*-official fangirl

if you’re struggling to understand how that can be, here are some easily digestible bullet points

- fully anonymous system of individual actors deciding who is and isn’t worthy of being the target of mass harassment

- ironically, no system in place to hold people accountable for making bad/false callouts

- you can say anything about anyone on the internet and it is intensely difficult to prove anything. it is extremely easy, however, to string out of context screenshots together and spin a narrative out of them. the burden of proof then shifts from the accuser to the accused, who must somehow prove 100% innocence which is…intensely difficult if not actually impossible

- there is no collective agreement on what constitutes “justice” in callout culture or the means to enforce that agreed upon end goal. some people are genuinely attempting to push people to suicide while others want the accused to be socially ostracized until the end of time. and again, no system of precious accountability in place for these people!

- this is essentially a system of anonymous vigilante justice and if you know anything about the history of those systems it should be immediately apparent that this is A Very Bad Thing and these kinds of groups are basically never formed to carry out any kind of good deed

- still faced with the most basic questions about these kinds of systems. who gave these people the right? what makes them worthy of carrying out “justice”? how can this be a fair system without checks, balances, and again, accountability? how can we believe anything we see about anyone online in an age of mass misinformation? why are these sources trusted? who is most often targeted by these callouts? what material good can ever really come of this?

if you’re struggling to understand how that can be, here are some easily digestible bullet points

- fully anonymous system of individual actors deciding who is and isn’t worthy of being the target of mass harassment

- ironically, no system in place to hold people accountable for making bad/false callouts

- you can say anything about anyone on the internet and it is intensely difficult to prove anything. it is extremely easy, however, to string out of context screenshots together and spin a narrative out of them. the burden of proof then shifts from the accuser to the accused, who must somehow prove 100% innocence which is…intensely difficult if not actually impossible

- there is no collective agreement on what constitutes “justice” in callout culture or the means to enforce that agreed upon end goal. some people are genuinely attempting to push people to suicide while others want the accused to be socially ostracized until the end of time. and again, no system of precious accountability in place for these people!

- this is essentially a system of anonymous vigilante justice and if you know anything about the history of those systems it should be immediately apparent that this is A Very Bad Thing and these kinds of groups are basically never formed to carry out any kind of good deed

- still faced with the most basic questions about these kinds of systems. who gave these people the right? what makes them worthy of carrying out “justice”? how can this be a fair system without checks, balances, and again, accountability? how can we believe anything we see about anyone online in an age of mass misinformation? why are these sources trusted? who is most often targeted by these callouts? what material good can ever really come of this?

if you’re struggling to understand how that can be, here are some easily digestible bullet points

- fully anonymous system of individual actors deciding who is and isn’t worthy of being the target of mass harassment

- ironically, no system in place to hold people accountable for making bad/false callouts

- you can say anything about anyone on the internet and it is intensely difficult to prove anything. it is extremely easy, however, to string out of context screenshots together and spin a narrative out of them. the burden of proof then shifts from the accuser to the accused, who must somehow prove 100% innocence which is…intensely difficult if not actually impossible

- there is no collective agreement on what constitutes “justice” in callout culture or the means to enforce that agreed upon end goal. some people are genuinely attempting to push people to suicide while others want the accused to be socially ostracized until the end of time. and again, no system of precious accountability in place for these people!

- this is essentially a system of anonymous vigilante justice and if you know anything about the history of those systems it should be immediately apparent that this is A Very Bad Thing and these kinds of groups are basically never formed to carry out any kind of good deed

- still faced with the most basic questions about these kinds of systems. who gave these people the right? what makes them worthy of carrying out “justice”? how can this be a fair system without checks, balances, and again, accountability? how can we believe anything we see about anyone online in an age of mass misinformation? why are these sources trusted? who is most often targeted by these callouts? what material good can ever really come of this?

I never felt like Homestuck hated me while I was reading it... Sure it pulls the rug from under you all the time, but it's all in good fun!! I think the story knows it's a story and it has fun with it sometimes, and I think that's really charming and I think the comic is better for it. I just think it's misleading when people say Homestuck is all edgy and cynical and nothing else, because it is that sure but it also has a lot of heart. People don't just write 8000 pages of comic out of pure hatred you know!!

STOP IT’S BEEN MONTHS. MONTHS!