I know, I know - this is a coffin of my own making. I created this hellhole by getting involved with discourse in the first place, made it worse by STAYING involved for as long as I have been and not heeding the warnings of those who told me that I needed to focus on my life offline as much as I was worried about the one online.
Discourse was never fun, was never something that I did because it entertained or amused me; It was something that I felt like I needed to do. Sure, I was a “baby bi” when I first got involved, but I felt like I owed it to those younger than me, those in a worse mental position than I was in, to stand up and fight for aces/aros right to be respected. I would absorb some of the bullshit that exclusionists were slinging gleefully in an attempt to protect those who weren’t as sure of their identity and would have crumbled under the constant harassment, death threats, etc.
Somewhere along the way, it stopped being about that. It stopped being about one side arguing for inclusion and another arguing for exclusion - and instead became pissing matches of who is oppressed worse, to the point of attacking people for no other reason than because you could.
When you stop disagreeing with people because you don’t like their principles and instead attack them for their age or choice in URL, it stops being discourse - and moves right into the category of bullshit.
The bullied became bullies - and that is NOT okay.
My mental health deteriorated a little more with each shitstorm. My entire life started to revolved around discourse, when I could log on to check the bullshit, when I could reply to the latest screenshot of bullshit.
For my own sake, I’m taking a hiatus from discourse.
I know, there’s an exclusionist somewhere, going to chime in with some hate-filled rhetoric or a message of “Who gives a fuck??? Who even are you?? #go outside”. Y’all can think whatever you want. At the end of the day, no one’s opinions are going to change. Inclusionists will always think Aces/Aros should be a part of the LGBT+ community, and Exclusionists will always disagree. Their target may change - sure, it’s aces and aros now, but who’s to say that tomorrow they won’t circle back around to Bi people or Trans people? - but the core line of thought remains the same.
I’ll leave the blog up, since I know a lot of people use it for resources or receipts of bullshit. Feel free to continue to do so. Since the ‘actualhumanpotato’ personal blog is a sideblog to this account, I will also be leaving it behind - I’ll now be over at “actualdisasterbi” if you need to reach me for whatever reason.
I truly wish you all the best.
Here’s to a powerful 20gayteen, 20biteen, and beyond
-Debi a.k.a. actualhumanpotato, ahp-discourse