One thing I will NEVER understand is selective thinking. That whole 'it matters when it's you, not when its me' bs and how often it's used for puritain nonsense. It happens a lot in the real world but it seems particularly annoying in fandom.
"If you ship character A with B, that's abusive and you're an abuser." "I ship character A with C, btw. That's fine." What. No? That's not how this works- either character A is an abuser and shouldn't be shipped with anyone or A/C is abusive also. You can't 'fix' an abuser with 'a different abuser, but good' "Oh, well C can fix them-" no C can't, and you're also advocating for abuse. Just because it's abuse against a "bad person" does not make it not abuse.
"Your OC/fave character is a stalker*, so that means you're advocating for stalking and that's bad" "My irl/alter/kin is a murderer, but I would never actually hurt anyone so that's fine." What. Repeat that back. Say that out loud to yourself. Because you like a character who is bad, that means you support bad things. But having a character who is "literally you" and bad is. Fine actually. Somehow.
Normie anime fans will literally say "Just because a work I like has some weird parts to it doesn't mean I'm weird for liking it-" or otherwise acknowledge that their enjoyment of a ficticious work does not mean they're okay with actually creeping and then turn around and say shit like "I bet you think it's fine, since it's 'just lines', huh?" or "Oh, I bet loli/shotacons love you-" when someone agrees with them using words they don't like. Brother anyone who does not watch anime is thinking that exact shit about YOU.
If you say, "I don't tell anyone I like a series, because there's a creepy part in it-" you cannot then turn around and say, "Oh I bet everyone else who likes the series is ONLY in it for the creepy part and if you don't judge me for liking the series then you're actually a Freak." Bitch this is the Freak Show, we are all in the circus. Put on thr clown wig or fuck off for all eternity.**
And the people who ARE criticizing you are most likely HP fans or watch GOT and HOTD religiously like "anime sexualizes teens-" yeah and it's pretty fucking weird, but so is American media's obsession with underage drinking and sex, because you'd be hard pressed to find a non-Disney show with teen characters played by twenty year old actors that doesn't utilize copious substance abuse.
**Btw not saying you can't criticize unnecessary creepage in series, because yeah no what the fuck. Yes, it's annoying and discouraging as an anime fan to explain "Yeah, you just kinda start to tune some shit out or you're never going to really get into anime..." and "I like the series for the non-creepy aspects," (which btw I will beat this horse because western media is ALSO creepy and unsettling, but people have just become accustomed to not needing to apologize for it because why would you need to apologize for watching shows that glorify underage drinking and sex?), but if you are smart enough to recognize that you are watching a work of fiction, assume that most other people are, too fuckwad. Just as you look at volumptuous hentai balloon boobs and go "That's hot, but not desirable or obtainable irl," someone is looking at a cutesy chibi girl with a cigarette between her comically tiny fingers and doing the same.***
Why are we STILL debating the whole fucking "Violent video games make you violent-" bullshit? That's literally ALL this is. It's just repackaged 'Playing Call Of Duty makes you a school shooter' shit. (***If I need to fucking say it- no shit, legit creeps will hide in plain sight in these communities. In anime communities, in gaming communities, in western media communities. There are absolutely lolishocons who are creeps. There are also people who watch GOT and enjoy/fantasize about the constant graphic rape. There are people who play FPS games because they want to do that in real life. I don't need to go into every subtle niche of "fiction does/doesn't affect reality" to say that "fiction is NOT reality.")
That'a not even getting into the commonality of making weird sex jokes ('noo step bro-' or "Mommy? Sorry. Mommy?"), becauss guess what if you or anyone around you has jokes about those things without you assuming they have an incest fetish, then you can extend the same hand to people who ship those same taboo topics. Not all shipping- or joking- is a reflection of real life morality.
