What I Find Interesting In This Post, Beyond The Reasoning Which I Understand And Agree With 100%, Is

What I find interesting in this post, beyond the reasoning which I understand and agree with 100%, is the visual, the way this simple, colourfully-significant and effective chart shows the escalating process someone can fall into if they don't pay attention to what they do/say.

There are various degrees of bullying, just like there are different profiles of bullies. Some do not go to the most extreme length the visual shows, but of course that doesn't make them any less bullies.

Bullies struggle with personal issues (there again, extremely varied ones from one individual to another) and use other(s) to unload their emotional bagage, unrestrained, uncensored, unreasonably. Am I too optimistic to believe that this process could be stopped before it gets too damaging for the victim (and for the bully as well as a matter of fact because nobody will convince me that this destructive behaviour doesn't backfire in any way) ? Am I too naive to still believe that calling to intelligence, in order to understand that the reasoning in the right column of this chart can lead to dangerous outcomes, can help?

When it comes to emotions that hurt self-confidence, ego issues or the like, logic is just thrown by the window, I know. Discussing can turn out helpless and pointless. What if such visual could help, leaving people the autonomy to self-reflect, to question themselves, to figure out where they stand on this chart, ultimately to restore logic one way or another, in their own terms?

@ao3commentoftheday Thank you for making this chart! I think it should be reblogged endlessly!

[image described in alt text]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZPWixvzwkVal4iZGPc3plQyecQWc_dVH/view?usp=sharing

Transcript: I've been thinking again, which I know is always a dangerous thing for me to do, but have some thoughts from my brain about how people get to the point of harassment.

I'm gonna speak specifically about fandom but I don't think this is fandom-specific. Anyway, I think it starts with, "I like a thing." or alternatively, "I don't like a thing." And that's perfectly fine. Everybody likes and dislikes things, and that's totally normal.

From there, "I want to talk to other people who like this thing" (or dislike this thing). Again, totally normal. We like to talk about our interests. We like to talk about things that are important to us.

After that, perhaps you wish more people liked that thing. Great. I also want to have more people who like the things that I like because that gives me more people to talk to and a bigger community to engage in.

Where we start to get on a little bit of shaky ground from my perspective is "Liking this thing is a good thing for people to do." When you start thinking about preferences being good or bad, that's where things could potentially go awry.

But you know, in a lot of cases it's just, "If you don't like this thing you're missing out." Which again, I have totally felt that thing before like, "This thing brings me so much joy! I want other people to feel that joy with me! (or even without me) I just want them to enjoy something that I know of as enjoyable."

The flip side of that, of course, is "Liking this thing means that I am better than other people." and that's getting a little judgmental. It could be harmless but it could be not so harmless. Flip it around, "Disliking this thing means that I'm better than other people." Again, could be harmless but could be a little more insidious.

And when I say that I mean the next step is, "People who feel the opposite of how I feel are bad people." "I like this thing. You don't like this thing. You are a bad person." "I dislike this thing. You like this thing. You are a bad person."

It's just a preference, but the step after that is thinking, "I am morally superior for having the preference that I have." And now we're getting into pretty dangerous territory. Because once you feel morally superior for your preference, the step that comes after that is "Having my preference is a good, moral choice. Having the opposite preference is a bad moral choice. People whose preference is different from mine should be punished for having a different preference."

And where does that punishment so often end up in online spaces? In online spaces, it often ends in bullying, harassment and threats of violence. Very often when we get to that point, the step after that is, "Anyone whose preference is different from mine should die." Very often the comments that come along in those when we get to that stage are about killing oneself.

But that's not all. A lot of the time there are threats of violence from one individual against the person that has a different preference, and then the step after that is, "Anyone who disagrees with my punishment for that person's other preference also shares that other preference and should also be punished, harassed, bullied and have violence enacted upon them as a result of that."

And that I think is where a lot of online spaces are trending these days. It's part of the reason why I've been quieter on Tumblr because it's not even directed at me as an individual human being, but I see things in tags and I see things in the notes where somebody who's reblogging or replying or tagging is talking about another group of people separate from me, just in their own fandom space, and so often it's threats of violence it is words of hatred. It is discussion around people deserving punishment, being bad human beings. All because of what they like or what they don't like.

I don't really have a point to this. I just have been thinking about how do you get from "I like this thing" to "you should die because you don't like this thing," and I don't think it's it's a one way street. And I don't think that everybody who starts at liking ends in threats of violence. I don't even know that most of these threats of violence are genuine. I think a lot of it is, you know, sarcastic online conversation. "Can't you take a joke?"

Yes I can. I just don't think jokes about violence are funny.

And the more time I spend in online spaces, the more tired I feel as a result, and the less I want to engage. And that sucks because online communities are my favorite communities they've given me so much joy. But right now, I don't know man. I don't know.

happy birthday to our sunshine, jung hoseok! ☀🌈 (cr. hobies, outroher)

Oh shit, I did that too in a fic! 😅😂😂

I did it purposefully though. I'm sick and tired of dealing with covid every single hour of my day. I'm glad some universes don't feature it!

Something quick for the royalAU because my computer is being fixed and I have to use the iPad in the mean time. 

UK Politics Rundown: BoJo's Bizarre Exit Edition

Ok, so, people keep asking me to explain what's going on in the UK right now, mostly because they're seeing Brits just revelling in the levels of fuckery going on. So, a brief bullet pointed run down:

Most of you have probably heard of the Sentient Mop that is Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the UK

Most of you probably know about his penchant for lying to the public and basically not giving a fuck about it

This culminated in a huge police investigation into literal parties this man held while we were in Covid lockdown. Including one the night before Prince Phillip's funeral at which the Queen sat alone. And if you know how the press reacted to that one, you know he was in the shit for it.

Anyway, he lied about many of those parties, got fined for attending those parties, and is still technically under Parliamentary investigation for lying to Parliament while stood on the floor of the House of Commons (the room where they yell about laws every day).

There was also a Vote of No Confidence, which is a way in which the Conservatives can remove the leader of their party if they think he's terrible. Boris won this, but by a smaller margin than he would have wanted. No new vote can be held for another year based on the current rules (more on this later)

Fast forward 2 weeks from the end of that to last week and we get some news about an MP (Chris Pincher) who initially seemed to have got drunk and done *something* (as yet it was undefined) and he was suspended from the Conservative party pending investigation.

The following day (Thursday) it emerged that it was because he had allegedly sexually assaulted two men while drunk at a Conservatives club, and that there had been reports of this behaviour before. So he had the whip (basically the ability to vote as a Conservative MP) removed.

On Friday tons of Conservatives did the rounds on the news with 'oh we didn't know he was Bad. Boris definitely didn't know or he wouldn't have appointed him to his position'

On Saturday Boris does an interview where the reporter challenges him and says 'you were told about this in December 2019), Boris then admits to knowing about it but says he 'forgot'.

People are piiiiiiiiiiiised

Fast forward to Tuesday this week (5th July 2022). Late Tuesday, two Cabinet Ministers (think of like the Secretary of State/Housing etc in the US, it's roughly equivalent) Rishi Sunak (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Sajid Javid (Health Secretary) resign, citing Boris lying to them about many things but this being the final straw.

I mean sure lads, everything else was terrible but this is what did it huh?

Don't worry about it. Their resignations were designed to do exactly what's happened so it was a calculated move.

This kicks off what you've seen in the last 48hrs, with Cabinet Ministers, Senior Ministers, and Junior Ministers all resigning. At one point it was 6 resignations an hour.

The previous record for most ministers in a 24hr period resigning was 11 in 1932. Boris did 53.

Current total of resignations is 59. He fired Michael Gove (who's been hired and fired by the last 3 Prime Ministers, so congrats on that achievement Michael!) So it's basically at 60.

There are not enough ministers in jobs currently to run most departments

Press didn't know what to do with themselves and everyone in the UK was on Facebook marking themselves as 'attending' Boris' leaving party, and generally just having a great time with governmental collapse

Yesterday Boris refused to go. You may have seen footage of the entire House of Commons telling him goodbye very sarcastically. This is the normal levels of shithousery in the House of Commons, but it's also very funny.

Boris was still refusing to go late last night, saying he had a mandate from the people. You got this in 2019, love, it doesn't count anymore.

Literally everyone was writing letters and going on TV telling him to go, including people who'd got new jobs from him 24hrs before

Anyway, between 6:45am and 8am another 10 people resigned, which is how we got to 60 after yesterday's bonanza, and by 9:15am Boris said he would resign as PM and Tory Party leader

He is literally blaming everyone but himself at this point but no one is listening to him anymore

This has triggered a Leadership election, where untold horrors await us because that person will be the new Prime Minister....until they're forced to call a General Election

However, Boris still remains as Prime Minister for now. He said he'd stay until there was a new leader elected. So he's down, but he's not yet out.

But the fun doesn't stop yet! The 1922 Committee (the backbenches of the Tory Party in Parliament) has elections for positions on Monday and they might (and probably will) elect people who want to change the rules so that another Vote of No Confidence can be held. If that happens, the rules can be changed in less than 24hrs and they'll hold another vote to oust him before a new leader is elected. Personally, I hope Theresa May wears another ballgown to this vote after she did to the last one. Boris was the one who ousted her to become leader, so she's revelling in shithousery and it's fun to see Tory on Tory violence.

Highlights of all of this include: Reporters interrupting each other to say someone else just resigned, the people heckling Boris from the gates of Downing Street, the one guy who resigned while in a Parliamentary Committee meeting with Boris that was to discuss all the lies Boris has been telling (and informed him during this meeting. He's a Tory but the balls on that man jeez), Hugh Grant (yes, film star Hugh Grant) paying a bloke to go play the Benny Hill theme tune on Live speakers around Parliament, reporters interviewing Larry the Cat who is literally a cat and responsible for keeping the mice at bay, and every single person in the UK making memes/jokes/videos and just generally having a fantastic time as the government implodes.

Will a new leader change anything? No

Are the British public scared or worried about this? No

Is it just really really fucking funny? Yes. So funny

And that, guys, gals, and non binary pals, is the current account of what's going down in the UK as of 7th July (late afternoon).

Day 29/90

Hello writerly friends!

In our journey along the Three Act Structure, we are now at the point that Jessica Brody calls Break Into Two. She points out that something really different has to happen here. The world has to be new and different for our characters. If the world is just the same old same old, there would be no reason for the characters to even go into the second act. Act One is the “status quo”, Act Two is the “upside down” world.

This is where the characters learn their life lessons. Jessica Brody says that these life lessons are the theme. I’m not quite sure I agree but nevertheless, this section is a good moment to check what your theme is. When you discovery write, sometimes you can surprise yourself and your theme may be a different one now than the one you started out with. Go with the flow, and lean into your theme.

Write on friends!