Don’t let tumblr brainwash you
Tumblr can be a wonderful place if you’re interested in arts, music, fandoms, or social justice. But it can also be very toxic sometimes, so please be careful and remember :
- You don’t like something? Blacklist it. Simple as that. Don’t be the kind of people who send anon hate, or that simply keeps complaining. People will have different opinions, and like different things. So just blacklist it. Unfollow people if their blog makes you feel bad.
- Fighting for equality between genders is great. But don’t think that all women are your allies and all men your enemies. Also, if you’re a feminist, you’ve got to call out misogynistic/sexist women (even when they’re POC) on their crap when you can.
- Fighting for equality between races is also a great thing. But don’t fall into the perpetual victimization of POC that tumblr loves. Being a POC does not give you a free pass to be a jerk to white people who didn’t do anything to you personally. Just because a POC say something, doesn’t mean it’s right. <- This does not excuse racist white people though.
- White women don’t own feminism. But Black women don’t either. Actually, no one “invented” feminism. Women (and some men too) of all races, throughout all ages, have been questioning relationships between men and women. White/Asian/South American… women didn’t wait for Black women (or for any other women) to become feminists and to theorize it. <- This does not excuse racist white feminist though.
- Being in a minority does not allow you to be a jerk, be it to other minorities, or to men/white/cis/straight people. No. Not under any circumstances.
- Never feel bad just because you belong to a majority.
- Hating people just because they belong to a majority does make you a bad person. Not only does it help no one, your hatred will only consume yourself. There is a difference between discussing privileges and injustices in your society (which is a good thing) and deciding that men/white/straight/cis people are not sad enough and should feel bad about themselves for this sole reason.
- POC are not perfect angels. Even today, slavery and colonization are still a thing (though unofficial) in several POC countries. Also, reverse racism in America does not exist, but discrimination against white people does in some non-white countries. Sorry to break it to you, but being white doesn’t mean you’ll never face racism. White people are not imperialist by nature, and POC are certainly not generous, open-minded victims by nature. <- This does not excuse racism in white countries.
- You don’t tell people what they should be emotionally invested in or not, and especially not in the name of social justice. People will care about what they want. You can’t ask people to be sad because they don’t struggle as much as you in life.
Let me elaborate a bit on this point.
You don’t tell people how to feel. You can only expect people to be respectful (be it of your grief, of your struggles), because everyone deserve respect and everyone should be respectful. However : you can’t expect people to be sad and emotionally invested in everything. It is wrong, unhealthy, and just plain impossible. I repeat it : it is not possible to care about everything. You will only crumble under the misery of this world. And you can’t ask people to do that.
Would you randomly come up to strangers in the street and tell them : “How dare you be happy ? My brother just died, killed by a car ! How come you’re not crying because of it ? You were sad when your best friend died ! You don’t care about me ! How dare you try to feel good and happy ?” No you wouldn’t. So why is it okay to do this on tumblr ? It isn’t.
You don’t make people feel guilty for not being sad about everything that happen on the planet.
- Also, you don’t make people feel guilty for being more emotionally invested in events that happen close to them/to people like them.
- People are only responsible for what they do personally. You don’t blame a whole country for the way their media treat an event. Because spoiler : they don’t control it. If you feel like an event is not covered enough, fine, talk about it. But if to do so you try to make this country’s people feel guilty/passive-aggressively complain about how over-covered other events are, you’re just a jerk. You’re not helping anyone, and you just want an excuse to spread hate. You don’t make a candle shine brighter by spitting on the others.
- You don’t help minorities by hating a majority. And that is true whether you belong to this minority or not. Seriously, don’t. Not only is it a dick move, you’ll only hurt your own cause.
- Celebrities don’t have to care about social justice if they don’t want to. That doesn’t mean that you should excuse them if they do something really gross, but other than that you can’t expect them to fight for other people/to be educated on social justice. Also, don’t idealize them : you’ll only be disappointed.
- Actually, no one has to care about social justice issues. Everyone should learn to respect other people, in order to not cause more suffering in the world, true. But other than respect, you can’t ask anything from anyone. People should only fight for social justice if they want to. Caring about yourself/people like you first does not make you a bad person. <- This does not mean you can be a sexist/homophobic/racist jerk, though.
- One of the most important thing : don’t rely on tumblr to tell you what to think, what to like, etc. Even the most educated and moderate blogs sometimes make mistakes.
Also, two more things more fandom related :
- There is nothing inherently wrong or transphobic with genderbending/rule 63/whatever you want to call it, as it is something totally different from transexuel/non-binary/genderqueer headcanons, and as one does not prevent the other from existing. Sure, the treatment of genderbent character can be badly done (see for instance the hypersexualization of some bent-to-female characters), but it is not frequent and it doesn’t mean the concept of genderbending itself is wrong.
- You don’t tell people what they can ship or not. You find a ship really gross ? Blacklist it/politely ask people to tag it if they don’t. But people can ship whatever they want, and if you think you’re some godly instance that can decide what ship are problematic or not, you are mistaken. There is nothing wrong with any ship (as long as they are aware that the ship is unhealthy, if this is the case). People know the difference between reality and fiction. I’ll repeat it : as long as you don’t shove it in other people’s face and you’re aware of the (potentially unhealthy) dynamics of a ship, there is nothing wrong with any ship. It’s fiction, people. If you can’t understand this, you are the one who don’t separate fiction and reality correctly.
tl;dr : Fighting for a better world is a good thing. But if you only fight through hate, you don’t actually care about making a better world, you just want to spread hate. No one should feel bad about themselves for things they can’t control.
You don’t show solidarity towards people who struggle by hating people who don’t.
^THIS people. THIS.
This should be the official guide for tumblr
This OP got bullied/hacked off tumblr, because of course they did. Now their blog’s been taken over by someone just mocking them and linking back to a post talking about how terrible they were for daring to tell people to think critically.
Remember, if you ever wonder what censorship looks like, just look at how many blogs that give messages like this get shut down from outside.
This is a good message. They might have taken their blog for posting it, but, as long as we reblog it, they can’t ever destroy the message.
Lmfao OP made a throwaway sideblog to be racist on and deactivated when they saw anything other than praise, but not before blocking me. Pretty sure they got exactly zero asks about the post as the notes were just as full of bigots then as they are now.
I took the URL a while later.
Sorry to burst your bubble but OP wasn’t hacked or bullied or censored or a victim of anything but a fragile ego, but I have no doubt at all you’ll continue crying about how it’s censorship for like a whole two people to have told OP they’re a bigot.
What did OP do specifically that made them a bigot?
I’m going to assume this is being asked in good faith. First, you know I think OP is racist. But as you asked for a specific example, let’s have a look at this part right here:
Caring about yourself/people like you first does not make you a bad person.
On the face of it that may look like a pretty neutral statement, but consider that OP is supposedly pleading for equality and treating everyone the same. Why is it okay for some people to be considered more valuable than others, then? How progressive is it, really, to basically say, “I don’t have to care about marginalized people” (which is a message that is repeated again and again throughout the post - nobody has to care, nobody should be expected to care)?
OP claims we can expect respect and understanding from people, but how do we reconcile that with their message - one repeated a hell of a lot more than “your struggles should be respected” - with their insistence that being concerned only with you and yours is fine?
Further, you have to consider the context - which I suppose you wouldn’t necessarily have, not having seen the timing of OP’s post and not knowing what it is in reference to.
It has been pointed out that some tragedies are considered less important and less worth caring about than others. Facebook allowed people to pray for France after terrorist attacks, but there are never similar gestures for terrorist attacks affecting brown-majority countries. There’s far less media coverage and concern, and the message it sends is that some lives matter way more than others.
OP took issue with this and acted like it was some sort of undue burden to expect people who are happy to sympathize with nations that aren’t their own to not limit that just to white-majority nations. They made this post, and made sure to emphasize repeatedly that they don’t have to care, that nobody has to care, and that expecting the respect they say they feel people are entitled to for their struggles is an attempt to guilt and shame them.
OP supports prioritizing white people above all others. That’s white supremacist.
I trust you know why that’s bigoted.
OP repeatedly stated that his points don’t excuse white people being racist. That’s not exactly something that a bigot would say.
Also when they said “Caring about yourself/people like you first does not make you a bad person.” That can easily apply to people of ANY race, something that OP clearly meant to do, so how is that prioritizing white people?
You’re abusing the word “repeatedly.” They said it in only two sentences that were tacked on afterthoughts, after subjecting us to paragraphs of racist whining. And actually, yes, it is something a racist would do when they don’t know they’re racist.
“Something that OP clearly meant to do” is your desperate, out-of-context interpretation. The timing of the post and the response to specific criticisms of white supremacy makes it very much NOT what OP intended to do.
It’s pretty amusing that you’re taking a very blatant defense of NOT treating people all equally and pretending it’s somehow proof that OP was espousing equality.
“Racist whining” Citation needed, all they said was that being a POC doesn’t excuse being a dick to white people who aren’t actually racist. So do tell me how that can be seen as a white supremacist idea, I’ll be waiting.
Also, perhaps I made an error in my wording when I said “something that OP clearly meant to do”. What I meant was that this post could be directed at people of any race, gender, or sexuality, and they could have easily been talking about ANY political issue.
What makes me curious is where you got the idea that just because you’re looking out for yourself and your loved ones, that it also means you only care about people of your race. It seems more like you pulled that point out of absolutely nowhere.
Think about it like this:
Imagine being dirt poor, barely making any money, and you’re scrambling to make enough to pay for food and rent. If you’re that busy trying to just SURVIVE, do you really have time to concern yourself with social issues?
Furthermore, allow me to give you a small fact on American history.
During the revolution, while Great Britain ruled America, there was a group that called for Americans to protest Britain’s new tax policies. They were called the Sons of Liberty, and their methods were… violent. They’d loot stores, beat up anyone who disagreed with them or their methods and brandished them as “An enemy to the liberties of America” and intimidated shop owners to stop selling British products. All of this was in the name of liberty and freedom, and to get people to join their cause.
Naturally, you’d be opposed to something like that, wouldn’t you?
“all they said was that being a POC doesn’t excuse being a dick to white people who aren’t actually racist.”
No, that’s not all they said. Either you didn’t read the post in full and yet are somehow trying to defend it, or you did read the post and decided to misrepresent it. Either way, you’re not arguing the actual post or my response to it. Give that another try.
“What I meant was that this post could be directed at people of any race, gender, or sexuality, and they could have easily been talking about ANY political issue. “
I know what you meant, and I’m telling you you’re wrong, and here’s why:
1) It was tagged with Brussels attack. But since you seem to think this is like a totally general post, could apply to “any political issue”, please explain where the point about the media fits in that interpretation.
2) OP put the post in a context the moment they made the post and framed it as a response to something they’d seen. It’s extremely disingenous to pretend otherwise and that it could apply to anything. It wasn’t meant to, and anyway…
3) Even if we disregard all that and pretend it’s a general post that OP totally meant to apply to all groups, it’s still advocating inequality, and as a self-proclaimed egalitarian, you should take issue with that.
4) If you walk up to two people and give them each one kick, it’s not equal when one person has been kicked by several more people already. They are not suffering equally. You have not contributed equally to their pain, even if it was the exact same action. So even if we pretend that OP totally meant to apply this to everyone, it won’t change the fact that some people were always kicked less (cared about more), making OP’s action of advocating for the same amount of kicking still not equal.
“What makes me curious is where you got the idea that just because you’re looking out for yourself and your loved ones, that it also means you only care about people of your race. It seems more like you pulled that point out of absolutely nowhere. “
Actually, I pulled that from the post. Try reading it.
“Think about it like this:
Imagine being dirt poor, barely making any money, and you’re scrambling to make enough to pay for food and rent. If you’re that busy trying to just SURVIVE, do you really have time to concern yourself with social issues?”
I’m not thinking about it like this because that’s your desperate reaching at work here, not anything OP said. In fact, here’s what they actually said:
“ Celebrities don’t have to care about social justice if they don’t want to.
You don’t tell people what they should be emotionally invested in or not, and especially not in the name of social justice. People will care about what they want.
Actually, no one has to care about social justice issues. Everyone should learn to respect other people, in order to not cause more suffering in the world, true.”
I’m fairly certain celebrities aren’t generally dirt poor, and I’m not seeing the part where they say “sometimes people are too busy trying to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads to get very involved.” Funnily enough, OP tries to pretend that they think people shouldn’t get free passes to be oppressive, but just like the “white people shouldn’t be racist” disclaimers, it’s very clearly not the point and is entirely overshadowed (and contradicted) by the opposite message. In this case, they’ve made it clear that you don’t have to care about anyone’s marginalization if you don’t want to, and that anyone objecting to that is somehow in the wrong.
Also, I’m genuinely amused at the suggestion that poverty isn’t a social issue.
“Furthermore, allow me to give you a small fact on American history. “
*Insert “I don’t want this” gif*
Nope. Permission denied.
This is why pro-injustice get ignored or blocked so often. It’s because most of the time, you’re not listening or trying to understand as you claim, you’re just waiting for an opportunity to talk about whatever you want to. You can have this conversation and talk about the things that were actually said, or you can go annoy someone else. I’m not interested in goalpost moving and your attempts to segue into whatever it is you wanna talk about instead.
Okay, I’ll admit. I didn’t read the tags of the original post. I don’t read tags on most of them to be honest (If you have something else to say, why not just say it on the actual post?),
I also foolishly missed the “people like you” in their point about not having to care (I know, it sounds stupid as hell, but I sorta just skimmed that part, and thought that I knew what it really meant), my bad.
So is that you admitting you jumped in to defend a post you didn’t fully read or grasp?
What else would it sound like, man XD
I thought I understood but I really didn’t, I realize this.
Cool, great. Don't deactivate I don't wanna end up being blamed for that too.