i'm gonna say my all time favourite phrase here: it depends.
there is, admittedly and undeniably, a type of true crime content creator who seems to think it's all a fun edgy aesthetic. i see these kinds of people in any "dark" interest -- horror novels/movies, true crime, paranormal stuff, that kind of thing. and they tend to come in and try to sanitise it so it can be marketed as a socially acceptable dark interest, which not only takes all the actual interest out of it but it's also disrespectful to the real people involved. with fiction it's annoying but not too bad as no actual people are being disrespected USUALLY, but with true crime it's like... those are real people. and the vibe is kind of. hang on where's that one post.
this basically says everything i wanna say in far fewer words. like. this is just the vibe it's giving, and i think that's bullshit. it's disrespectful and it's just the same oversimplified slop you can get anywhere on the internet, and the reasons for doing it are usually to make money and look edgy. fuck off with that.
now. moving on to the idea of true crime in general, and people who are actually interested in it because they're interested in dark shit... nothing wrong with it. i've noticed a huge pushback recently and i think it's because of creators like the above, and teenagers making edgy and disrespectful jokes the same as teenagers everywhere will, and it's led to the usual moralising and virtue signalling where everyone trips over themselves to assure everyone else that they're not interested in such base content. and i'm like... we're all making constant jokes about 9/11 but a teen cracks a joke about jeffrey dahmer and it's the end of the world apparently. ok.
i'm massively into true crime. i research certain aspects of it academically. i know enough that a "respected" writer (he shouldn't be) (but i won't get into it) has enough beef with me calling out his bullshit that he full on vagued me in the prologue of the rerelease of his very influential (🙄) book (which i am working on a full rebuff off by the WAY). this is academic. this is a legitimate field of research. it's an important field of research. but i don't even want to name it here because i'll probably get my blogged flagged and everyone will clutch their pearls thinking i'm a red flag or whatever the insult du jour is right now. and i'm just... not going to spend my energy on that, but it's a real fucking bummer that other people allow themselves to be ruled by their discomfort so much that it's come to this. it's ok not to like true crime. it's ok to be disturbed by it, because it is disturbing. nobody is denying that. but acting like there's something wrong with a person for being interested in it, assigning morality to said interests, being judgemental and insulting towards/about those who are interested... that's fucked up. and also rude as fuck.
the fact is, being personally disturbed and uncomfortable is an emotion. and when a person feels this, and uses these feelings to pass a judgement on people who feel differently, it's illogical as fuck. someone is not a bad or untrustworthy person because they enjoy something you can't see the appeal of. they're not potentially dangerous because they can stomach details you can't. and there's nothing wrong with having dark interests. i would even go one step further and say there's nothing wrong with dark humour, either, though there is a limit. it should never be the mainstream acceptable way of addressing these cases, the same as the overly cutesy method is also disrespectful. though having said that, at least dark humour acknowledges the horror, which is more than the murder muffin crowd can manage.
finally, the advice i give anybody who has access to the internet and their own free will: if you don't like it don't engage. just look away. go find something else. it's the internet. there's something for everyone. block and be free.
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