sure bet on a losin' streak

"no"

I think part of what is making young people lonelier, in discussing why they're increasingly isolated, is that they're so afraid of meeting someone who doesn't hold their same beliefs, and instead of being just core beliefs it is kinda ancillary shit.

It's actually okay to disagree even on social topics! Even on some political ones! But I mean, online you can start with "i love this mutual but they have a really bad/uninformed opinion about x media"

I know this is IMMEDIATELY going to be taken in bad faith, and yes babygirl, you are so right, I DO want you to go make best friends with both the KKK grand wizard AND your nearest nazi leader.

But seriously, as someone who has spent two decades doing community organization: finding ways to connect with different people is so so so important. There are people i follow here who ate 80% smart and their brain falls out of their head 20% of the time and that is GOOD FOR MY MENTAL ECOSYSTEM AND GOOD FOR LEARNING HOW TO BE A PERSON

some victims and survivors use dark fiction to cope and heal from their trauma, because in their fics, they are in control of what happens. they can turn the table and turn what happens into something that’s not traumatizing. and they can do that because they don’t owe you anything.

it’s a kink to some people, even though they were never victims. people can enjoy it and find it hot because at the end of the day it’s just a fantasy. it’s not real. they don’t owe you anything.

it’s cathartic and/or therapeutic to some to see their favorite fictional characters suffer. that’s why whump is such a popular trope; people love putting their fictional little guys through hell. non-con is a part of whump. and these people don’t owe you anything.

fanfic writers can write whatever they want, however they want. they don’t owe you anything.

One- Your characters can be bad people, they can do bad things. There doesn't have to be a reason or a moral. You can make them bad if you want to. No other reason needed.

Two- it doesn't have to be good, it just needs to be written. On my last book i literally wrote the words "dumbest version" on the top of the page because I had seen some advice to do that. It changed everything. I stopped trying to make it perfect, I just tried to make it. Period. Full stop. You can edit bad writing. You can't edit a blank page.