It has come to my attention that some of you have been enjoying media that the OAF (Organization Against Fun) has deemed Problematic™.

This is unacceptable.

The frankly appalling behavior in question is exemplified by, but not limited to, engaging with themes not suitable for five year olds, speaking about or writing complex characters without constantly emphasizing how evil they are, and creating fanworks that do not appeal to me personally without asking for my permission or begging for my forgiveness.

Since you people do not possess my superior intellect, you have thus misinterpreted the phrase "thinking critically" to mean "analyzing and interpreting a work" instead of the correct definition "nitpicking perceived flaws". Fear not, you will be re-educated.

Aditionally, certain individuals, who shall remain unnamed, have displayed shocking amounts of empathy towards morally grey characters, or worse, developed a fondness for villainous characters who were written to be charming and dramatic. When confronted with my lecture about how villains are evil, these individuals responded with "and that's very sexy of them."

The OAF cannot let this stand.

Instead of shipping Woke™ ships with a far less interesting dynamic, there have been various attempts to normalize, romanticize, fetishize, realize and caramelize illegal ships, which should be punishable by death as it is tantamount to a war crime.

Sadly, the AO3 (Archive of Our Own) responded to my reasonable demands for censorship by telling me to "fuck off or learn to use the tagging system for its intended purpose."

I must ask all who are currently having fun in their fandoms to cease and desist.

When an English teacher, or reader, taught or picked up 1984, it wasn’t with the intention they were going to love the protagonist. They picked it up with the intention of reading a whole story and trying to grasp the theme or catharsis from the story. If the protagonist was a *shitty* person it played into the the themes or the story, because it wasn’t about morally judging the book or *liking* or feeling attachment to the protagonist. Sometimes and often times, books were just about gaining another perspective. 

No one read Lolita expecting to endear, or like, or be inspired by Humbert. You are supposed to be upset by his behavior, you don’t read Lolita with the intention of being inspired. You read it to learn more about what the fuck is going on inside someone’s head when they behave like that. How children get sucked into abusive situations. Or read “The Great Gatsby” not because they want to fall in love with Gatsby or Nick, but to better understand and analyze the experience of the 1920s or destitution of the American Dream. 

A lot of internet and fandom culture has changed that though. When we say something like “I love the Great Gatsby” it comes with the idea or association that means you must *love* or relate to one of the characters. And maybe you do, but the first assumption is not longer about the quality of the work or themes, or cathartic impact-it’s about character admiration. And with that character admiration, in tumblr stan culture, or kin culture, or exalting characters with fanart/romance/so on you don’t just ‘admire’ or find that character ‘compelling’ it now translates to ‘you LOVE that character’ or you ‘DIRECTLY relate to that character.’ 

You can’t say “I love how Humbert is written, it’s so fascinating and dark”, without it directly translating you somehow relate to a child abuser or condone his actions. Taking in media has become an act of worship and connection. We no longer watch meant to just see the story as a whole, we watch expecting to connect to a character and if we offer them our “worship” as it’s become, as opposed to just attention or interest study as it traditionally was, it means we are condoning the character or saying we directly empathize with all their actions. 

I think that’s why there is often now so much fuss over *toxic* characters or not. Or whether that classical novel is showing good or bad things anymore. We’re treating the characters as people we should love or want to draw or write about. Sometimes a story is just about getting the the theme or catharsis or learning another perspective. We don’t NEED to like the character. Or we don’t HAVE to like a character to be impressed by how they’re written or intrigued by their behavior. 

I’m no better or worse than anyone else.

I deserve the same things in life as anyone else.

I’m a human being.

Right now, I am feeling ________(fill in the blank).

I don’t know how I’ll feel in 5 minutes, or tomorrow.

I can’t predict the future.

Life is full of painful, pleasurable, and boring moments.

shortest possible version:

actual rich people do not spend 6 hours digging at the value village. they buy online or from stores that are already curated.

the person who thrifts for midrange designer pieces to resell on poshmark or whatever is not your enemy.

the vintage seller looking for clip earrings and pillbox hats and novelty salt and pepper shakers is not your enemy.

they are shopping from the same functionally infinite pool of used goods as you, and there will be a fresh truckload tomorrow.

Here are some articles about why rape fantasies are nothing to be afriad of, and why women and rape survivors develop rape fantasies. Reading or writing rape fic is not wrong, it is not condoning IRL rape, it is simply something some people have, survivor or not. Obviously trigger warning for sexual assault.

"I don't believe that women in general, or sexual assault victims specifically, are retraumatizing themselves by revisiting these experiences and fantasies. For many, I believe that, like any fantasy or daydream, it is a way for a person to mentally assert control over a situation in which they were powerless." (X)

"Decades ago, psychologists believed that dreams and fantasies (daydreams) were subconscious wishes, therefore, women who had rape fantasies actually wanted to be coerced into sex. That view has been thoroughly debunked. Fantasies don’t necessarily reflect wishes... Women who have rape fantasies don’t want to be sexually assaulted. They feel comfortable with their own sexuality  and are happy to embrace their erotic fantasies—wherever they may lead." (X)

You know what I threw this into my queue without a second thought because I agree with it, but I have the perfect example of the second sentence in this tweet and when I remembered it automatically made my blood boil and now I have to make a post about it

“Boyfriend to Death”

“Boyfriend to Death” is an 18+ computer fictional dating sim/visual novel series that involves heavily explicit/sexual/dark themes, some of them triggering. (I’m not gonna go into detail about it on this post because holy fucking shit but look it up at your own risk.) This game was developed BY ADULTS, FOR ADULTS, AIMED at a specific demographic of ADULTS, and NONE of the adults who created it want minors interacting with them about BtD (like sending fan art or fan fiction). They actively block users who turn out to be minors, and they’ve been sent hate over it. Minors have thrown absolute bitch fits over being denied interaction by adult fans, being told they shouldn’t be consuming the content in the first place, or being removed from BtD fan spaces because they’re rightfully dubbed 18+.

But minors nowadays just don’t give a shit. They’ll find workarounds for shit that was never meant for them in the first place or they’ll barrage and harass other adults until they get their way. Social websites left and right have either changed their ToS to cater more to minors or just outright banned explicit content, completely ruining the space for adults who have been there long before. It’s not just ridiculous and it’s more than alarming. It’s horrifying. There’s a clear gap of morality, critical thinking, and life learning in these minors. The extreme levels of self-entitlement, selfishness, and disregard are staggering.

in 2020, when everyone was isolated at home, fossil co2 emissions in the US only dropped by 11%. think about how insane it is that when almost every person living in the second largest GEG emitter was at home for months, the effect they had was a reduction of barely 11%. and yet that fucking carbon footprint calculator is shoved down our throat all day long. a whole 4 years ago when that article came out saying only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, everybody just blinked and went “no, thank you. now have you bought enough metal straws?”