#but trans people will if these stupid troll debates get to dominate and used to demonize us

[faelapis]

trans people face so many legal challenges such as medical gatekeeping and health insurance troubles, and yet we always come back to this stupid fucking sports drama that does not matter AT ALL because its the one arena where transphobes can feel like they have a "point" shitting on us.

and honestly, instead of being like "here's xyz reason why we should rethink the idea of gender being the main category divider in sports rather than weight or strength classes," "a lot of gender division in sports is wholly unnecessary and rests on devaluing women," or "hormones make these differences much smaller and are far less relevant than other advantages in sports such as height", all of which are like, not bad arguments, but they continue the discussion.

i honestly think its in our best interest to just be like. hey. hey guys. this is a distraction. trans people, especially our youth, are currently facing a fuckton of legal and gatekeeping barriers to be themselves. in many places its illegal or near-impossible to get similar hormones that cis dudes get for balding and cis women for menopause, which makes it difficult for us to blend in safely in society, which means we are at a much greater risk of discrimination & hate, not to mention the psychological gender dysphoria that many face - which is tripled without a strong support system.

and you're talking about SPORTS?

[sapphia]

I just watched this Sarah Z video about fake tumblr posts. She talks about how popular story posts such as oppa homeless style actually never existed on tumblr, and were doctored to be posted on anti-sjw reddit communities with the intention of making left-wing and marginalised people look ridiculous for bothering to fake these posts in the first place - with the heavy irony being that they were faked by rightwingers faking being leftwingers making fake posts.

It's a good watch, and she's bang on, but in the video she mostly handwaves over tumblr's own fake post culture and how easily taken in people are by troll posting. tumblr fakeposting peaked in 2014-ish and reached a point where fake posts were mostly recognised and mocked accordingly, and these posts are what people think of when they think of tumblr fakeposts today - the down with cis bus, the 'everybody clapped' posts, homestuck cop, etc.

But these aren't the posts that dominate tumblr fakeposts today - and fakeposts very much do still exist here. they follow the same 'slam dunk' structure, but usually it's someone who sounds very young or very misguided making a bad take - maybe it's an ask, maybe it's a meme, but usually it's someone taking progressive politics "too far". It might be the "white people shouldn't speak Spanish" post where someone points out that spain exists, or it might be that ask accusing an Ashkenazi Jew of being a Nazi. But the themes are similar: someone says something very stupid and ignorant but informed by exaggerated left-wing ideals, and everybody dumps on them.

These posts thrive on tumblr because honestly, who doesn't like to see idiots dunked on? I'm guilty of it myself. But tumblr also has these weird insular communities where politics get messy and communities focus on the real minutiae of arguments and inter-community politics. Some lgbt examples are queer is a slur discourse, ace exclusionism, and recently, transandrophobia - transphobia that specifically affects trans men (in the same way that transmisogyny affects trans women).

And I'm not saying these arguments are troll arguments in the same way those posts are, or that they're pointless to argue about, or even that they're exaggerating their problems for the sake of it. I think these are all real, divisive issues within a community - but I do think that these arguments are much bigger deals on tumblr than they are anywhere else, and the "bad guy" in these debates (in my own opinion) is greatly exaggerated in both reach and numbers. People argue about them all the time, and while there are some bad actors who are causing strife about issues, these topics get a lot of attention compared to how divisive they actually are, especially in the non-internet, or even non-tumblr, world, where most people don't care if aces attend pride, and most people won't go up and yell at someone for using the word queer to describe themselves.

This is not to say that it doesn't happen; I'm sure it does. And I've been in these discourses; there are definitely people who think aces aren't queer, or that queer shouldn't be said, or that transandrophobia doesn't exist. But most people would disagree with those statements - and of course they do, because this is something they believe in, and they believe they are helping by boosting arguments supporting ace people and trans men and the queer community. Engaging in good faith as they are, it never occurs to them that they're promoting the views of their opponents far more than they would otherwise reach, thereby fueling the very debate that they are weighing in on and allowing the spread of harmful arguments to be carry far afield and propagate.

I'm using the queer issues as an example, but I think this exists with a huge number of posts, and not just about progressive politics or identity. It's getting to the point where I really have to wonder whether any post that looks remotely controversial is real, or if it's just designed to generate outrage.

But why does it matter, you ask? These posts are funny, and reading them and reblogging them gives you a good old dopamine hit. Seeing someone get owned for being stupid, for not grasping how the world works in a way that reinforces your own intelligence and beliefs is a great feeling. I know it because I do it too. I reblog those slam dunk posts. Those stupid tiktoks with people reading r/relationship threads always get me because I want to hear the end of it, even though I know it's fake as I listen, and then tiktok's algorithm sees that I watched the whole thing and recommends me more. It's a vicious cycle.

But the thing is that they're reinforcing something that doesn't actually exist, and in doing so, creates an environment where divisiveness and extreme spectrums of thought are seen as commonplace. They discourage critical thinking, encourage people to assume that most people out there are as stupid, ignorant or horrible as you fear. And when these posts get popular, which they inevitably do (despite the bad take being almost universally disagreed with by the people in the notes), it creates memes and sense of community and bonding as everyone bands together to tell this person how stupid they are for not realising that India is a country and not just an outdated word for Native Americans.

If this sounds familiar to you, it should, because that's how cults work. And now, I'm not saying that tumblr memes are trying to indoctrinate you into a cult, exactly. But I think the mentality they cultivate, the unquestioning lack critical thinking skills they promote, isn't good for people, for communities, or for this site in general. I think it shows that as much as we might mock dashcon and the down with cis bus posts and Officer Jenny and Mr Snuffles, tumblr hasn't really evolved because we're still falling for the same old bullshit in a different, more sophisticated-looking package.

Just... keep your mind open. When you see a post in which someone is being excessively stupid, stop and ask yourself if there's a chance it's fake. And even if it isn't, do you really need to promote something like that by feeding it notes?