The whole 'us vs them' tribalism between warring schools of content and censorship arguments are really reaching new lows recently and I think it's about time the site got its head out of its own ass about boundaries. People have them. Other people don't have them. They need to be enforced and honored. Everyone goes home happy.
Instead I have started seeing an influx of absolute clownery. I said I find incest content weird and gross a few weeks ago as -- hysterical given the rest of this story -- an explanation of how I can express that without making a judgment call on people who write or engage with it. That my personal boundary does not give me a right to judge other people for being comfortable with the content while at the same time I shouldn't have to air out personal trauma to have my boundary respected.
People got so mad about that I started wondering if the content was somehow strung into their identity that my discomfort was such a personal affront. And then it dawned on me: in current RPC climate they probably thought I had. I'm talking 'Oh so I'm weird and gross?' levels of pushback, and all I could think of as (unsent) reply was I Mean Do You Identify As Content I Think is Weird and Gross?
Like I get it, it sucks when you're excited about a genre or enthusiastic about a trope or narrative and someone comes along and says 'Yuck!' But that's not a personal attack on you unless they make it one. Someone saying 'I don't like hot dogs' as part of a conversation about lunch meat is not them coming to your Fourth of July barbecue and flipping over your grill as an act of protest. I don't come unglued when people don't like milves because one Kadi's wife is another person's mom and I need to stop trying to make them call me Dad, because it makes them uncomfortable.
I am tired. I don't condone censorship and think as long as there is no intent to harm through content that people have a right to express themselves, so clearly I have no morals and think everything should be legal in a real world context. I think people have a right to control their own online experience and block or blacklist content, so therefore I love censorship and think Fahrenheit 451 was ideal. Open your mouth about anything and someone is big mad.
Anti and Pro is a fucking scam and I genuinely think it's eroding people's ability to engage with content because it all has to be filtered through personal boundary as objectively correct morality. That's old news. What scares me is I think we are approaching irrevocable community damage if we keep this nonsense up instead of acknowledging we are all adults here and can curate our own spaces and fandom is not that goddamn serious. If we are identifying so personally with our content to the point it cannot be discussed without the community taking it as a personal affront, we have lost the plot. Block. Blacklist. Vent to your bestie or server about fandom fuckery du jour. Then, and this is pivotal: Shut the fuck up.
