Stop Stanning Abusers

Hyperfixation is a very common symptom of ADHD. People do not experience symptoms without awareness that we are not “normal” enough for an abled-centric society; those expectations are exactly why autistic and ADHD people (especially those of us who are marginalized on multiple degrees) often mask our symptoms and spiral into depression and/or anxiety. Our repression of our base instincts in order to avoid being ostracized is linked to the trauma responses associated with our conditions.

Once again: mental illness and neurodivergency are nothing to be ashamed of! Telling people that their symptoms aren’t “normal enough” is ableist, and ableism is a very personal topic amongst those running this blog. Each of us is capable of having both a job and a part-time hobby, though we understand if you are not. It seems you have perhaps overestimated how long it takes for a few people to queue some posts highlighting our key critiques of an obscenely popular character (who other people devote much more time to out of misplaced praise). I think it would be a better use of your time to save your critiques for the people who run blogs which actively glorify abusive, bigoted behavior.

Moving forward: even if the portrayal of pedophilia, racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, and abuse is fictional, by justifying those actions in a fictional scenario, you are justifying them for real life scenarios. The only reason that a person would justify those actions in a hypothetical scenario is if their support of victims is only conditional. The only reason that someone would write those behaviors as sympathetic to begin with is if they are willing to excuse them. We are allowed to critique the perpetrators of our experiences, regardless of the scenario in which those beliefs are revealed. Social and visual media are two mediums where bigotry and abuse apologia are often trivialized, which we take proper offense to. These beliefs should not be normalized or tolerated! Give an inch, they’ll take a mile. We promote critical thinking and media literacy with the aim of unearthing these themes in the media we consume, beyond any singular TV show. Critical analysis has had its place in society for over a thousand years, and the questionable quality of the given media does not disqualify that media from having influence over millions of people.

At the end of the day, we are a small group who enjoy critical literary & media analysis, but we also are personally affected by the marginalization that is encouraged through the narrative bias. We occasionally log on to say a quick piece of our minds and then move on with our days. Perhaps we wouldn’t feel the need to analyze and debate if critical thinking wasn’t considered cringe. But, given the common standards, we’ll never know.

-Mod D

Edit: as we gain more mods, statements above that apply to the current mods may not apply to everyone. Those of us who were mods at the time this was posted are able to have jobs despite our disabilities, while some can only contend with school or other responsibilities at the moment. Regardless of lifestyle, our mods are not glued to Spn and live the majority of our lives outside of it. However, there is no shame in being hyperfixated on a tv show. Most of us here were, once upon a time, invested in this show to some degree! But it is important to be critical of the media we consume, which is the end point of this blog.

Fun fact: base (or basic) has more than one meaning, and in relation to instinct, it sometimes refers to the more neutral meaning of something that is so deeply ingrained as to be an innate trait. ‘Base’ can be used to describe an ‘impure’ instinct, but this particular usage (this is where our handy context clues, reading comprehension, and good faith interpretation come into play) describes the former, not the latter.

Now, it’s blatantly obvious that this usage of ‘base’ is essentially shorthand for ‘basic’ and not ‘evil.’ By removing the word ‘base’ from context, you can argue that a neurodivergent person defending neurodivergent people is ableism! Through this tactic, you can also argue lots of things about a character who you have to copy/paste interesting traits onto or else he’s boring!

I love how there’s zero mention of hyperfixation being wrongly used as an insult and defined as ‘abnormal’ yet when someone with ADHD uses the term ‘base (read: basic) instincts’ to describe their own experience, it’s seen in worse faith than the actively ableist ask and ridiculed as ableist in the longest reach of the century. Who do you think, between us and the asker, hates ADHD people: the person who thinks that ADHD symptoms are not ‘normal’ or the ADHD mods?

-Mod D

it is honestly hilarious how you ignored the blatant ableism from the ask againts delusional people in favour of calling a group of neurodivergent mods ableist, i think you are projecting a little bit, ableist motherfucker

Hyperfixation is a very common symptom of ADHD. People do not experience symptoms without awareness that we are not “normal” enough for an abled-centric society; those expectations are exactly why autistic and ADHD people (especially those of us who are marginalized on multiple degrees) often mask our symptoms and spiral into depression and/or anxiety. Our repression of our base instincts in order to avoid being ostracized is linked to the trauma responses associated with our conditions.

Once again: mental illness and neurodivergency are nothing to be ashamed of! Telling people that their symptoms aren’t “normal enough” is ableist, and ableism is a very personal topic amongst those running this blog. Each of us is capable of having both a job and a part-time hobby, though we understand if you are not. It seems you have perhaps overestimated how long it takes for a few people to queue some posts highlighting our key critiques of an obscenely popular character (who other people devote much more time to out of misplaced praise). I think it would be a better use of your time to save your critiques for the people who run blogs which actively glorify abusive, bigoted behavior.

Moving forward: even if the portrayal of pedophilia, racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, and abuse is fictional, by justifying those actions in a fictional scenario, you are justifying them for real life scenarios. The only reason that a person would justify those actions in a hypothetical scenario is if their support of victims is only conditional. The only reason that someone would write those behaviors as sympathetic to begin with is if they are willing to excuse them. We are allowed to critique the perpetrators of our experiences, regardless of the scenario in which those beliefs are revealed. Social and visual media are two mediums where bigotry and abuse apologia are often trivialized, which we take proper offense to. These beliefs should not be normalized or tolerated! Give an inch, they’ll take a mile. We promote critical thinking and media literacy with the aim of unearthing these themes in the media we consume, beyond any singular TV show. Critical analysis has had its place in society for over a thousand years, and the questionable quality of the given media does not disqualify that media from having influence over millions of people.

At the end of the day, we are a small group who enjoy critical literary & media analysis, but we also are personally affected by the marginalization that is encouraged through the narrative bias. We occasionally log on to say a quick piece of our minds and then move on with our days. Perhaps we wouldn’t feel the need to analyze and debate if critical thinking wasn’t considered cringe. But, given the common standards, we’ll never know.

-Mod D

Edit: as we gain more mods, statements above that apply to the current mods may not apply to everyone. Those of us who were mods at the time this was posted are able to have jobs despite our disabilities, while some can only contend with school or other responsibilities at the moment. Regardless of lifestyle, our mods are not glued to Spn and live the majority of our lives outside of it. However, there is no shame in being hyperfixated on a tv show. Most of us here were, once upon a time, invested in this show to some degree! But it is important to be critical of the media we consume, which is the end point of this blog.

Fun fact: base (or basic) has more than one meaning, and in relation to instinct, it sometimes refers to the more neutral meaning of something that is so deeply ingrained as to be an innate trait. ‘Base’ can be used to describe an ‘impure’ instinct, but this particular usage (this is where our handy context clues, reading comprehension, and good faith interpretation come into play) describes the former, not the latter.

Now, it’s blatantly obvious that this usage of ‘base’ is essentially shorthand for ‘basic’ and not ‘evil.’ By removing the word ‘base’ from context, you can argue that a neurodivergent person defending neurodivergent people is ableism! Through this tactic, you can also argue lots of things about a character who you have to copy/paste interesting traits onto or else he’s boring!

I love how there’s zero mention of hyperfixation being wrongly used as an insult and defined as ‘abnormal’ yet when someone with ADHD uses the term ‘base (read: basic) instincts’ to describe their own experience, it’s seen in worse faith than the actively ableist ask and ridiculed as ableist in the longest reach of the century. Who do you think, between us and the asker, hates ADHD people: the person who thinks that ADHD symptoms are not ‘normal’ or the ADHD mods?

-Mod D

it is honestly hilarious how you ignored the blatant ableism from the ask againts delusional people in favour of calling a group of neurodivergent mods ableist, i think you are projecting a little bit, ableist motherfucker