You Tell 'em - Tumblr Posts

i'm so proud of zayn for standing his ground about the grammys on his interview

What I find funny is how people try to equate these racial and gendered problems as just "politics."

Like, when you think politics, you think politicians, economics, elections, and all this official business stuff that you can ignore for just a bit, but they're NEVER referring to that when they say "Let's not get political."

You never hear that in response to somebody talking about electoral seats, or gerrymandering, or the electoral college, it's always in response to someone talking about race and/or trans issues.

Like, at this point I'd rather people be open about like "Yeah, I just don't care" or "I just don't want to learn more because this stuff depresses me and I have the ability to ignore it unlike you."

Since I got called an asshole for no other reason than not choosing to trust people, let me double down outside of someone's replies. Posting here since it's easier to write in a long form, will be re-posting to the hellsite.

[Text in image] Original tweet: vtubing is trending, so I'll re-iterate this vital lesson.

Vtubing is about entertainment first and foremost!

I see too many v-tweeters lately spouting political trash tampering what it means to be a vtuber.

We're performers and comedians, not political activists...!

Reply: ignoring "politics" is a privilege. I can't trust people who avoid talking about politics like it's a taboo. What are you so afraid of?

So, why would I be "the asshole in this situation", when the original post had a few red flags to begin with? Allow me to outline my thoughts very clearly, I don't want there to be any confusion.

1: surely we can at least all agree that there are "political opinions" that lead people to "dislike" others for their immutable characteristics, like their race, right? There are people out there who have an ideology leading to, or even based on, hate, rejection...

2: if you actively choose to avoid talking about politics, especially your own opinions, I have a decently reasonable motive to think that you have something to hide. That doesn't mean you're hiding anything necessarily, but someone with "controversial" or even hateful opinions would have a good reason to hide them, therefore distrust is somewhat reasonable. At the very least it's very likely that you're afraid of other people rejecting you if they heard your takes, but that makes you sound suspicious.

3: as an entertainer, you're supposed to gather an audience. It's very likely that said audience will have a diversity of political opinions, and it's understandable that not all of them will match yours. By sheer statistics, some of them are bound to be hateful. But if you don't talk about it, if you avoid it out of fear, you're giving them a space where they feel safe, and if things get bad (normally in larger audiences where it's harder to moderate things), hateful people might get too confident and weird people out, if they don't actively try to push out people they don't agree with/hate. If that ends up happening, shitty people stay, alright people leave, maybe more shitty people come since they know they won't be judged. Your audience will grow, because you value numbers more than people not feeling "alienated" by your own opinions. So how can I trust you if you're too scared to do basic housekeeping? If you don't want to take responsibility for the influence you have? Sounds like an untrustworthy person to me.

4: just to tackle the less extreme side, in most cases the entertainer is an alright person. But someone who avoids politics is someone who most likely can afford to, because their ethnicity isn't being persecuted, or their sexuality isn't being actively discriminated, or their loved ones aren't going through a similar thing. You might even say you care about people of all walks of life, but you won't talk about it because the people who discriminate them might hate you for it. Or hell, maybe you're just unaware, but that makes you ignorant or immature, and again, that's not a very trustworthy thing to be.

Let me be even clearer: I don't actively run some sort of checklist on every single person I meet to see if they meet these criteria. I have friends of differing opinions, obviously. However, trust is something you earn, and I draw a very clear line at hating my loved ones.

In short, there are people in marginalized groups who can't avoid politics because their own life is considered political. Not every space is safe for them because the world is full of awful people. If you're aware of this but you still adamantly declare you're above commenting on these topics, then honestly, you're a bit of a piece of shit, and you're contributing to making the world a more unsafe place for everyone.

But Lorz, they could lie about their opinions! What if they just pretend to do what you want them to do? At least it takes some guts to be a liar. "What if they did this other bad thing instead of the one bad thing you don't like" isn't the gotcha you think it is. It's all dishonesty in the end. Besides, a racist person saying "racism is bad" probably does more good than the one who can't even bring themselves to say it.

And now for my favorite part, just out of a little bit of spite after making my own argument, let's briefly comment on ✨the other tweeter's red flags✨:

"Vtubing is about what I say it is! If you prioritize something else you're doing it wrong! You're manipulating what it means!" My friend we're people hiding behind an anime muppet online. If you know some god of vtubing who bestowed us with some sort of vtubing commandments saying what we can or cannot do please let me know. Don't fucking tell me what to do.

"Spouting political trash" is quite the loaded statement when it's very likely referring to the aggressive condemnation of racism, homophobia or transphobia. Very telling that you'd call those takes "trash". Definitely not a reason to be suspicious.

"We're performers and comedians, not activists!" All I can say about this one is I think it's very ignorant to pretend art, performance, comedy and political commentary haven't been tightly linked throughout all of history. That's a whole other can of worms honestly.

Speaking of other cans of worms, many people in the replies of the original post responded with the typical "this you?" since this wonderful person actually does talk about politics pretty often... but it's shit like:

How curious that you would only deem it grave enough to break your own "don't talk politics" mantra when "people who complain about discrimination go too far". And with a fiery passion too.

Anyway, I am very tired. I appreciate anyone who had the patience to read my ramblings, seriously. I had to get that one out.