Where was this “censorship is bad” attitude when it came to the confederate flag. Or does this only apply to pedophilia.
Anon, I know you aren't actually interested in the answer to this question, because if you were you wouldn't throw it into my inbox like an accusation while hiding behind the mask of anonymity, but I'm going to treat this question like it was sent in good faith, because I think the issue with this argument is that people aren't willing to apply nuance to situations and to paint everything with the same brush.
I'll be honest, this question DID trip me up. I feel that these situations are different... but WHY? I'm going to make an attempt to answer, but do keep in mind that I'm a white woman and that readers of color would be better able to articulate the arguments here, but I don't want to burden them with responding to this as they have already spoken up and have had to defend their presence in this fandom more than they have had to already.
The fic featuring Joel and his daughter was tagged with all appropriate warnings. Readers could read the warnings and determine whether they wanted to read the fic or not. The themes (that most, including me, would find disturbing) were communicated at the top, and if someone ignored the warnings and continued to read and be upset by the content, that's on them.
The use of a confederate flag (as a tired and harmful stereotype of "southern" aesthetic) was NOT tagged. Readers did not know about the existence of disturbing/upsetting content because they were not warned. Readers were unaware and could not consent, and as a result some of those readers very politely (AND PRIVATELY, AHEM) asked that the author remove the reference, explaining their reasons. Things escalated when the author refused.
Alternatively, the author could have kept the reference in and tagged it as "the main love interest is a piece of shit racist" and then people could have decided if they wanted to interact with it.
These two situations were met with a very different response. It might not FEEL different to those blogs that feel they are fighting for taking disturbing and/or harmful content off of the internet right now, but it is, I promise.
In the case of the confederate flag: first, the author was messaged privately and asked to remove the content. They refused. Then, several posts were made explaining the harmful history of the confederate flag and why it's inappropriate in a fic that isn't tagged appropriately warning the reader of racism. At no point did anyone "call out" people who interacted positively with the fic. No one made lists of people who liked it and called them racists. People only attempted to point out WHY it is harmful, AND educate others on the history of the flag, because as many people pointed out, non-Americans don't necessarily have the same context.
Now, in the current situation, that's not what happened. To my knowledge, no one reached out privately to the author about it. (BUT once again I must refer you to point 1, where this was tagged appropriately with warnings and any reader should have been aware of what they were consuming). The reaction was to publicly call out not just the author, but everyone who had interacted with the post, and then started picking fights with others who were adding commentary. The "I'm just raising awareness" argument falls on deaf ears because that's NOT what is happening. If that were the case, no one would have posted screenshots of my blog and insinuated that I, as a mom, abused my own child. I let that one go in the interest of keeping things civil, but that is a personal, inflammatory attack on me and does not fall under the guise of "raising awareness." This WAS meant to incite a negative response towards specific people in the fandom and we all know it.
3. Miscellaneous thoughts
I read the post detailing Tumblr's terms of service and it wasn't entirely clear to me whether fictional content involving minors is included on the list of violations to the ToS, and frankly, it doesn't really matter to me. The fic was taken down, and from screenshots of the original fic, it looks to me like the author was internationally trying to be inflammatory, which is their perogative, and I'm not particularly bothered that the fic was taken down. I'm not crying "boohoo, censorship!" because I want to read it or because I think incest is good, actually.
So it was removed. But is writing it a crime? No, it's not. Just because something may violate a website's ToS doesn't make it a crime, and people are throwing around that accusation regarding this fic, and it simply isn't true. That's where I got involved, because I'm a precise and literal person and I like it when things mean what they are supposed to mean. That fic wasn't illegal. Gross? Sure. In bad taste? That's up to opinion, and mine is yes, but my opinion on whether it's yucky or harmful does not make it a crime, nor does the fact that it violates the terms of service of Tumblr dot com. I chimed in because words like "illegal" have specific definitions, and this does not meet it.
Thanks for the question, I do hope you read and think about my response, and if anyone else has anything to add regarding the difference between these two scenarios, I'd welcome the discussion because I'm sure there are nuances I've missed.
