At the risk of my sanity and stellar ✨️online reputation✨️, I'm gonna drop my most Boomer opinion, as a not-quite-elder Millenial.
Stop canceling people and stop censoring things.
I know we, as mere peons, have little vote in the censorship arena, but I mean generally, amongst your peers, amongst your fellow Internet denizens.
I grew up when the internet was brand spankin new, back before there were ads, fact checkers, regulations of any kind. I remember Chris Poole (teehee, amirite), I remember stumbling upon porn, decapitations, and slurs, ableism, and racism beyond your wildest dreams. I like to think I turned out okayish. But my point is this: your morals and values aren't shaped upon you by the outside world. Your parents and immediate community shape that, but the maintenance of that is all on you, whether you enforce that or not. For example, a YT™️, I do have a degree of instilled racism. But my family and community taught me black people are the same, good, cool, etc. All that exposure to the evilest of evils on the internet did not change that. My parents taught me something, I reinforced it independently, so nothing any jackhole had to say on the internet could change that.
While I do applaud this generation's willingness to discuss mental health and prioritize vulnerability, yall do seem to be really into "cancel culture" and don't say slurs, respect my pronouns, that was really hurtful, don't be such a whatever-ist.
Babes, little lambs, sweet summer children, hearken: let people say their shit. Let them be the loudest, most manipulative, racist, anti-semitic, sexist, etc motherfuckers. Why? Because that way, you can see their true colors at the outset. Instead of this situation where, say, some youtube celebrity seems so great but oh no he was texting minors all along who could have seen it coming, or this influencer on TikTok was a Nazi all along!
Would they have necessarily come out with that shit straight out the gate? No, but if someone is truly comfortable, they'll say it a lot sooner rather than later. The goal in your flock is to make the wolves as obvious to spot as possible. To me, in my singular, most humblest opinion, it feels like you're giving the wolves extra fleece and teaching them MUA tips on how to blend in. That's all.
Hearing or seeing bad things won't hurt you or change who you are fundamentally as a person, and I think that fear of being exposed to things is a bit snowflake-y. The opinions of others can't make you a racist, or give you an ED, or whatever; who you are are is on you, and if you think you might be that easily influenced, work on that. Integrity isn't exactly inherent, it's a skill. You're not a bad person for being easily influenced. No one online is going to tell you the 100% truth, it's opinion soup up in here, baby. You choose who you are, you cultivate your experience.
that all being said, I AM glad fucked up shit is harder to find because oof