In King Ludwig II’s defense, if I had basically infinite discretionary funds, was accountable to absolutely no one, and was king of a country full of picturesque landscapes, you couldn’t stop me from building myself a big gay fairytale castle on a mountaintop either.
This post is spreading and I feel bad about it because it contains misinformation, so for the record: Ludwig II did not in fact have infinite discretionary funds. He only acted as if he did. He never dipped into the public coffers for his building projects, but he spent his own fortune extravagantly and borrowed heavily from everyone he could think of. By 1885, the year before his death, he was 14 million marks in debt.
I always find this inspiring because try to name another prince of a German state. What did the rulers of Hamberg do? The Grand Duchy of Hesse? Gone with the wind, no one knows them anymore. But Mad Lad Ludwig built a top 5 most famous castle in the entire world. Money is fake, castles are real. Go broke and die like a winner.
Neuschwanstein, literally the inspo for the castles in Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella
Hohenschwangau, the practical castle
Linderhof, the final, the smallest, and the MOST fab.
Every room is incredible and the park is beautiful, but shoutout to The Bedroom, the biggest room
The Hall of Mirrors, which he probably wandered by candle light because he was a serious night owl
The Dining Room, with a wishing table that lowers to the kitchen, and rises with a crank, returning magically full of food
The Venus Grotto, constructed for the sole use of Ludwig to larp to his heart's content
A full artificial cave, it features a waterfall, fake stalactites, and a custom-designed swan boat floating on an artificial lake. The first electricity in Bavaria was generated here, to change the colors of the stage lights and to power Ludwig's fountain and wave machine.
promise im not gonna get set off again but it does make me feel so crazy to think of anyone going "hey do you want to take accountability for getting hatecrimed in the woods as a teenager" what are you taaaaaalking abouuuuuutttttttttuuuhhhhhhh
I think a lot of the responses to the swastika pic are explained firstly by people not believing racism is as omnipotent as it is, but moreover, by a certain pov often held by white people in the west which is that racism is a simplistic and rare extreme that is therefore unlikely to be the real culprit in any conflict. There is a reason that we already have the pre-existing "pulling the race card" phrase. The perception here in the west is that virtually everything is more complicated than just racism, and that majority of the time, it's not actually because of racism, because racism is such a simplistic and rare extreme. Therefore, any people arguing that something happened because of racism are just immature and incapable of this little thing called nuance. I see this reflected on both sides of the issue. I see it in how many people feel compelled to preface "Anyone has any right to feel the way they do about the pic, but -" and in the many posts that bring up that people are capable of growing and changing. Many are even outright calling for nuance here and frustrated at the supposed lack of it without regard for whether or not the issue is actually nuanced. People are afraid of looking naive, immature, or like they can't cope with their fave being imperfect - or they are sincerely struggling to conceptualize how it's possible that this could have happened for something as simple and rare as racism. But that's the thing: Racism is not a rare extreme, and a hate crime isn't complicated or nuanced. Trying to act like either is true is also racist.
After reading a post written by someone who was in my replies, upset and disagreeing with everyone who takes pause on blaming Hudson, I think I’ve figured out the crux of the issue.
Facts known about the Hudson Williams swastika incident: There was an end of year party where high school teens go out to the woods and get drunk and sign each other’s clothes and bodies as memory/keepsakes, similar to what other schools do with year books. Hudson attended in 2018. Hudson had a swastika drawn on his forehead.
Facts unknown about the incident: Who drew the swastika. If Hudson asked for it to be drawn. When or how Hudson learned it was drawn.
Facts we’ve been informed of since, yet must take with a grain of salt due to Hudson now being famous thus having a reason to lie or stretch truth: Hudson was unaware the symbol was drawn in the moment. Hudson denounces holding any beliefs that would associate him with said symbol.
With all of that written down and considered, we should be able to conclude that although the photo is concerning, there is not sufficient enough evidence to place blame on Hudson for the existence of the symbol which was drawn on him in a place he cannot see. As such, the blame should be directed toward the school and community he and his fellow classmates and friends were raised in, because at no point should any of them have thought it funny to draw a swastika on anyone.
And the reason we know the community and school environment is flawed? Because according to the same people who found and posted Hudson’s photo from 2018, there is a party from 2017 as well as 2019, and in one of the parties before or after, an unknown young man had a swastika drawn on his face in the same area, while another young man had what can be assumed as a Hitler style mustache drawn on his face.
Despite these other kids being present with such drawings, Hudson was not. A separate photo of him with what appears to be a cross on his forehead has surfaced from the 2019 party, yet because of the confirmed hate symbol the year prior, people have decided to assert without question it is the same exact symbol. People have also taken to asserting as fact that all the photos of these parties are from the same night, and refuse to acknowledge that is incorrect. Thus overall, making the information about the event Hudson attended in which he had the symbol drawn on him, remain slim and unknown. Which, as per my title, people are unwilling to reconcile with.
Why? Because it is considered acceptable to hate Hudson Williams with little to no reason due to hateful fans of other actors spending months telling people a fire was blazing, and riled up the masses despite there being no fire. This photo being found, however, became the accelerant to finally start a fire.
So for as long as this fake blaze has been going on, people from everywhere have convinced themselves they’ve seen wreckage and victims in its wake, when they haven’t. They’ve seen wannabe pyromaniacs in Hudson Williams masks running around with smoke machines and candles, causing a scene. Now, a fire has actually been set and Hudson is in the area of where it happened, and everyone is watching him wander around the burning building.
And no, I’m not trying to be poetic or anything, this is just the best way to describe the situation in a way I think people will understand. Hudson is standing near the fire, but his hands are behind his back, so we don’t know if he has a box of matches in them. His former peers are also standing near the fire, but the difference is, we can see their hands and we can see they are all holding a box of matches.
However, because none of them are famous, no one is willing to place blame on them. Aka, due to the past several months of random strangers running around in Hudson masks, creating the illusion of a fire, onlookers only recognize him. So the question constantly being asked over and over is: Why is Hudson standing near the fire if he didn’t start it!? Instead of: Why are we blaming Hudson for starting a fire when there are multiple people around who could have done it?
Next, there’s the new information provided from people standing behind Hudson who are saying, “Hudson doesn’t have any matches.” Can it be verified they’re being honest? No, because onlookers cannot see behind him, but again, no one is willing to question the peers holding matches, because the only recognizable face from the earlier smoke shows is Hudson.
It’s easier to blame the person you recognize as someone people have made repeated claims that he wants to burn the building down, than it is to blame people who only just arrived at the scene. Meaning very few people who dislike Hudson are willing to consider the possibility that someone else started the fire, then invited Hudson to watch it burn.
No one who already dislikes him is willing to question why these kids have matches in the first place nor who they got them from, they just care that Hudson is present as the fire burns. And anyone who suggests looking at the people holding the matches are considered enablers of Hudson’s dangerous behavior, when again, there is currently no proof he too is holding a match.
As such, no one knows what will come of the neighborhood. Will it burn down and Hudson accept the blame? Who knows. Will someone eventually call the fire department so an investigation can begin? Who knows. Will the true fire starter come forward? Who knows. All we know is shit is on fire, and no one is willing to look away from the chaos of it to question why it was started in the first place.
Does any of this mean Hudson shouldn’t be questioned? No. Does any of this mean people have to stick beside Hudson to find out if he set the fire? No. Especially not if they have been personally affected by it, but the choice to ignore the kids holding the matches and ignore the shopkeepers who sold them, is willful ignorance. And choosing to blame and demand an apology from the only kid whose hands aren’t visible, after being informed he isn’t holding a matchbox, is harassment.
are we going to start acknowledging that cancel culture does not work on oppressors and has thus created a system of impossible morality which makes people stagnant and fearful instead of empathetic and productive members of society. and those under the most scrutiny for moral purity are most often the victims of the so called cancelable offense
At this point he just needs to air out any dirty laundry he has before anyone else gets a chance to
The thing is, this isn’t his dirty laundry. It’s people he knew having done something to him, and him being blamed for it. It’s an account he wasn’t affiliated with, being blamed on him. Even with him saying he didn’t post all those reviews, it’s ultimately just movie reviews that weren’t misogynistic or racist, being framed as such because he didn’t like a few performances from the actresses in them.
The only thing they’ve dug up about Hudson that he seems to have actively done wrong, was wear a box braided wig. The swastika is a hot button issue because of the history associated with it, but it was on his forehead. The only reason anyone is taking it as something he is to blame for, is because of how normalized the hatred of him became so quickly over the last seven months. People on various platforms don’t even know why they dislike him or why he’s supposedly a bad person, but every time his haters release something new, those same clueless people claim it’s yet another incident. Meanwhile, anyone with sense looking from the inside is stuck confused, because it’s just yet another photo of his former classmates/friends doing something wrong.
The internet is a cesspool of regurgitated cow shit, but Hudson Williams thus far, has not actively done anything horribly wrong. What’s happening is hateful people are finding vague enough situations from his past and reframing them as extreme misdeeds, and holding on to them to release every few weeks. So his name is always in a headline because he’s working and popular, but then every month or so someone drags up a manipulated scenario to frame him as a bad person. And anyone who goes, “Hold on, this doesn’t track.” is viewed as a stan who refuses to hold him accountable.
So it’s not that people are trying to sweep things under the rug or that Hudson himself is trying to pretend to be a decent guy when he’s got skeletons. Which he very well could have, but thus far, it has consistently been people just lying about and exaggerating what they’re finding. They’re aiming to overwhelm social media with negative opinions on him, because that spreads faster than positive ones. Especially nowadays, because no one online actually cares about truth, growth, and change.
As soon as Hudson gained popularity, Twitter decided they didn’t like him. The Letterboxd reviews helped fuel that, because film twitter is a cesspool too, but that wasn’t too big of a problem. It was the lies that came with it, claiming he hated women and aspired to be like the pedophile in Lolita. The extremely negative twisting of those reviews became synonymous to his name, so people on stan twitters who love Rachel Zegler and Zendaya decided to run with the word of mouth claims that he hated these women, without ever reading the reviews for themselves.
On top of that you had the Jordan Firstman situation, where him “innocently” calling out Hudson and Connor for not being out spread across stan twitter, and devolved into the assumption that they were both straight and any pushback on that came from women who had a fetish for gay men. No one cared to listen nor look into fans of HR saying neither of them have publicly labeled their sexuality.
Right after that came Francois’ shipping comment came, which led to the Concois ship setting sail, and any pushback on that garnered media wide attention and was framed as homophobia. Stans and media personalities alike dove head first into shipping yet pretending to not ship Francois and Connor, and fed into the Dudsonender account and its followers, accusing Hudson of queerbaiting, and distancing Connor from the same allegations despite him also being unlabeled. Thus set in motion the intense racial harassment Hudson’s been getting ever since.
He’s been getting hate since the beginning, but it was factually the white/white ship, presented by FA as being unjustifiably hated, that sparked this fire. It’s what dragged that delusional Club Chalamet bitch into the fandom, and it’s been terrible ever since. It’s been nonstop “he’s ugly and can’t act!” comments mixed with “he’s a horrible person!” all across stan twitter, with no probable cause. Just regurgitated hate that none of them people knew the root of, with misinformation sprinkled in every couple weeks as a treat.
This end of the hear party situation unfortunately has a very triggering symbol attached to it, so it’s harder to expect people to overlook it, but it’s also insane to watch people see something drawn on his head, out of his line of sight, and not at least consider the fact that he didn’t know it happened. It’s also crazy to watch people view a + sign in a different photo, and claim it’s also a swastika. It’s also crazy to watch people compile photos from various years that he’s not in, and claim he was involved. It’s also crazy to watch people dig up and release photos of him hanging out with white kids and frame them as evidence of being “white” himself, when his hometown and high school are predominantly white.
People who don’t like him have unfortunately, yet effectively created a hate spiral in relation to him, and it’s not going to die down anytime soon. So all he can do is either sit down for an interview and talk about how targeted he’s been, a well as sue folks, or do nothing and hope his brands stick around. I don’t think all nor many will bow out, because again, in the grand scheme of Hollywood this is irrelevant, but optics wise it’s noisy. They like the chaos he causes, but no one likes swastikas, you know?
So again I’ll say, this isn’t his dirty laundry, and he shouldn’t be expected to dig back through every single person he’s ever met in his hometown and ask if they have photos of him and if so to delete them, just in case they get found. That isn’t realistic. Especially if those photos pertain to his sexuality or any other deeply personal things. Other than that, he can’t prevent past things done by people who aren’t himself. He can’t be expected to recall every negative thing said or done by people he once knew, and those who hate him don’t care either way.
It’s not about proving he’s a bad guy, this harassment is simply to get him to break, because he “ruined” their ship and/or refuses to divulge a label for his own sexuality. All these folks want is for him to say he’s straight and a queerbaiter, but if he’s not straight… what is he supposed to do? Lie? Tell people what they want to hear, just to receive even more harassment and be booted from queer spaces? A space he has stated he feels comfortable in.
Hudson is in a total lose/lose situation for the time being, and unless he actually does have something horrible lurking in his past that he needs to confess to, I think he’ll just have to tread water until it passes. He gotta plaster on a smile and take at least partial blame in a very PR like way, to get at least a few outlets to finally run stories on how he’s been targeted everyday since HR aired. If he doesn’t want to do that, then he’ll have to get comfortable knowing some brands may pull out if it gets to that point.
