CARTILAGE ⿻

Ok quick disclaimer, idk if this will actually be controversial or not BUT I've been thinking about this for quite a while so here it is

I think bigger/more popular Splatoon artists should be more supportive of smaller artists

There I said it

I will now elaborate

Now this is mainly a thing I see often on Twitter and Bluesky, and I'm not sure what's considered "big" here. For clarification the term "big artist" will apply to an artist who has 5k+ followers or more (that seems pretty big to me) on one site, either Twitter or Bluesky (or here), and have a ton of likes on basically every art piece they post (like 100+). Typically they're also buddies with other popular artists, and they usually commission each other or do art trades decently often.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with what these artists are doing. They're supporting each other. I also like supporting my friends. Nothing wrong with that, and you should always support your friends when you can.

But I have noticed that there has become a big artist clique, which is the best way I can word it. They have started to ONLY support each other and will not interact with smaller artists unless the smaller artist is heaping praise onto their artwork (or in rare cases, smaller artist needs emergency funds and big artist interacts). This is quite noticeable in the Splatoon Blender side of the community (or maybe it's more noticeable because I'm always there) but I've seen this with non-Blender artists as well. And again, nothing wrong with interacting with your friends.

But it feels like people have stopped branching out, in terms of supporting someone new

People have stopped supporting the smaller artists and only want to support the bigger artists now because they're popular and cool

And the big artists always seem to only support other big artists, and they've moved on from the small artists who helped them get to their place in popularity by supporting them

It sucks being small because no one sees you

having a CDD or being diagnosed with one doesn't make your opinion on something correct, nor does it mean you have the right to force others to accept ableist communities into their spaces. it does not change the fact that the concept of nondisordered plurality has no legitimacy in real scientific studies and never will. just because you, one individual with a disorder, do not care about ableism towards people like you does not mean that said ableism isn't happening or doesn't matter. you as an individual are not an authority on how an entire community gets to feel about the oppression they face, even if you're part of that community.

I mostly just want to crawl into a hole. I don't have the energy.

People keep saying these things are only an online experience, but I keep seeing it happen in real life, in real time. This stuff spreads and we're just letting it.

I used to be fine with people knowing about my disability. But now I kinda just want to keep quiet and not let anyone know. Mostly I just don't want anyone with the same disability as me to know, because they just don't understand and they don't want to understand.

Why am I getting more support and patience from the professionals helping me who don't even have my disability, than from the community I'm supposed to be a part of. Why do I get more support and understanding from people in my life who just don't have my disability. Why do people who don't have my disability take me more seriously and are willing to listen to what I say on my disability and take it into consideration to help me.

The same people who get accused of not being helpful, are more helpful than anyone I've met in regular society with the same disability as me.