well, no, tumblr is not “a community” much in the same way that a large city with the same population as the number of tumblr users is also not “a community.”
there isn’t “clear delineation” of ingroups and outgroups, but often that isn’t true in real life either. the point of the missing stair post is not actually dependent on there being extremely concrete boundaries between tumblr subcultures, which is why i have seen “missing stair” type situations happen on this website before which often blew up into public accusations (and, sometimes, counter-accusations).
“home of false accusations against trans women” is a strong choice of words. Frankly I don’t have any reason to think that’s more common on this website than on any other website, unfortunately. But conversely, you do actually have to be able to take some kind of concrete action when, for example, the accuser and the accused are both trans women, and you know both of them IRL, and your choices will have consequences that affect the rest of all of your lives. that is a realistic scenario.
Would it change how you acted in the above scenario if it was a cis woman accusing a cis man? What about a cis man accusing another cis man?
How many degrees of separation away from someone do you have to be before they are no longer a priority for you as a fellow human being?
Do you want to hold everyone in the world at arms length forever? Put everyone in the world in a position of such abstraction, such distance, that it does not matter to you if they are the victim or the perpetrator?
I certainly don’t. I think that’s part of the problem with our (global) society, that too many people act as if they are at a “safe distance” from everything.
so, like, yes, i do kind of agree with you (in the descriptive sense) that there isn’t necessarily “a community” of tumblr, and I often talk about how i do not feel there is “an LGBTQIA+ community” or “a queer community” or “a trans community” or even “a transfeminine community.”
However, that being said, you must also consider the real possibility that the people on the other end of the fiber-optic cable who make funny words appear on your screen might be other human beings.
I’m not interested in the specificities of why the OOP as an individual “participates” or “doesn’t participate.” I’m trying to examine the underlying mindset in general, rather than in specific. (Btw on left-leaning tumblr, nobody complains when someone points out a particular user is a neo-nazi or a zionist. Everyone just hits the block button and moves on. Same with using the “Shinigami Eyes” program that demarcates transphobes.)
This isn’t about one particular user’s habits. It’s about the underlying hyper-individualist mindset. I think it could actually be awesome if we were a bit more community-minded, or community-aspirational if you will, about some very basic issues of safety.