#tumblr censors criticism

[deathon1leg]

it’s frustrating when people (mainly GA—and, surprise! homophobes!) act like byler is in the same vein as background ships that hardly even interact with each other—i.e fanonical ones with a loose basis in the actual show...

if you think byler is just some far-fetched fan theory you might wanna rewatch the show. i mean, it’s been several years since the first three seasons, a refresher could be good to remind you that mike and will’s relationship is sewn into the very fabric of the show. there’s always been special, very deliberate emphasis on the two of them in comparison to any other platonic pair in the show. there’s always been romantic framing, tropes, subtext, and parallels with them.

st*ddie and r*nance, for example, aren’t as deeply based in the show. they have real chemistry, understand each other and are very cute—i don’t mean that in a belittling or sarcastic way, they’d both make good couples and i’m a casual shipper /gen. the difference between ships like them and byler is that the show literally would not function the same without mike and will’s unique dynamic, and not going through with making them canon would be a huge storytelling failure and (yeah i’m gonna use the word) queerbait.

people treating byler like some made up impossibility isn’t just a way to demean us, specifically, though. the root of it is (unsurprisingly) homophobia. their rhetoric isn’t really about it being unrealistic, even if that’s what they’ll claim—it’s about us believing two well-established, likable, and not especially stereotypical MALE characters in a super popular tv show could actually get together. because as you know, all queer people look/act the same, never have comphet, and never get happy endings, etc etc /s.

(and it’s funny, because a lot of them are willing to accept that will’s in love with mike but only under the condition that will gets his heart broken. reeks of homophobia, methinks)

this is probably hypocritical considering this post but, to bylers: don’t let them succeed in demeaning you. please don’t let them make you doubt yourself. st*ddie and r*nance shippers too: their stories may not be as fully-fledged (partly because they’re more minor characters than the main party) but everything you see is intentional. you’re not making up the chemistry and dynamic you see, even the actors and actresses agree with you.

in conclusion (kinda), people think we’re seeing things that aren’t there because they can’t fathom a queer tv couple developing with the same tropes as tons of straight tv couples do: slowburn, several seasons in, love triangle, childhood friends to lovers, etc. the only queer couples they’ve ever seen in media are with characters that are established as queer from the get-go, and usually get with their s/o’s pretty early on. (also, there’s the large amount of people who cry that mike can’t love will back bc he has a girlfriend and is therefore straight—as if comphet and bisexuality don’t exist)

i don’t wanna be that guy but... it really does just come down to the fact if one of them were female, nobody would deny byler’s existence and that it’s endgame. it’s so stupid, but that’s actually what it comes down to. when you look past it all, the main anti-byler argument is “umm actually they’re both boys so :P”

so yeah. that’s what i wanted to say. thank you if you read it all <3 love u

[olessan]

"Did you know there was a d*ck hidden on the Little Mermaid VHS box?"

— Matthew Mercer

[edgepunk]

ngl it really sucks that the tumblr search function is Like That and you have to censor certain words so they don't end up in people's searches even though the post is untagged

[jakantakanga]

DON’T ASK QUESTIONS! I KNOW WHAT I KNOW BUT IF YOU ASK ME WHY YOU MUST BE EXECUTED BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST AS BAD AS THE DEVASTATING AWFUL GENOCIDING EMPIRE THAT NOT ONLY KILLED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE FOR THEIR RACE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, DISABILITIES BUT ALSO FOR……Rejecting…their…beliefs and……asking questions.

[bumblebeefromhell]

Do you know how hard it is, as a native german speaker, to write dialoge for Caleb? Bc the guy technically speaks german, but since Liam only speaks very little german, it's super stilted and somewhere between a simple choice of words and wrong. Like, no shade at Liam, but if you know better it's just hard to imitate

[britneyshakespeare]

i listened to the fall out boy version of we didn’t start the first (listing 1989-2023 world events) and can i just say. first of all the original song is silly and not that deep in its commentary but at least it was like an original idea. there’s a reason your 11th grade history teacher played it in your class in the cold war unit, right? it sets a scene and a mood without even having to do anything but listing a bunch of pop culture and political iconography. but there’s also like, a sequence of events. fob’s really just throws events and names of things together sloppily in no particular order other than if they kinda rhyme. it has a lot less impact when thinking about the recent historical or present moment bc it’s just like “thing you remember, other thing you remember, other thing you remember” but from one object to the next they have no particular connection to each other in space or time. it’s poorly associated. 

[seekerstone]

man the amount of times i see a tweet that starts off as a good and insightful critique of fe fandom’s recency bias and then always, inevitably, every single fucking time, goes “unlike awaken1ng the older games are good” like can we not praise other games w/o shitting on it. if you don’t like it fine whatever but you’ll find that i can actually talk abt its good points w/o once referencing Multiple Homes soooo... 

[guideaus]

Tumblr adding things like blaze, that premium thing no one used and everyone forgot about, and this checkmark (not even as a fake digital thing, but as a joke!) as fast as possible really shows their priorities

[talaricula]

Things I've seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la "How did no one see how bigoted he was!" as if those things haven't been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :

Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources

Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)

Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women

Bi women are, at best, not as queer as "real" queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women

Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)

Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)

Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community

Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS

Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn't explicit enough

Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media

Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards

Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories

Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of "problematicness", but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered "problematic")

And I'm probably forgetting stuff or there's stuff I have internalised myself and don't recognise as an issue

Like idk but I feel like the takeaway from Hbomberguy and Toddintheshadow's videos should maybe be "be aware of such patterns in your communities bc they definitely exist" and not "this guy is uniquely awful" and I feel like a lot of the discussion I've seen surrounding this has been severely failing at that. Most ppl who've spent any significant amount of time on tumblr prob either have internalised at least one of those thought patterns, have had to de-internalise them, or have had to be extremely vigilant to not internalise them (which is done by, you know, seeking out other sources, which also seemed like an important takeaway from the videos)

[astraltrickster]

Thing is, I don't think tumblr staff is uniquely transphobic - especially since it's not just trans women's selfies and transmasc art getting censored, but classic queer comics, Black bloggers (especially women), and more, even as our more visible staff members keep talking about trying to fix the problem.

I suspect it's something much bigger and with much worse implications for the entire internet.

I suspect more appeals are being left to the automated system than we think (which they're NOT supposed to do but due to the sheer volume theyre having to deal with, well...) and, between the evergreen problem of report-brigading by bigots, the other evergreen problem of a company internally sucking at determining where justified criticism of their practices ends and harassment begins, and the problems of fighting the porn bots (because every single one you see is a product of survivorship bias) leading the algorithm to become sexist (remember #girlgate?), the automod algorithm is basically collapsing in on itself and learning all the worst biases of society MORE than ever before.

Which, given that these systems are being deployed all OVER the internet and being touted as objective and unbiased because ~computers can't be bigots~, should fucking horrify you.

[happypotato48]

This Is A Gay Asian Rant About BL Comments Made By Some Queer Westerners I See Sometimes.

So you know of those gays (usually white) that made dumb tiktok dancing to list of countries that legalized same sex marriage and list of countries that discriminate against LGBTQIA+ poeple as a way to say something racist. yeah i kinda got the same vibes from some comments regard how asian BL is homophobic just cause they don't live up to queer western standard. look, i'm not saying that some BLs and their creators don't deserve criticism regard how they capitalized/exploited queerness for an easy cash grab.

But people need to understand that Asian countries despite recent progress are still very much culturally conservatives. so when people says that thai bl is homophobic and all the characters looks like bunch of straight guys, which is true for some olders thai BLs i'm not gonna denied that. but after all this time and newer BLs generally being very queer and most of creators being out queer themself and poeple still making these comments, i'm annoyed.

And don't get me start on the actors. you don't know them! why are you making assumption and calling them queerbaiter just cause they acts in bl. like maybe they're straight, maybe they're not but what they're definitely doing is making queer content for you know, queer people here. so when you made halfass comments about their sexuality what do you think that made other queer people who still in the closet feels. and when you add the nationality to that, "these thai bl pair are this and that, this korean actor is so ungrateful for his bl past", etc. when our societies are still very much still in progress regard LGBTQIA+ acceptance. it make us living here feels fucking awful like somehow we're lesser queer than people in the west just cause we don't have citibank at pride or some shit.

And the shittiest in my humbled opinion are comments regard censored chinese bls. people do know like, that the creators making these bls are risking their livelihoods for this. that these shows getting make at all are miracles. yes it sucked that they're censored but they're still very much queer shows making by queer people who want to express thier queerness despite the chinese government being the chinese government. when people dimissing these shows as not belonging in queer media, you're also dimissing their creators and audiences as not belonging in the community.

Look what i want to say is that we're trying our best over here, and maybe our best are not up to your liking. the ways we talk and express our queerness maybe still can be perceived as problematic by western queer standard. but these media are our house and you're the guests. for people aren't shitty we appreciated that you're here engaging and loving our media, this is your home too and you're welcome in it. i can speak for myself that i very much love being here on tumblr and interacting with people from all over the world who love BL. but for people who are being shitty sometimes about asian bl.

YOU'RE THE GUESTS, BEHAVE!

[serialunaliver]

why in the world did this site think allowing tumblr users to report posts as nsfw is a good idea? unsurprisingly this is used just to target and censor posts that broke zero community guidelines but made someone upset for ridiculous reasons. people reported a post critical of neil gaiman as violating community guidelines just because they were pissed off someone said anything bad about neil gaiman

[hashtagloveloses]

how do i express "i will fight to my dying breath for your freedom to post whatever freaky shit you want online because censorship helps no one" but also "that doesn't mean you are free from criticism or ridicule and i WILL clown on your ass for shipping brothers together or writing racist fanfiction or some stupid shit". how do i express that we must fight for free discourse and an internet where we can discuss things and joke about things and call things out and not have it be a slippery slope to literal fascism because there's GOTTA be a middle ground here there's GOTTA be a way to express that i NEVER EVER EVER want to advocate for a government or a company or organization to censor ANYONE's voice but me as a private citizen is telling you to maybe my god in heaven think before you post things and keep some things to a word document or a diary. how do i express that when i say "that shit nasty" i do not ever want that used to justify censoring anyone online and i do not agree with the people who want ao3 or tumblr to have more rules (except about racism), i am simply saying "good god what the fuck is that"

[jaskierx]

hey crew i need your help

as you might have seen, my pal quill @edandstede has been getting some absolutely vile transphobic asks. this abuse is coming from one or more self-described izzy fans who are targetting quill bc they've taken offence to some mildly izzy critical posts and his ongoing top surgery fundraiser. these anons are persistent - turning off anon means they pop back up whenever it's re-enabled. blocking them means they make burner accounts to continue the harassment. it's a really fucking nasty situation that has understandably made quill feel threatened and unable to enjoy being on tumblr. he's now had to turn off asks altogether.

fuel has been thrown on the fire today by the izzy-anti-archive account openly admitting to block evading and posting screenshots of quill's blog in the name of defending the canyon, as if the main issue here is the canyon's feelings and not quill's safety. none of these screenshots are censored, quill's url is plainly visible, and as a result the archive has basically put up a neon sign advertising that quill is 1. receiving transphobic hate and 2. 'wrongly' blaming the canyon for this. which really isn't great and has made quill feel even worse considering it invites yet more harassment of somebody who is already facing way too much of it.

do me a huge favour will you x

1 - report this post

the more reports the post receives, the more likely it is that staff will take a look at it

2 - block the archive

quill is not the first person to be harassed by the archive and unfortunately he probably won't be the last. blocking them reduces their reach and also means it's less likely to be you next

3 - donate to quill's top surgery fundraiser if you can

donate here

share the fundraiser here

thanks guys stay groovy x

[jevilowo]

The complete list of everything to happen in and around the 8th of September 2022:

Reigen became ultimate twink and dilf and milf and babygirl and hottest anime girl and

Sans vs Reigen for ultimate tumblr sexyman on twitter (Sans won by 420 votes)

Toby Fox wrote a fanfic about Sans vs Reigen (it's on twitter, it comes up if you google it)

Lea Michele can't read conspiracy

Also she debuts in Funny Girl

Splatoon 3 dropped

Enstars cover of Tell Your World dropped

2 year anniversary of Eric Trump calling Mob Psycho 100 leftist propaganda

Star Trek day

The Queen of England died

Trisha Paytas went into labour, but it was a false alarm

Kiwi Farms shut down

Don't Worry Darling drama

Dan and Phil made a video saying people gave them cocaine and celebrities wanted to have threesomes with them

Thurston Waffles died (rip)

Finding out they censored destiel many times

Bastille performed in Argentina

Mercury Retrograde (not sure what that is, but it's today apparently)

Out of touch Thursday and Felix Huaves (again, not sure what that means but someone reblogged with those tags so)

Bernie Sanders, P!NK, Ruby Bridges, Gaten Matarazzo and Martin Freeman's birthdays

MCR IN BOSTON BABEY

Danny Phantom graphic novel cover reveal (first dp content since 2008)

24th anniversary of the Pokemon anime broadcasting in the US

Warnuts first birthday/anniversary

Critical role massacred one of their player characters in the episode last night

Anniversary of sega dreamcast debut

Song for the new sonic game got released

New Pinocchio movie. And many other films and shows dropped on Disney Plus, due to it being disney plus day.

Comment if I missed anything

Update, I've edited this post like a million times, lmao. I'm honoured to be the keeper of events.

Update 2, here's all the polls Reigen has won so far, from a post by @blackberry-s0da

Update 3, END OF REIGENSWEEP I REPEAT END OF REIGENSWEEP

[improbablecarny]

spotify drops their wrapped around the same time every year the fact that it came out now isn't exactly worthy of panic. however we have known about spotify's support of the military industrial complex for YEARS and people who were previously pretending to be concerned about that and the laundry list of other ethics concerns with the Billion Dollar Corporation are throwing that to the wind so they can discredit Palestinian activists. like yes the particular alignment of the dates were blown out of proportion entirely but that doesn't mean that Spotify is innocent and accusing their critics of being in Qanon mode for not wanting to support them... while ignoring the israel apologists furthering literal qanon/conspiratorial shit like the idea of "crisis actors"... tumblr leftists have never been good at moral consistency. nevermind the fact that spotify has been censoring palestinian artists too