing interest in others. Once again it turns out that people want to turn up for you, but you must give them the opportunity. This means making yourself vulnerable. It means taking the first step.

If you want a community, a group of people who interact w a certain set of values, you have to demonstrate it. Live those values. This is how we create culture. We choose what behavior we want to encourage and we set an example. This is as true in a workplace or a family as it is for tumblr or ao3. If your boss puts up a sign that says "we see mistakes as a chance to learn" but they punish people when they mess up, that's just words on the wall. If they accept errors graciously, if they work to suss out the root of the problem to resolve it, if they are open about their own mistakes, that is the culture.

So if we want to see more reblogs, but not just that, real engagement and chances for connection, then it starts with you.

Here's what I do that has helped me make friends and spark genuine interest in my work;

Reblog LOW NOTE art as much as, if not more than, posts with thousands of notes. Feel proud to give someone the first note on their work!

Incorporate leaving nice tags into my gratitude practice (it is a form of mindfulness! noticing what specifically draws me to art I rb both engages me more deeply with the work and makes my own art better)

Queue up several art posts from the same artist (people notice when you are consistently in their notes!)

Participate in art events like artfight, various -tobers, other challenges (as with making friends anywhere, repeated exposure leads to familiarity and chances for connection!)

Follow people back or even initiate following blogs who interact with your posts (do not approach this with a f4f mentality, only follow people you actually want to hear more from)

Set up post notifications for portfolio style art blogs (ie sideblogs exclusively for original content) so you keep up w your network/mutuals even if you're offline when they post

Low key notice what the people engaging with you like most about your work and consider expanding on those ideas. This is not about "tailor your work to an audience" it's about thinking, "so-and-so left feral tags on my post about this oc so I'll do my practice sketches of them" or "people seem interested in this storyline so let me feed off that enthusiasm and develop it more"

Don't get hung up on it when individuals don't reciprocate. Assume good faith. You never know what is draining someone's energy. Remember that you are offering a gift, your time and energy yes, but also the chance for someone to show up for you too. If it starts to feel like an obligation, reassess where you're putting that energy, but don't be afraid to be generous.

This has worked wonderfully for me. I went from a person scrolling longingly past posts about beloved mutual culture, not quite believing it could really be like that, to a person who happily gets 3 notes on my former flop posts and posts reblog bait for my besties and reblogs the bait they post for me :)

Apparently I had a lot to say! I kinda hope this doesn't break containment but if it does, please be niceys. I understand if this mindset is not available to you bc of social trauma, depression/anxiety, disability, mental illness or whatever else but please avoid venting that on this post. I love you and I hope you can get here someday, because you're worth it. In the meantime, try to be gentle with yourself and others. xoxo

[gcldfanged]

A lot of people kinda don't understand the effects of racism and I've noticed "this person turned out to be a racist" seems to just kinda be on the level of "meh" for most people, so I just wanna take a moment to describe something that happened to me and how it affected me on more than a personal level in an rpc:

Imagine you've been friends with and writing with a small group of likeminded folk, having a LOT of fun, even sharing some personal information since you've been hitting it off so well.

Then, while in an rp server with said friends, one of them posts a picture of someone who looks exactly like you, albeit with stereotypically offensive and exaggerated features with a sign indicating how unintelligent they are, but also implying that your birth country should be nuked off the face of the planet.

You aren't angry so much as shocked, the anger hasn't had time to settle in yet, so you ask "uhh, what the fuck lol" and nobody seems to bat an eyelash. In fact they're all in agreement that this depiction of your people is hilarious and would make a wonderful gift for the poster's history teacher.

You, again, ask for an explanation and point out the imagery is insulting and dehumanizing and point out they ALL KNOW you are from this country, only to be told by the admin of the server "Well, I can see you're upset. I'm sorry you got offended, but it's just political humor, it wasn't supposed to upset you. Nobody in this server is trying to upset you." so ultimately, you decide to leave. You're hurt and confused, but mostly still in a state of disbelief.

Your mutual friend who lives in a different timezone was still in the server and contacts you the next morning, indicating they also recently left but also expressed that the rest of server basically spent the entire night making fun of you for being 'so gd upset over nothing'.

Now you have to live with this knowledge that you've not only lost an entire group of friends and fellow writers, but you can't say anything in public about it for fear of "causing drama". So you keep silent, you don't say anything or drop names, you confer only with your friend who also left the server.

Then even close (or so you thought) mutuals start blocking you en masse and you still can't say a solitary word to defend yourself, for fear of losing what few friends you have left in this community.

Like, sure it's not so in your face as a public lynching, but this is HOW racism affects people like me. It's not simply an isolated incident of someone saying I'm a 'chinky-eyed, dog-eating bitch' who should go back to their own 'filthy country' and me getting to call them out in public and having all of my allies hug me and tell me I'm valid.

These people were supposed to be my allies. That is how deep-rooted and insidious racism is in society and it's a lot more than just name-calling and moments of outright bullying.

I see a lot of people saying they're not fans of bigotry and that it's 'against their rules', yet when people have DNIs on their profiles and carrds and outright say it's because of racism/bigotry, it's seen as a red flag??? or when drama does inevitably happen and receipts start getting dropped, both parties are blocked immediately?

I get not wanting to have conflict in your happy fun Barbie doll-smashing space, but if your friend is feeling unsafe and betrayed on that level, like... wouldn't you want to at least hear them out? Idk. I see a lot of massive double-standards where 'drama' is concerned and it just kinda makes me wonder whose comfort level I should really be prioritizing.