#crit rambles

[my-cc-crit]

Okay so this just in, Skizz apologized /pos

We're going to talk about it, my thoughts on it at the very least. This is coming from a generfluid lesbian latina in AZ.

He seems genuinely apologetic for the whole situation, which is good. For right now, I believe this apology, and as long as things genuinely do change I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Here are the concerns I have with it.

No one I've seen was asking him to get rid of mods *just* because of a different political viewpoint. It would have been one thing if the mods were right leaning, but didn't say anything harmful. The situation would have sucked 10X less if that was the case. But it wasn't just that. The MAGA mods weren't just being casually right wing. They were retweeting transphobic, racist things from everything I've been able to find. With no genuine apologies. One of them ended up trying to cover up her hateful tweets.

It does seem he got rid of the mods, recently based on what he's said.

I'll need to see change before I make any other decisions about Skizz. But for right now at least, I'm going to choose to believe him, if only for the hope I need right now.

One more note, I personally will be keeping an eye on this for future reference as well. Simply because I've seen creators (admittedly for a different fandom) say they'll learn from their mistakes and then do the exact same thing all over again while the fandom sweeps it under the bus.

[my-cc-crit]

I think Skizz's apology was okay, but I didnt love the way he talked about his bigoted (ex)mods and also kinda feel he s only really speaking bc he can t really get away from the topic. I do hope at least he has learnt from the whole thing

I did really like knowing that the topic was discussed throughouly behind closed doors with the rest of the hermits tho, with others explaining to him why his actions were harmful

Yeah I 100% agree. I think, based on what he said there were probably hurt feelings about the mods.

And I definitely think we would not have gotten an apology if the community had let it be swept under the rug (although we definitely had to fight to keep people talking about it tbh).

And definitely nice to know that the hermits talk about these issues.

[my-cc-crit]

Got this message from Frank (he/him)

He encourages posting this on other platforms

[my-cc-crit]

The thing that makes me so... hesitant to talk about the Skizz apology (that was forever ago now) is that... he IS being genuine. Coming from someone who lives in AZ, most of us don't apologize unless we actually believe that we've done something wrong.

But at the same time. It wasn't enough.

I do think he's uninformed and I do want him to grow and learn. And that takes time. But the apology we got also wasn't enough and that leaves me in a weird place.

Where I'm not quite comfortable talking about the apology, because I want to see where Skizz goes next; how he improves. However I also know, as someone in the trans community, it fell flat.

[my-cc-crit]

unfortunately the vampirism is cure for all forms of disease, sickness, and disability isn’t just a vsmp thing but the ableism behind it should still be talked about regardless so thank you for making that post /gen. it does suck that they included that ableist vampire trope within vsmp

That's very true, it is a common trope in vampire media (and fantastical genres in general). I think I had just hoped that them creating the vampire function and being able to pick and choose which vampire lore they draw from (and also change up how it works) wouldn't lead into ableist territory.

It is one thing to include characters who are ableist into a story (that's fine and can be good for a story if done right), it is another to make a system that gets rid of disabled people in general so long as you go with it. (Shelby no longer needs glasses to see, which is a disability aid, Owen got rid of his lesions by turning into a vampire).

It... It feels like a cop out of having to write chronically ill / disabled characters in general as well!

And before anyone goes: "well they didn't *mean* to do XYZ."

I'm sure they didn't mean to be ableist. But that doesn't mean they weren't.

[my-cc-crit]

I know it has been.... *A While* since the apology. But I haven't really aired out my thoughts on it?

I'll be doing that tomorrow I think...

[my-cc-crit]

I really do love VSMP, but the way that they explain vampirism as being a cure for everything: No sickness, getting rid of chronic illness, etc. is ableist.

To clarify: I don't think the crew mean for it to be ableist. But it is.

[my-cc-crit]

Ah. Apologies. It's not that I don't have crit. I do. I just haven't been posting it recently.