Some of the worst delusions I've ever had were the ones where I was certain specific people I knew were out to get me.
It got really bad. Sometimes I was certain they were going to torture me in different ways, and others were going to kill me. Thought about finishing myself so they couldn't get me first.
And so I don't take it lightly when content creators send fans after people to 'enforce boundaries'.
If your partner is uncomfortable with something, they should block those tags. Maybe ask you to do so as well if they're really not great with it.
But to literally send fans to report to you if a 'boudary' (rule) is broken... that's so heinous.
I get that the creator in question probably isn't viewing it from this angle. No one does. But it's something that needs to be said.
Sending fans after fans will *kill* people. For varying reasons. This is not healthy for anyone.
checking the pyroscythe tag and seeing people receiving threats is exactly the sort of thing i expected.
even if you don't mean it, even if you're against harassment, the sort of language pyro used will absolutely encourage harassment. people want an acceptable target and they've been given one and they can hide behind 'protecting boundaries' to do so.
Harassment that *has* already happened by the way. This is not a new thing to MCYT, and many of us are veterans who know how these things typically go, which is why it has been so baffling to me that pyro hasn't taken any of our warnings seriously, or as anything more than baseless hate and critique against his boundaries.
Unfortunately, that's not how the internet works, and people WILL be acting in any way they can to convince themselves that they're justified. And even if we weren't reading into his statements, "I have little birds in all forests" and "I will send my people after them" come across as threatening to *most* people.
Not to mention, every statement that has been sent clarifying "I really *don't* condone harassment, I promise guys" has been in his discord and not anywhere public, easily accessible, or seen. Not every fan is in that discord, nor do the people who are looking for an excuse to harass and send threats particularly care to scour every page and space of his to make sure they're not going against his wishes.
At the end of the day, even if he didn't mean to come across as threatening, which I'm sure he didn't cuz why would he, he still needs to publicly address the harm and harassment that has been going around. An announcement on a private discord isn't going to cut it.
I have no idea why he seems so defensive over his words and acts like everyone who interpreted them at face value (as *threats*) is insane and trying to purposely paint him in a bad light. This could have easily been resolved had he just come out and admitted "hey, that was a poor choice of words, here is what I actually meant" instead of sticking his head in the sand and making his mods and friends speak for him. I am frankly disappointed that he seems allergic to taking accountability for that poor word choice when fans have been getting very real threats and harassment. It's not even an issue of boundaries, but that he hasn't taken accountability for his words and instead continues to insist he really truly doesn't condone harassment without taking back his initial threatening message.
In fact, even Maddy has taken accountability for her poor word choice in her statement, even if it was a bit accusatory (sorry it was 'perceived' that way)
Is it so hard to acknowledge you said something you didn't mean in the heat of the moment? I really don't understand.
We want Flawed Female Characters! No, not THOSE flaws. 😕 Those aren't sexy, COOL flaws. You know, the ones that I don't think actually SHOULD be considered flaws, that I might even feel personally judged for. The "unjustly martyred by the court of public opinion" kind of flaws. So like a "flawed" woman who's actually kind of a Saint in a way. I didn't want, like, FLAW flaws. What she did was WRONG and that makes her a BAD PERSON, and how can you justify that? If you still like her after what she did, that makes YOU a Bad Person too. Ugh, disgusting. 😕 But anyway, WHY isn't anyone writing flawed female characters?
Ok (possibly, depends on how much more I think about this) last post about this tonight.
Whether he meant it as such or not, Pyroscythe called for people to harass shippers, live on a still public stream, to a large audience. He then clarified that he did not meant it as a harassment threat / call for harassment and that he meant his mods banning people from his spaces...which yay! Good! Thank you for the clarification! But why was it said in a fan server? Why was it said 4 days after the initial statement? Why was it not said publicly? Why hasn't anything been said publicly about the statement? Why is the statement that implied harassment is okay, wether that be the intended purpose or not, public, but the clarification is not? (<- genuine questions)
From the person that informed me about the discord statement, Pyroscythe said that "There won’t be witch hunts or targeted harassment - that’s stupid, unreasonable and ineffective." Which is interesting - because targeted harassment is already happening. Would love for them to actually adress the harassment their fans have done in the name of "protecting their boundaries"!
(As clarification: I know there is a mod going around being open to private questions and dms about this, I don't care. I would prefer a public statement about how no harassment of any kind is okay from the actual person that made a harassment thread in the first place, whether intentional or not, and not a mod.)
Remember: Harassment of any kind is not okay, censorship is not okay. And if you disagree: Feel free to block me!
I got this like 20 hours ago and was considering not posting it, but then I slept on it and decided that why not. It’s not like this is the worst of the harassment people have received anyway.
At least they had the balls to send it off anon. It’s a blank blog so likely a throwaway, but still. I’m censoring their name to avoid anyone attempting to harass them. Debating whether or not that’s a courtesy I should give, but unfortunately I am dedicated to my morals despite them being a shitty person.
Also, they spelt genuinely wrong. If you’re going to send a death threat at least have proper grammar.
This is over minecraft roleplay characters. And I’m not breaking any “boundaries.” I couldn’t give two shits about his characters. I don’t make content of them, let alone ship content.
One last time, let me repeat that, I am being told to end my own life over something that I am not doing. And even if I was doing it, the “horrible boundary breaking” action is shipping Minecraft roleplay characters. Whether Pyro condones harassment or not, this is the environment he created.
I know that there is a lot of young people in the mcyt fandom, who have not developed and learned how to pick apart texts and notice specific things in them yet. So, because of recent stuff and the words "boundaries", "rules" and "censorship" being thrown around like candy, here's someone who has these skills (me) going through Millkberrys and Pyroscythes statements.
(TW for death, rape and sa threats, mention of sh and harassment)
First off, the actual official definitions of the words:
(The first one is from wikipedia, the other two from the Cambridge dictionary, you can look them up if you'd like full confirmation on the sources.)
(notable, fan works such as fanart, fanfiction and headcanons or shitposts are considered a work of art and/or kind of communication with other fans.)
(notable #2, the ideas people are allowed to express and the certain ideas that are included or supported in this case is the shipping of the creators characters.)
(notable #3, content creators / mcyts are minor celebrities and with that have authority over their fan communitys. If you disagree, feel free to block me, I will not be arguing over this.)
And now, me marking/highligthing things in the statements that fit those definitions/descriptions:
What's a boundary or implies one is marked with green.
What's not a boundary is marked with yellow.
What's a rule or implies a rule is marked with blue.
What's censorship is marked red.
I want it to be noted that the only times boundaries are implied or mentioned by either of them, is the word, regarding that this is for Millkberrys mental health or when the actual act of setting boundaries is dismissed (as a past action or entirely).
This is not to mention Pyroscythes literal thread of harassment and policing people, which has already taken action through other fans putting death and rape threads in peoples ask boxes:
(If any of the victims of the threats want me to take them out of this, feel free to tell me and I will do so!)
Apparently one of Pyroscythes mods claimed on Twitter that it was meant as a joke. However, considering the very serious nature of both the stream segment and his expression as well as the fact that it came from a mod and Pyroscythe has yet to actually say anything on this themself, I'm inclined to not believe it.
Lastly, my opinion on this:
Harassment is never okay and no matter how many times these creators have said in the past that they don't endorse it, reality is looking different right now. You cannot tell your large audience what Pyroscythe has told his and expect it not to listen to you, no matter if it was meant as a joke or not.
This is not a boundary, it is a rule at minimum and censorship at worse. Censorship is rampant right now and fandom spaces are some of the few spaces that allow free expression, trying to take that away is not okay. If you cannot handle seeing ship content of your characters, then you should block people who do make art of it, block the shipping tags and not go out of your way to look for it. You can ask people not to show that art to you, and that is completely valid. It is also completely valid to ban people from Stream chats and discords if they do show it to you. It is not valid to tell people what kind of art they can and cannot create however. And if you can't handle the idea of ship content of your characters existing at all, then maybe you should rethink your career choice as a content creator who focuses on roleplay and character creation.
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