I Wonder If Some Of The Controversy Over The Idea Of Vent Channels Is Less About Being Able To Discuss

I wonder if some of the controversy over the idea of vent channels is less about being able to discuss topics and more about throwing the topics out as bait. People want to vet other users by gauging their reactions to the topics, to make sure they have "the right opinions."

Because there's no other reason I can think of for why people in half-a-dozen servers need a vent channel in every single one. It's not that they want to discuss the topic. (That compulsion would be met with one server.) It's that they want to discuss the topic with different groups of people. Because they require an echo chamber where they know everyone is on the same page as them. (Or they self-destructively want to debate if they find out someone does not agree.)

Which is ridiculous because if you're in a space for a fandom, all that should matter is that a person likes that fandom and you like their opinions as relevant to it. I think it's a chronically online take that a person should have the same outlook on every single topic as you. I can be friends with coworkers while never bringing up controversial topics (mostly because it's actually against company policy). Sometimes, all you need is a vibe check.

Yes, there are big issues that could make or break a fandom friendship you have with someone. But since it is not relevant to the fandom, maybe just assume they agree with you on every level and judge them based on other, immediate behavior. Or assume they hold every single "wrong" opinion and determine if you could live with that. However, as relevant to strictly fandom discussion, it really doesn't matter. At all.

I honestly have nothing to add to this. You're right.

I very vividly remember in 2020, being told by this one person who began controlling our fandom rp server, that we had to turn our rp blogs into places where we had to reblog every horrific thing happening during blm. and that he "better not catch us trying to rp". he also was against tagging it because then "white people would ignore it". i remember forcing myself to watch videos of police brutalizing black men and women, real people dying in the streets, and trying to convince myself that if I looked away, I was part of the problem. He'd also convinced me that I lucked out in getting my job, only because I was white, and that I was taking this job from a much more qualified black person. the only reason i got away from him is because I started feeling like i should kill myself, because one less whitey. and that was when i snapped to attention and did whatever i could to get out of there, even though it cost me my reputation being slandered by him.

it's been 4 years, and I'm doing my best to heal, but apparently he's still at it. pulling this same kind of controlling bs that I'm seeing echoed in some of those reblogs.

don't traumatize yourself for the sake of proving you're a good person.

Please feel free to name and shame. That kind of behavior is abusive, predatory and could very well drive someone to kill themselves as you almost did. Him continuing to have a platform and unchallenged reach is outright dangerous.

If you are ever in a situation like this, please, clock the early signs and leave. Your health and wellbeing are far more important than your forced activism. If someone is ever:

Making you feel guilty over something like not reblogging a post, being a certain ethnicity/gender/race/sexuality.

Accusing you of contributing to or being the core problem in a much, much broader issue.

Trying to manipulate you and others by "tattling" on you for not doing something or not doing enough.

Threatening you in order to pressure you into doing things.

Screenshot all of the conversations, block them, and leave.

Things like this are why I will always give call out posts which do not contain blatant and corroborating evidence the benefit of the doubt. Its all too easy for people to join in almost automatically on dogpiles against people being accused of something like being racist or being passive/dismissive about world events.

(E.g; in the 911 fandom literal Latino artists and authors were being harassed over being "racist" re; their depictions of Eddie Diaz only for the people dogpiling them to scramble to retract and apologise once they realized the person wasn't actually an Evil Terrible White Person.)

I'm so proud of you for having the courage to get yourself away from your abuser.

actually, I’ve been thinking about pet evacuation recently and this reminded me of how I’m about to start trying to get my cat to go into his crate (or at least allow me to get him in easier) because I’ve started to overthink about scenarios where we need to evacuate. Not trying to start an argument or make a snide comment, I just find the timing of your post interesting

There is no argument. Anyone who does not yet have these plans and this training in place or is preparing to is being irresponsible. Even if you don't live in an area known for natural disasters, you literally never know what could happen.

You could have a house fire. A sinkhole. A burst pipe. Gas leak.

Anything could happen that means you need to get your pet out and you need to get your pet out now. It could literally mean the difference between life and death for both you and your pet to have these things in place.

I've seen so many heartbroken stories about how people lost their pets in things like housefires because they didn't know where it was hiding or didn't have a carrier to get it outside or it wouldn't go in the carrier because it had never been in one before.

You need to practice these things. You need to have a plan in place. You need to teach your pet that in an emergency you are the safe place. No matter how sure you are that you know your pet or you'll never be one of those people who needs to do it.

All pets where it is realistic to do so should be trained in:

Not freaking out if they wind up stuck or tangled in something. Especially prey animals like horses who can severely injure themselves and anyone trying to help them by panicking this way.

Evacuating the location in an emergency/rush and in the transportation method available. Trailer, carrier, ect.

Taking medicine, being inspected and treated for injuries.

Having their faces/eyes/ears/noses covered in the instance you need to do so to prevent them from inhaling something, getting something in their eyes, ect.

Would you consider it a red flag if someone in your fandom said "____should never be glorified/romanticized/portrayed positively in fic because young readers might believe this is what a healthy relationship looks like"? Or am I just paranoid about seeing antis everywhere? (not in the mood to be shamed/called out if someone went digging for the (relatively tame yet still unhealthy irl) kind of fic I write)

Most blatantly, yes.

Far too often fiction is deemed as the topmost or sole source of what we as people and society reference as what is 'normal' or what is to be idolised or idealised by, quite frankly, idiots. Its the same mentality as 'seeing boys kiss will make you gay.' They're essentially just claiming that people inherently lack the ability to think for themselves and will adopt what they see in fiction as a direct translation of reality.

This does, however, largely stem from our appalling global educational systems and online culture and religious oppression.

Fantasising about unrealistic relationships and relationship dynamics is nothing new, dangerous or damning. Trying to blame and condemn fiction as 'glorifying' anything because its romanticized or dramatized is just poor critical thinking skills, a lack of media literacy and frankly the poor ability to just have fucking fun.

Fiction is not inherently propaganda. It should not be treated as such. Fiction is not reality. It should not be treated as such. A reader's inability to healthily consume fiction is not the fault of the creator.

Frankly, if young people are reading or watching fiction and absorbing the stories as actual teachings and influences, that is a failure of a much larger system. And also an individual flaw.

If people are attempting to hold you responsible for the education of younger generations through your fanfiction, just block them or remove their comments. Or, do what I do, and simply reply back with multiple links to sources evidencing the contrary. And then block them.

Antis are so obsessed with children that it's frightening. They shouldn't be that obsessed. It gives some thought. Were the antis really paedophiles?

The thing I've always found most ironic is the fact that antis often use "proshipper spaces are used to groom children!" as a gotcha tagline, while steadfast refusing to understand that their spaces are also used to groom children, abuse children and vulnerable people, and that antis have collectively shared more real life child pornography than proshipping spaces ever have.

I am actually begging some people to just let some spaces exist untouched by real-world issues and horrors.

Like I've lost count of the amount of times peaceful game or fandom servers have been ruined by people stampeding in with political rants, bitching about world issues, demanding internal activism, demanding vent channels so they can whine about their shitty parents, ect.

Like. Respectfully. Not every single space has to be inclusive of and welcoming of outside topics. The real world sucks. We don't needed to be reminded of that absolutely everywhere.