Critical Thinking - Tumblr Posts
Writing Advice: Noticing Bigotry In Your Writing
Tw for mentions of bigotry and discrimination, obvi
Look Up Common Stereotypes For Your Characters
Seriously, this is the best thing you can do in order to incorperate these stereotypes into a full-formed identity. I'm not saying that you can't write a "sassy black girl" or a "happy disabled person".
It's just that if you have any hope of writing these stereotypes into actual 3-dimensional characters, you need to know what you are working with. Look up "Common {Minority} Stereotypes" or "{Minority} Myths"
It's genuinely not that hard to see whether or not your character is a stereotype! Send an ask to @cripplecharacters if you are having trouble with your disablity representation.
Send a submittion to the thousands of Tumblr accounts whose entire schtick is giving you advice!
Let me tell you:
" The Worst Decision You Can Make Is A Subconscious One"
If you go into writing a minority character the way you do with all your characters aka fantasizing and just going straight for it, there is a chance you might undercut your story with bigotry!
Because everyone has bias. That's not a moral failing on your part but it is something you need to consciously fight against in order to write characters who can stand on their own and not be supported by internalized bigotry.
Which leads me to my second and last question.
2. Why Is Your Character Like This?
Investigate why you made the decisions you have made. To help with that, here is a little questionaire!
When I imagine a cruel person what assumptions do I make about their appearance and psyche?
Based on my previous characters, do I have a tendency to lean into a particular archetype when writing my minority characters?
Is there any narrative reason such as plot, themes, and other important devices that would justify my character's personality?
Why did I decide this character would be this particular minority?
How do I view this character in terms of their minority status? Is it condescending? Is it hateful?
What associations do I naturally have between a minority status and social status, personality, and importance?
Would I have treated and viewed this character the same way if their minority status was completely washed away?
Are my minority characters generally relegated to the side lines and only exist to help non-minority characters in their lives?
Is the level of detail, psychological complexity, story, likeability, relatability, and compellingness of minority characters on the same level as non-minority characters?
Do my stories contain symbolism which portrays cruel bigotry-motivated practices as positive or useful?
Do my stories sympathize with bigotry-infused individuals while not extending that sympathy to those who are oppressed by that bigotry?
Have I ever critically looked at my writing and what it says about my worldview on others?
If you are now considering that you have biased belief systems, that's good! Again, it's much better to be aware and fixing your problems instead of not being aware of them.
I hope my little questionaire made you think about your writing in a new way! ;)
Feel free to add your own important "check yourself" questions!
genuinely, honestly, I wish fandom could move past "depiction isn't endorsement".
because it's really meant to be sort of the baby beginner step to media literacy but in fandom spaces it usually acts like a trump card to shut down critical discussions. it's one of the thought terminating cliches of fandom that discourages learning how to interrogate the text beyond "fiction isn't reality, dummy".
yes, the popular whump fic in your fandom isn't endorsing torture, but also, can you tell when the canon for your fandom is endorsing a message? how do you then choose to interact with that canon, and do you get defensive when people are critical of the source material?
depiction isn't endorsement, but can you tell when fandom trends are misogynistic or racist? can you see how killing off a black female character to "punish" her in fanfiction with the framing that she deserves it, and the popular narrative in a certain fandom that a heroic black man is a possessive liar and a white villain is a good man deserving redemption, is endorsing a message in fanfic? do you argue that it's "just fiction" when people get very understandably upset at misogyny and racism in fandom spaces?
yeah, depiction isn't endorsement, but do you think this is where it starts and stops as the only thing you really need to know? do you think people who are critical of things aren't engaging with it properly, or being mean, because they've forgotten the golden fandom rule of "fiction isn't reality"?
nbc hannibal isn't endorsing cannibalism as a dietary choice, but top gun maverick and call of duty: modern warfare were quite literally sponsored by the us military as propaganda for recruitment.
I'm not saying don't enjoy the ip that's making you happy or calling for moral purity in your media habits or whatever. just saying that there's a lot to media literacy beyond the feel good affirmations that periodically circulate fandom, and those affirmation posts both lack necessary nuance and discourage people from engaging with said nuance.
Nora I just saw a whole ass TikTok about dnp being in a qpr. I can’t do this anymore
nobody will erase gay relationships more than internet users trying to be inclusive
Lena Waithe Explains the Significance of Cutting Her Hair (video)
I've said this before and I'll say it again: it's more important to know and understand fully why something is harmful than it is to drop everything deemed problematic. It's performative and does nothing. People wonder why nobody has critical thinking skills and this is part of it because no one knows how to simousltansly critique and consume media. You need to use discernment.
Watched this video a few weeks ago, and I'm glas that it became more popular. She makes a lot of good points about Booktok and covers a lot of problems on this subject.
yall wtf are you guys talking about everyone uses median for average income. Nobody's including billionaires, that would be stupid. I just looked up median income and it's abt 68K. 24k is barely liveable, that's just straight up not possible
A.I. photos are flooding social media and contributing to an Internet where we can't believe what we see. Spotting A.I. 📷s is an important media literacy skill.
None of us have time to research every image we see. We just need people to notice BEFORE THEY LIKE OR SHARE that an image might be fake. If unsure, check it or don't share.
I've started drawing some comics explaining the basic of AI spot-checking and media literacy in the age of disinformation. Follow along here or on my Twitter.
i dont post much but I'm a queer person who lives in a blue state, im white, my parent has stable income, i have healthcare, and a good education. for the most part i'm privileged.
Project 2025 scares the absolute shit out of me. Im not 18 yet, so i can't even vote. I just get to watch a good portion of my peers freak out, call joe biden a fascist, say Project 2025 is normal Republican Bullshit, and tell queer people that the Palestinian genocide will stop once Trump becomes president because Biden is Fascist™️.
I'm not saying Biden isn't a war criminal but essentially every US president has participated in genocide or war in some way. Is this good? No. I don't like Biden but it is what it is we aren't given another choice because our voting system is inherently flawed. But what Trump will do if he comes into power is essentially dismantle what democracy we have left and rid the government of every Liberal, democrat, and leftist. Essentially creating an echo chamber of far right Fascism.
What they have planned will erase 100 years of progress. Do you like going on a camping trip in your local state or national park? Too bad the Heritage Foundation (the think tank that created Project 2025 and their benefactors have their hands so far up Trumps ass you can see them im the back of his throat) wants to log them. You're a single mother? Too bad they want to encourage good ol' family values. You have an unwanted/unsafe pregnancy? You're shit out of luck those Texas abortion laws are now federal and you could go to jail for recieving an abortion pill. Gay marriage we only just achieved in 2015? You're no longer married because you arent a traditional Christian family. Those trans kids you all say you care so much about? They won't have any kind of trans healthcare because the government would take them away from their parents for "abuse". They want to remove any regulation we have for pollution meaning oil companies will get free reign on our country.
They want to strip education, basically making schools little propaganda machines. They want to make higher education inaccessible.
If you elect Trump, you are sentencing millions of people to a miserable life. Women will die en masse due to ectopic pregancies and unsafe childbirth due to the brain drain (where the people who have advanced degrees leave) that will happen to this country similar to whats happening in southern states where doctors are leaving in droves in fear of being prosecuted for giving an abortion. This will only exacerbate pregnancy mortality statistics. Did you know that the number one killer for pregnant women is murder? yeah. Oh well, we're on the topic of healthcare. They specifically outline how they want to get rid of Medicare and push towards privatized healthcare, which is lower quality.
They want to strip the VA meaning thousands of disabled veterans who rely on the VA and social security will end up in abject poverty.
Maybe you don't care about all that, but what about the retirement age being lifted to 70?
Maybe your one issue you care about is Palestine thats the end all be all of your vote. Trump doesn't give two shits about Palestinians. He wants to end the war. That doesn't mean he wants to save Palestine he would probably very well nuke it.
Remember how Roe got overturned? And Chevron? Guess why. Guess. Its because fucking trump installed conservative justices into the Supreme Court. Remember covid? yeah. the pandemic that left a lot of people dead or disabled. Do you remember the press conferences? How he suggested to drink bleach or shove a light bulb up your ass but under no circumstances wear a mask or that the elderly should just sacrifice themselves to the virus? Does that sound like a good thoughtful leader to you?
I'm shouting into the void but please for the love of God gain some reading comprehension. Ask yourself why theres so many headlines about Biden stumbling over his words yet Trump hasn't been mentioned even though if you've listened to that man speak it feels like someone clobbered together some first gen AI response. Ask yourself what the media has to gain by fear mongering and telling you Biden is on deaths door.
You don't have to like Biden. You just have to hate Trump. You need to look at your morals and your politics and ask yourself if you care about trans people, women, queer people, black people, and immigrants. Will these people suffer under a Trump presidency?
Not voting is just another vote for Trump
Abstaining from voting doesn't make a difference. The larger the voter turn out, the more it will sway in favor of democrats. Sadly, we live in a two party state, which sucks ass but it's the cards we were dealt. We can't change anything under Trump. You have a much better chance of ranked choice voting under the Democrats, as much as they suck.
I'm just asking you not to condemn our future and please please read, educate yourself, understand the signs of Fascism and far right ideology because no one is immune to propaganda.
If you want sources, I'll make another post. Just ask.
🔹 Someone else's fiction cannot cause you physical harm.
🔹If someone else's fiction is causing you emotional or psychological harm, or distress, you can put it down and not read/watch it.
🔹Your emotional well-being is not the responsibility of fiction writers.
🔹Someone else's fiction is not about your personal trauma.
🔹When reading or watching fiction, you always have the power. You can always stop. You are never reading fiction without your own consent.
🔹Fiction writers are not responsible for other people's mental health.
🔹The content of a piece of fiction does not reflect on the morality of its author.
🔹Just because someone writes about bad things happening, doesn't mean they want those things to happen.
🔹Don't like? Don't read.
i got a nose ring. looking forward to my new life free of neurodivergency🥵😳🥳
why we need down votes and dislikes in social media.
for the longest time i had no fucking clue what a "ratio" on twitter even was. then i googled it. a ratio is basically when there is way more comments than likes. then my second thought was "wait that is a bad thing ? isn't the point of social media is to.... socialize? have a good discussion ?" then i remembered twitter is a toxic cesspool of the worst people online. on twitter there is no "downvote and move on", you HAVE to make a comment, or on the opposite side of the coin, you HAVE to be exposed to verbal abuse and scum. contradictory, reading these is incredibly addicting, making a controversial opinion and entertaining yourself watching people argue is addicting and does not promote growth. if you had a bad opinion and people downvoted you, then its an easy indicator to tell you went wrong. A number is not as hurtful as a string of personalized attacks. but comments? comments were made for discussion, so you are mixing the good and the bad together, promoting addiction and the lack of self improvement. It damages your mental health, for we were not meant to be exposed to that much negative attention (or attention in general to be fair). the moral of this story is that twitter is the same thing as heroin and that youtube's dislike policy is full of horse piss.
Critical Thinking Cheatsheet
A friend of mine from around here who is Very Christian and has never had a Jewish friend before was asking me some stuff about antisemitism today, and it made me realize that the ways people talk about various types of bigotry and racism are so designed to stump people about the nature and purpose of systems of oppression. "Why do people hate the jews so much?" is such a common refrain and while there have been many books and articles written pulling apart all the important contextual and historical things that can help people understand antisemitism SPECIFICALLY, what I ended up saying to my friend was this:
"Something to understand about antisemitism is it isnt just ideological. The expulsion of jews from various countries was very often a method of "legally" seizing their wealth when the church needed money. It has been historically an incredibly convenient source of both a group of people to blame and also an easy way to just... Be able to steal from people, lmao. It has served very concrete material purposes for churches and governments throughout history. Sometimes you have to approach asking those questions from a different angle because it often isnt about the hatred so much as it is about ... Redirecting energy and attention, right, like upholding structures that benefit those in power. The hatred is convenient because it allows those in power to take actions that would not be tolerated if the group in question were not considered to be Exceptional in their inhumanity. Like the undocumented immigrants now, asking "why do they hate the immigrants so much" isnt always a productive avenue of thought because the hatred is usually just... Useful. Rather it is more helpful to ask "Who does it benefit for these people to be treated this way" -> "what do they need to make the general public believe about that group of people in order to justify this treatment". I think sometimes we are made to think hatred of jews is special and rooted in something different than other hatred... It's not. I mean all types of racism etc are unique. But it very much is about justifying actions that benefit a ruling class in all instances, imo."
And she like totally got it!!! She was like "OH I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT LIKE THAT BUT THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE THANK YOU" I am very proud of myself lol :')
It’s so strange how many young people on this website there are who would probably consider themselves to be progressive/liberal but who are constantly touting very conservative, reactionary, and reductive rhetoric, who balk when they’re called out on it and react violently when anyone disagrees with it.
There are so many young people who are pro-censorship to a frightening degree, happy to shame people for not meeting their impossible and subjective standards of morality, who seem to be almost incapable of thinking critically rather than in black and white, emotionally rather than factually based terms, who consider thought-crimes worse than actual actions that people take against others, and who—quite frankly—seem like they’d be absolutely thrilled to live in an Orwellian dystopia because they’re under the ironic belief that if everyone around them is corralled and controlled and forced to live lives based on what they think is pure and wholesome and good then the world will be a perfect place.
There’s such a lack of critical thinking, unwillingness to see nuance in any argument, and just a lack of the basic human understanding that people are different from one another and that one individual experience is not the end all/be all of all experiences on this site that it’s just honestly disturbing and, in many cases, basically cult-like.
And I get that this is a positivity blog and this post might not ‘fit’ here but positivity isn’t just “uwu you’re valid” text set against a pastel pink background, it’s also encouraging people to think and to act and to live in a way that is understanding of other people, to be an open-minded observer to the world and to think critically and be willing to listen and to learn, and there are many, many people on tumblr who not only do not want to do that but who happily embrace their ignorance, their hate, and their refusal to even consider that they could ever be wrong about anything even when the facts are shoved directly under their nose and…that is seriously not a good way to live as an individual and it’s an absolutely harmful impediment to any kind of community or society that people may try to build.
If you want to do something positive in your life and the lives of others and you take any piece of advice from this blog then take this: listen more and talk less, think before you react, try to understand other people and where they’re coming from even in cases where you feel like you’d rather bash your head against the wall than put yourself in their shoes, and try your absolute hardest to unlearn your black and white/all good or all evil thinking (or at least learn how to recognize it and think past it) because I promise you that it’s going to be complete poison to every single aspect of your life if you don’t.
And more than anything don’t be so utterly obsessed with yourself and your opinions and your own certainty that you’re right that you’re unable to ever listen to anyone else or even consider that you might be wrong. Everyone is wrong about something, is ignorant about someone, is an asshole at some time of the day, and you’ve absolutely fucked up the second you think you’re an exception to that.
I think I need to get off TikTok because it is dulling my brain. I felt the want to just dull out and not be critical of folks with power and had to fight it. To push in to the uncomfortable feeling that the folks I like are not perfect in the way I what. Thank you @ / chayo.everett on TikTok for reminding me to be critical of the folks I watch and to not just dull out all day.
Remember to talk to your friends, read a book, write something no one will probably see just to create.
I really wanted to ask you about this:
Do you have any advice of how to develop critical thinking and media literacy?
There are many, many ways you can practice critical thinking, evaluation and media literacy. At its most basic, you can access student resources for lower levels of education like earlier high school years and look at the examples and guidance given there. Rehashing this will often give you a good foundation to build off of and apply.
One of the main aspects of critical thinking involves discerning what is fact and what is opinion. A good portion of media analytics is opinion. What is 'bad' by one person's standards is 'sub-par' or even 'great' by another's. Similarly, the majority of fandom space is opinion-based. The main pitfall of fandom spaces is that everyone wants their opinion to be taken as fact, which is where critical thinking and even basic communication begin to fall away.
"I'm right and you're wrong" and "this is the way it should be, if you do it or think differently, you're wrong" are common roadblocks people run into when engaging with things like media analysis and even basic fandom activities like fanfiction.
'Mischaracterisation' is fanfiction is one popular topic, especially here on Tumblr. What people often fail to recognize is the true creative depth of fanfiction and using someone else's pre-existing characters. Characters as they are in the source material may not make the choices or behave in the ways necessary to activate or validate certain plot material or author intentions in fanfiction. Which is, inherently, one of the main points of fanfiction. Exploring the alternate.
While you might immediately recoil and say "he'd never do that!" you then have to sit back and recognise that that's exactly the point. That this iteration of that character is not meant to directly reflect the source material. Its a re-imagining, a re-interpretation. That doesn't mean its bad. Its simply different.
'Mischaracterisation' is only actually applicable in fandom spaces when someone is trying to insist as a blanket fact that a character would do something or behave in a way that blatantly contradicts their canon behavior, opinions, morals and perspective or deliberately interpreting an action in biased bad faith. It is not actually applicable to fanfiction where creative liberty dictates you can do whatever the fuck you want with a character because you're not trying to claim it as part of the source content.
Questions To Ask Yourself
Am I reacting to [media] emotionally instead of rationally? Is my emotional response to [media] blinding me to the rational or critical approach(es)?
Am I allowing my expectations to get in the way of me understanding [media] fully? Am I forming a biased negative opinion of [media] because it isn't meeting my expectations?
Even if I disagree with [media], do I actually understand it? Can I recognise the reasoning behind choices made or actions even if I don't agree with them?
Am I searching too hard to hidden meaning or purpose in absolutely everything? Can I recognise what is simply passive information/detail and what is active information/detail? (E.g; English tutors saying a character's curtains are blue because they're depressed when throughout the literature its passively reinforced that blue is the character's favorite color.)
Even though I disagree with the statement or opinion shown, is it necessary to argue against it? Is there any benefit to making my counter-opinion known or is it simply a no-end argument? Am I just using arguing as a means of release/fulfilment? Am I treating this person poorly because of their opinion/statement?
Resources
Critical Thinking Exercises & Explanations #1 The Critical Thinking Activity Workbook Early Stage Critical Thinking Games Five Media Literacy Activities Six Media Literacy Ideas
