I'm Confused, Are You Saying Shipping Doesn't Have A Problem With Racism And Misogyny, Or That It Shouldn't

I'm confused, are you saying shipping doesn't have a problem with racism and misogyny, or that it shouldn't be criticized?

I'm saying that messaging a nuanced proship blog to specifically say you don't call yourself proship because you've completely willfully misunderstood the purpose and definition of proship and have boiled an entire community down to "racist whiteys liking boring white men and hating women" is not going to get the kind of support and applause from said blog that you thought it would.

"I don't call myself proship because it sounds like it means I can't shit on people for shipping things I perceive as bad."

A* comprehension. Truly.

Agree or disagree: a lot of people seem to be more concerned about looking like an activist who's doing activism rather than about actually helping the people who need help?

Nuanced agree.

I do think that for a lot of people there's a significant concern about how they're perceived by their peers, and that it fuels a lot of misguided "activism" but this stems from fear rather than something like laziness, deliberate manipulation, ect.

It ties into what I talked about on another post where people also place misguided responsibility and demands on people they deem as "capable" or "obligated." And where some people are also just point blank dickheads about moral signalling and knighting.

If you're constantly facing harassment and pressure to be seen as doing X, pretty soon you're going to get overwhelmed and you're going to try to prevent it by doing X in an overly visible, performative manner. You're going to want to stop people coming after you by visibly waving a neon sign saying "I'VE DONE THIS THING!"

We saw it with the social media blackouts. We saw it with spamming Free Palestine and Palestine flags. We saw it with the BLM logo. We see it with Facebook profile banners.

Being Known As Not A Bad Person becomes almost tantamount to actually not being a bad person.

But then, of course, you've also got the other side of the coin where there's people are genuinely do just want the recognition and clout of being deemed as an activist and a good person over actually wanting to be an activist and good person.

(Like that female influencer who was caught pretending to pick up trash, and the man who goes around shoving a camera in homeless people's faces and forcing them to perform for his audience if they want help.)

I think if we as a society were less concerned with forcing people to prove to us that they're not bad people and that they're Actually Doing Something, a lot more would actually get done.

Why did “be critical of your media” turn into “find all its flaws and hate it” why did people become allergic to FUN

Why do people assume that just because you break the rules of safe sane consensual sex in fictional stories, that you have done 0 research on that outside of fiction? Like you have just met me, you have no idea what I know.

Because people are stupid.

honestly, I’m really happy that you made that “we need to be allowed to be free from politics in fandom” post. And I’m really happy that it made some people angry.

Because you’re right. I’m a living example- I’m a person who just feels so much guilt if they don’t participate in this ritual of self-sacrifice in the way of helping others. And I feel like tumblr activism has come to a point where it’s not even about helping each other or mutual aid, it’s about guilt-tripping people and saying “well, you wouldn’t want to be Mr evil terrible guy, right? Right? So signal boost this! Or else you’re literally an evil transphobic homophobic racist Zionist fascist bigot”

we all have to be selfish sometimes. We have to. Selfishness is inherently neutral and we need it to survive. I’m a real example of what happens when a person tries to live a life without selfishness- guess what, I’m the worlds biggest doormat and I’m basically miserable because I’m too afraid to tell people that I just can’t do it anymore.

I’m a person who needs help right now. I’m a person who needs assistance right now. But I don’t think any of them really care. They just want someone to make into their strawman. The world isn’t black and white like that, though

The majority of Tumblr activism isn't about helping other people.

Its about giving people an outlet for their own emotions, and showing other people you're not a bad person. I have no doubt a lot of the people falling victim to this actually believe they're helping, and likely have good intentions, but realistically I see so many people just using "activism" to lash out at others and moral grandstand.

Weaponizing activism blatantly defeats the purpose of activism. There's no standard to the people who need help, and just because someone can't necessarily be an extreme activist doesn't void them from being the recipient of it.

I hope you get the help and respite you need and if I can help you or facilitate finding people to help you I'm happy to. I can also gather some resources for self-help and methods to reduce stress if those are beneficial.

And remember:

Fandom is not inherently political.

The point of activism is to make change, not to get notes on a post.

Those with broken legs cannot run. Don't cripple yourself trying to help others.

By that logic, does the person refuse to call themselves a “human” because humans historically have a problem with racism? Do they wholeheartedly reject their own gender, race, nationality, hometown, and alma mater because other people from that category have been Problematic? And do they bother people who insist on using labels or belonging to communities that this person believes also include The Bads? Or does this only apply to online fandom for…hmmmmm……Reasons

That anon was a known troll. Shortly after I refused to entertain their argument they started spamming me with 40+ eccentric and threatening asks and turned to other blogs to spam them with the same asks and bait.

I don't mind bait when the person has unknowingly given me the perfect opportunity to counter it, educate people and allow people a speak-piece, but once the angry spam started they got an instant block.