#saltytierra

[salytierra]

It’s normal to have strong feelings and reactions ♥

I feel like this isn’t acknowledged enough. On the contrary: people here (on the internet in general) are constantly told to “chill”

And those who say this, are not wrong. From the rational point of view, some things just don’t warrant to be taken so seriously, everyone’s opinions should be respected, you won’t change anyone’s mind by reacting on a hot head, etc. 

But we are not always rational. I am a passionate person myself, I react hotly sometimes to the most trivial stuff and write long and angry responses to random posts on the internet. Writing them makes me feel better but... is it a good idea to post it? 

Often the answer is “no”. Be it because I’d be raising unnecessary drama, because it doesn’t fit my blog, because I might get into a tiring and prolonged discourse because of it... etc. 

So here’s a few tricks I’ve learned with time, and specially in the past few months,  to manage my reactions on tumblr:

Look at the notes of that post. Maybe somebody already said what you want to say and you only need to reblog that version or add a supportive word. If there isn’t anything of the sort:

Write your response but don’t post it immediately. Save it as a draft. We are hormonal beings. The way we see and measure the importance of things vary depending on how tired, hungry or awake we are. Even of the time of the day and the moon phase. Creating some distance and giving yourself time to cool down might also give your head a clearer perspective. 

Re-read the post in your drafts a few hours later, or even sleep over it. The ideal would be two days. If it’s a post with lots of notes, a bit of resting time won’t matter. Ask yourself: does this look as bad as it did when I read it for the first time? Does it really matter? Will my response change anything? Will I feel better after manifesting my opinion? 

Look again at your answer:  -Is it grammatically coherent?   -Do you provide empirical evidence? Do you link resources to fact-chek if needed?  -These that may contest you will latch onto anything. Make sure you don’t accidentally contradict yourself, that you don’t insult anyone, that you are being polite and that you get your point across. 

I can’t stress this enough - BE POLITE. You have to tell them that you disagree with their opinion, not that you consider them and their entire family "retarded idiots” (actual insult someone actually threw at me once. So mature...)  You will never change anyone’s mind if you use cheap insults. People will just shut down and ignore anything you have to say. 

Re-read everything. Correct your answer. Save it as a draft again. Come back a few hours later.  Does it still make you angry and do you still really want to post your rant? 

If yes, then go for it. The internet is a free place and anyone who’s on it by their own free will should be able to handle some burn. 

And another extra point: if you receive an answer but it doesn’t add anything of value, it’s okay to ignore it. You want to invest your time and energy in a debate, not in a baby fight. 

[ask-fraustria]

salytierra replied to your post “Spain X Austria ?”

That was beautiful :'3 My babies are always so tragic!... (although I personally think they'd make a lovely (& lazy) couple in the present xDD)

[ haha, i don’t think it’s all tragic for them! i think they have a very positive relationship. Spain is sort of lucky to be someone who really gets along with Austria... and i don't disagree, i think they'd work very well if they wanted to get together again! it's more that i personally have a different OTP for modern times, but Spain has a special place in my Austria's heart, for sure. ]

[salytierra]

On fandom: free content and entitlement

In light of recent events (read: that kid that took on a personal vendetta against the aph hub) I started thinking a lot about how the coddled tumblr mentality is killing all the current fandoms in general more than the emergency of new shows to fawn over does. 

Let me explain. But first I’d like to link some of my favorite posts:

(1) About the hyper-sensitivity and censorship on this site. 

(2) About minors invading adult places on the Internet. 

(3) About passive consumption of fanworks 

(4) My own rant about self-diagnosed mental issues

Let’s make one thing clear first: I was a smartass, whiny teen once too, completely unaware of how ridiculous I was being. Remembering myself at 16 - I want to crawl under a rock, let alone at 14! 

In 10 years time I will probably be embarrassed of how I am now, at 24, too.  

So this is not meant to pick on kids. That would be hypocritical and useless. This is about how this website glorifies a particular aspect of a dependent and self-centered state of mind, and how coddling and not-addressing it (links 1&2) affects the creation and consumption of fanworks. 

The key is to understand two basic truths:

A) EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE B) THE WORLD IS NOT TAILORED TO YOU

A) This is simple: the world works by equivalent exchange - you receive a service when you pay money for it or give something of equivalent value in return. And you have to receive money or goods in return for your work. 

(in fandom - these goods are feedback, but we will get to that later)

Now, that is something you learn when you grow up. When you are a kid in your parent’s house, they and the rest of the family do everything for you. You live, eat, receive medical attention and education for free. The only thing you are asked in return is to study and do some house chores from time to time. 

Of course not always it’s perfect, and some kids are put under a lot of pressure to do these two things right, but honestly? - It’s appalling how many posts complaining about setting the table I’ve seen around here. Children are more spoiled and consented now than they’ve ever been. And being as coddled as they are, when they grow up they don’t understand that, unlike their parents, the world doesn’t exist to make their life easy and that they can’t expect to receive perfect services without giving anything in return. 

Strangers on the internet just don’t love and care about you enough to do that. 

Nobody is going to sacrifice themselves specifically for you without receiving anything in return. 

B) So whenever you see and receive free services; such as a group of fans running a page to help out other fans, dedicating hours and hours of stressful work to it; or an artist that draws your favorite character, or a writer that just wrote that particular AU that you always wanted... you CAN NOT EXPECT IT TO BE PERFECT. Specially perfect FOR YOU, in PARTICULAR. 

You want something to be done perfectly according to your tastes? - Do it YOURSELF. 

And see for yourself how hard it is. Get off your ass and force yourself to work for free, for yourself and others, and then try not to care when you start receiving callout posts and anons complaining about how something that you did, doesn’t sit right with them. 

I already spoke out about this once, but basically, as a free individual: You can make constructive criticism, you can complain if you’ve been wronged and ask for a reasonable explanation, but you can’t demand changes. You can’t expect others to take your words into consideration just because it’s you. 

And if you don’t treat people with the respect that they are due, you will only wrong yourself. 

Why?

Because there’s nothing as discouraging as working your ass off just for the sake of doing a service to others and receive callouts, demands and bullying in return. 

It’s almost as bad, or even worse, as the silence. 

Silence:

And here’s the other point: if you consume free media or services, the least you can do, is show appreciation. 

We live in an age when kids seldom thank their parents for making them food or buying their clothes. And if they do, it’s rarely sincere. There’s a collective sense of laziness towards showing gratitude. Everything is a given, as if these commodities just appeared out of thin air. 

Well, hours, sometimes even days, of people’s work is not a given. As a quote in Link 3 goes: 

“We create for ourselves, but we post it for you”

There’s nothing more discouraging for a writer than feeling like they are shouting into the void - except, of course, outright non-constructive criticism. 

There’s nothing worse for an artist (again, except said criticism) than when their work is faced with indifference. And that also applies to half-assed acknowledgement. A freind of mine once said “when people like but not reblog my art, I feel like they are telling me it’s not good enough to be shown in public.”

It’s very simple to leave a review or a singe word of praise when reblogging someone’s work. Just give it a try and you’ll light up their world. 

And if you feel like it’s some soft of effort on your part, think about the effort they put into making it for you. 

If you don’t appreciate the effort of others... people will just stop making that effort. Stop drawing your fanart and stop writing your stories.

And finally: all these community blogs that work their ass off to help artists and writers, to help keep the fandom active and provide information and promotion services: it’s hard work too. They deal with a lot of people and a lot of stupid issues every day. 

The least we can do is, from time to time, show some appreciation and understand that they are human, they make mistakes the same way that you do. So if they make mistakes, don’t whine and insult them like a spoiled brat, get off your ass and help out or have at least some respect and accept that not everything is ever going to be to your taste.

TL;DR: if you consume free content

a) Don’t make demands: you are entitled to nothing except what other’s are willing to give you. 

b) Accept that not everything is going to be perfectly tailored to your tastes.

c) Show some appreciation in return!

That’s your part of the exchange.

[salytierra]

To be fair, I think they are old enough. The old "let's protect kids" is what makes many children bullies, and awful terrible people when adult, and frankly, anyone over 12-13 is NOT a child.

I completely agree with the first part, and like, with the 70% of the second. In an ideal world, you can lecture a kid and have them learn their mistake but 

1) the world has been moving in a really weird direction and the ages of mental development have raised a lot lately. Nowadays, almost no-one feels like they are ready to adult by 18, when some decades ago that was established as a coming-of-age time exactly because people then did feel like it. So I feel like today, people up to 15 are still kids, in a lot of ways. (Helicopter parenting is a lot to blame, me thinks.) 

2) There’s a fine line between being a mentor a being too harsh on the internet, non-verbal language makes up for almost 80% of our communication. With only the internet we are left with 20% to make ourselves understandable. Some are better at it, but me, frankly, not so much. I’m a very expressive person (non-verbally) and I tend to come out dry or harsh just because I talk like I do in person, but people can’t see my body language. So I’m pretty bad at not crossing that line, even if it’s on accident. I don’t want kids to become bullies, but I don’t want to accidentally bully them either. 

3. Honestly, I’m too old for this shit. I try not to follow people below 16 because they are still kids to me, let somebody under 18 deal with the 15 year olds, they’ll get out of it with clean conscience, at least. 

[salytierra]

Damn, I read everything on your blog about the recent events in Catalonia. I've only seen what was on twitter until now and it seemed sketchy, because i kept seeing comments that some photos were fake but now that I read all you said and reblogged it makes sense. I'm really sorry about what you are going through. I hope you stay safe and everything calms down :( please take all the time you need

I’ve been trying to stay safe for too long. Me and the rest of us, and look where it led us. We just want peace.

I’m afraid as fuck. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. There’s a massive anti-cesessionist protest planned for sunday, to show we exist. But the passiveness is so rooted in at this point… I’m gonna be there tho. Idk if that’s going to be safe.

These rabid dogs are so braved up now. They are attacking and sending death threats to journalists and writers now. It may be too late too.

This week is crucial and shit just… it’s horrible to feel so insecure and powerless.

Just… aaaarrrrrrrggg 😫😫😫😫

[salytierra]

@fadingzombienacho y la vergüenza que da la gente que falta a la memoria y los méritos de las víctimas y supervivientes del fascismo, soltando esa palabra como caramelos al aire para designar cualquier cosa que no sale exáctamente como ellos fantasean que sea.

[salytierra]

Please 'saltytierra' this. lily-of-the-mountain tumblrcom/post/162039913939/katsgf-cardozzza-katsgf-what-a-lot-of

Thank you anon, for having such faith in me. But I read it and it’s such a high amount of self-centered bullshit that I’m just not in the mood to argue to deaf ears. 

I’m not gonna spend a whole evening putting together example after example and explaining to someone that surely doesn’t understand that 

a) LGBT people don’t have a hive mind and are not obligated to follow some weird conduct code or else they are traitors to their sexuality. b) The importance of the police and the militaryc) the importance of LGBT role models in the corporate sphered) that there are poc in the military, police and wall street too, and of every orientation AND IT’S THEIR RIGHT AND CHOICE TO BE THERE and we should be grateful, not accuse them of being traitors.e) that people can have different opinions on what’s “liberal” or not for every aspect of their lives, not all of them together, and have different opinions on those too. f) not everybody does anything in their life with the goal to fuck them over. g) many other shit that anyone with half a brain understands, but OP apparently doesn’t. 

I don’t want to spend my whole evening arguing something to a butthurt sjw commie basic aspects of reality. So thank you for your faith but It’s all I’m gonna say with regards of this post. 

[salytierra]

Sometimes I get just weird, unrelated followers (that I usually block). 

But sometimes I get followers that make me want to reiterate that I’m very strongly against reactionary ideologies, deviate slightly to the right in some of my beliefs, and that I CAN’T STAND COMMUNISM.