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This. All of this! All my yes!

on censorship and sensitivity

There’s a certain attitude that scares the shit out of me – let’s call it destructive sensitivity.  It’s the philosophy that, if an idea is uncomfortable, it needs to go away.  If an image upsets you, or reminds you of a bad experience you had, then not only should you not have to look at it, no one should be allowed to look at it.  And if you can’t eradicate it completely, it should at least be buried so deep that a casual viewer would never stumble upon it.  This kind of censorship is nothing new, but I feel like it’s becoming more and more common.  So, why do I think it’s a problem?

FICTION

An important question we need to ask ourselves first is, what is the purpose of media, and particularly of fiction?  Why do we read, why do we look at artwork, why do we watch movies?  To only see happy things?  As escapism?  That’s certainly a valid interpretation, but it’s not the only one.

For the artist or creator, fiction can be a way to communicate the inner self to the outer world, through the use of symbols.  It’s a means of expression.  What they express might be deep, might be simple, might be beautiful or disgusting, might be for a niche audience or the whole world, but in the end, it is the artist taking pieces of their own experience and creating something new.  

For the viewer, fiction is a way to understand things that are outside their experience, and a way to expand their experience safely.  Fiction allows us to go places and do things that we can’t or wouldn’t in our own lives, without risk, without physical harm, and without causing harm to others.  Fiction can teach us what we fear, what we love, what we’re missing.  It can show us how others live, how others see us, how we see ourselves, and we’re free to engage with it as shallowly or as deeply as we want.

But fiction is not equal to reality. Watching Friday the 13th doesn’t make you a murderer, and it doesn’t kill you.  Reading Lolita doesn’t make you a pedophile.  Writing a story where a character is raped is not the same as committing rape, and reading that story is not the same as being raped.  Thought is not crime.

CENSORSHIP

Censorship is a way to force your interpretation of material on others, to reduce or destroy another’s experience by prejudging it as harmful to them.  But part of becoming a well-rounded human being is accepting that not everyone has the same sensibilities, and not every experience needs to be positive.  

What you find offensive, some might find enjoyable.  What you find traumatic, some might see as an exercise in empathy, or a means of catharsis.  Sad songs can be beautiful.  Horror stories can be fun.  When you decide to silence the things you don’t like, you’re cutting off others from that same experience. You’re making decisions for others, and you’re essentially saying that your feelings (and the feelings of people who agree with you) are more valid than anyone else’s.  I find this darkly ironic, because the audience that holds these particular sensitivities also tends to be the first to champion acceptance and non-traditional viewpoints, while organizing witch hunts for those they feel disrespect them.

So, why is this important to me?  Why does it scare me?  Well, as an artist, the complaint of one sensitive viewer can erase my work in an instant.  When complaints are made, content is removed first and questions are asked later.  Artists are guilty by default, and viewers are treated as victims.  No content host wants to be the one to stand up for freedom of expression at the risk of being seen as supporting offensive material.  Most alarming of all, this is all seen as totally acceptable, or even justified.  When an artist’s work is taken down, I see comments like, “Well, that’s the risk you take when you post stuff like that.  Can’t be helped.”  Even the people who disagree with censorship just shrug their shoulders.

SENSITIVITY

To those who are sensitive, I’m not trying to say, “just get over it”.  Emotional hurt is real, traumatic experiences are real.  I would never belittle someone else’s pain.  But you have to realize as well that your experience is not the be-all, end-all of the world.  Not all content is made with you in mind.  It is inevitable, if we want to exist in a world with other people in it, that we’ll be exposed to things we don’t enjoy.  The answer is not to destroy or degrade those things, but to try to understand them – and if that fails, at the very least, we can allow them to exist on equal terms.  It is that frightening desire to homogenize the world, to eliminate that which we fail to understand or which causes us emotional distress, that can lead as to real prejudice, to real violence and real crime.  Please understand that allowing content you dislike to exist is not the same as advocating it.  

THE ANSWER

What I would love to see is a perspective shift.  I want to see a world where responsibility is on the viewer, not the creator or the content host.  If you have a problem with something, it’s up to you to not see it, not for the artist to hide it for you, or add unavoidable warnings that prejudge a work.  I want a world where, rather than censorship by default, censorship is a conscious choice for those who want it.  No work is hidden until a user hides it themselves.  Artists are not punished for merely posting content that some find offensive, only for not tagging it correctly.  Freedom of expression and variety of content is seen as more important than protecting viewers from fiction, from discomfort, from viewpoints that don’t mesh with their own.

Accept others.  Take responsibility for yourself (and only yourself).  Understand that not all content is meant for you.  Understand that fiction is not crime, and fiction does not equate to real-world harm.  That’s all I’m asking.

(please don’t let this become a shitstorm… TT _ TT)

I was listening to Hell's Greatest Dad on repeat in the car and I realized that at least during the song, Alastor manages to mostly regain his cool and be deeply annoying pretty much right up until the lines:

A: They say the family you choose is better— L: What a bunch of losers!

...At which point Lucifer's words get to him and he finally breaks the aloof, superior act he put on for the song and just snaps at Lucifer's face again.

Alastor, you are telling on yourself.

@ all artists, musical or otherwise: please provide some kind of no strings attached donation link on your website or in your bio or on your carrd or in your fucking email signature or somewhere so people can throw coins in your hat. it doesn't matter if you feel like you '''deserve''' it, or if it never gets used. it doesn't matter. it's not the point. just provide the means and let everyone else worry about the rest.

@ all enjoyers of art: stop driving yourself insane over finding a way to do ethical capitalism and just get in the habit of giving artists money for the cool shit you found by accident. it adds up.

Me, speaking about a character of interest: what if... I ate him..

My friend: you couldn't

Me: but... what if I did..?

Friend:

..

You would have indigestion-

you ever sit there and think about how Suguru was cursed by love in the end?

not in the literal sense (like Rika) but in the sense that Satoru (and Shoko, depending on how that played out) and the twins’ love for him led to them not being able to let him go and dispose of his body how they were supposed to (cremation), leading to his possession by Kenny and all of the destruction that followed, directly or indirectly causing the deaths of the three people he held most dear

they were all doomed by grief… cause what is grief if not love persevering… and love, as we know, is the most twisted curse of all… and despite everything he did, he was so so loved

Moana: there's no 'i' in team

Maui: yeah well there's no 'u' either. So if I'm not on the team and you're not on the team them Nobody's on the GODDAMN TEAM. The team sucks

the thing is. it's not like people didn't love dean, or try to tell dean how amazing he is, or try to explain to him why he deserves happiness. he had that, and a lot of it. it's the fact that there is only one single being whose opinion of dean struck him so deeply that it genuinely altered the way he views himself, and that's cas. after forty-one years, dean winchester sees himself through cas' eyes, and trusts him enough to believe it.

So you know how Snape gets mad when he sees Harry peeking through at him and Filch

And Harry immediately assumes it was because Snape's up to evil and got busted for it (although it's more than likely it was actually because Harry wasn't supposed to see this at all)

Well, I have a lil theory about the actual reason he got mad

See this:

This is what Snape was saying before he sees Harry.

So I present to you my theory:

Snape was actually just embarrassed because Harry caught him whinging like a twelve year old in his natural Severus voice and not the Professor Snape voice.

every day i am percieved™️

You know you can watch all of series 4 and just turn off Journey’s End 8 minutes and 41 seconds before the end and they’re just two pals going to Felspoon to see mountains that move in the breeze

Anyway the fact that Hunters new scar is so big it’s erased and overwritten his old scar, which was already a noticeable defining feature of his abusive upbringing, dfghhcgjdjlmv there’s gotta be some kind of metaphor here but I’m tired so I’ll come back to this thought later.

So.

People are speaking to Odysseus in the Underworld as if it has been 20 years already and not barely more than 10 as it's supposed to be, since Calypso hasn't taken him yet.

Did Homer make a (repeated) mistake or is it a clue that Odysseus is lying to the Phaeacians?

WHY DON’T WORGEN HAVE TAILS?

I don't think the time you spend on this website is a waste of time, I think time just passes. you can do pretty much whatever you want with your time don't make yourself feel guilty for no reason