[pending joke]

hello! my name is ████ ███ and im an adult. my pronouns are ███/███. im someone who used to be on the side of these "salt" bloggers; however, ive grown to realize how toxic this community is. this might be controversial to some, but i dont think we should make post after post mocking people for things that dont effect their worth or moral value. its not enough to say "i hate nazis" "i hate bad people" "i hate-", you actually have to uplift the voices of marginalized people.

i hate the smartass response of "erm well hes evil and racist and is a pedophile and-" any time someone points out their cruelty. i really dont think we should discard the respect we have for marginalized people (mentally ill people, fat people, etc) just to belittle someone whos reprehensible. it shows that their allyship is fake. it shows how they actually think of marginalized people. it shows how they dont care for the people looking at their public posts. people who browse the puppychan tag are thinking "oh, so thats how they feel about unemployed people," or "oh, so thats how they feel about someone with unconventional dietary habits," or "oh, so thats how they feel abour people who dont shower often because of mental health." im not going to trauma dump, but ive seen them make fun of salem for things i struggle with as well. it makes me feel more insecure of myself.

sure, i can talk about the convention

here are the posts hes made about AC. the first two screenshots show the date and time he made those posts

im guessing AC refers to anthrocon? if im wrong, please let me know

i believe he lives in georgia? i dont know what city, so this map may be inaccurate

i dont know what method he used to get there, so im showing the two methods he reasonably wouldve taken. if they went by car, they definitely would need somewhere to sleep. there is no way you can drive nearly half a day without getting some rest. in order for salem to get to the con at 11am, the road trip wouldve began on july 3rd.

i dont know how much it would cost for him to have flown to the con and left the same day. i dont know what plane he couldve flown on, nor do i know how much the tickets wouldve costed. also, tickets are cheaper when you buy them in advance. i believe tickets are also cheaper if youre not taking much with you

the event started on july 2nd and it ends on the 5th. salem posted about the event on the 4th at 11:56am and left at 2:11pm. the event lasts for one more day, but i dont know if he intends on staying for another day. as wolferdiddler666 pointed out, renting out is expensive

i dont know what app wolferdiddler666 is using, nor do i know if these venues are legitimate (see "ai filter" at the top of their screenshot). for the sake of the argument, i will assume these listings are legitimate.

in the screenshot, you can see "$124 nightly" and "$253." obviously, thats a lot of money to spend at once.

theres some other factors id like to bring up

if salem has family in pennsylvania/a nearby state. if he does, he wouldnt have to pay 100-200 to spend a night in pennsylvania. obviously, we dont know if he has relatives in the area.

if he rented an airbnb, motel, or hotel, we dont know where he woudlve stayed at (3rd bullet point will elaborate on this). we also dont know the exact price he payed for it. obviously, wolferdiddler666's screenshots are some kind of estimate

if the place he stayed at is far away from the convention, he would have to find a way to get there (bus, uber/lyft, train, etc). this could add to the expenses

more interesting things i found from the website

"Amtrak offers rail service to the Pittsburgh Rail Station (PGH), which is right across the street from the Westin Hotel, at 1100 Liberty Ave."

im sure there are other trains beside the PGH, but i thought this would be interesting to show. here is the link to amtrak's website if someone wants to look at that as well. i have little experience with going on the train and planning trips via train. so i would appreciate if someone could help fill the blanks

i dont think this is amtrak, but i found a website that shows train routes.

anyway, ramble over.

as far as we know, kofi is his only source of money. i dont know if hes still on disability. i believe hes mentioned that his both of sisters work? its possible that they paid for his expenses. however, hes said very little about the trip, so we have very little to work with

if salem used his kofi money, aka money for "toiletries and bills", it would be scummy of him to use that money for a convention. regardless of cost, its misleading your audience. if he wants to have a kofi, he should be transparent about where the money is going. if he said "if you donate to me, im going to use that money for whatever i want," i think less people would be upset.

i need to find that "welfare queen" post, but i think he mentioned something about budgeting? that would be one of the very few posts out of the many hes made when boosting his kofi. i dont think that counts as being transparent about where funds are going, especially when this is what he says on his kofi

"(note this isnt intended 2 be fatphobic)"

your intention doesnt matter, nor does it negate the effect of your actions. actually, what was your intention? pray tell, how would your intention change anything about this godawful drawing?

the jokes write themselves at this point. instead of making art that mocks salem, kingoflune should focus on bettering his handwriting. seriously, i couldnt read tsalia's name for the life of me.

"but this is how he portrays his characters!!!!!!!"

has anyone considered making good representation of trans characters instead of spending this much time mocking salem? wouldnt it be better to actually promote artists who are good at representing others? what does making this drawing actually achieve

"im a white person, im a rabbitkin and a trans man"

"i will study plus sized people" where?? where are your studies? enlighten me, kingoflune.

oh, you mean this one? the one where you removed the overhanging tummy and didnt realize where the foot was facing? the one where you had someone else point out the flaws in your "art study criticism"?

also, you traced those pictures of people without actually breaking down their anatomy/proportions. tracing often leads to stiff or awkward art. its better to actually understand how fat bodies look instead of mindlessly tracing whatever pictures you found off of google.

go see my other post if you want to see what an actual break down looks like

why should we take you or your criticism seriously?

i get where youre coming from, but your perspective is a bit short sighted

while he doesnt directly get money from specific pieces, salem gains followers and community rapport. this in turn makes people more inclined to donate to him. the bigger issue of tracing comes from people imitating styles to scam others by feigning credibility.

for example: people can make a speedpaint video on procreate to gain credibility. on procreate, you can hide layers from your speedpaints. this makes it easy to hide that youre tracing other people's work

people want to support artists, because they want to support all the hard work and effort people put into their art. someone could also imitate someone else's art to impersonate them.

i cant fathom why the guy who loves drawing big boobs would want to trace just the boobs on another drawing. im pretty sure people trace if theyre lazy/exploitative or struggle with drawing something in particular.

this isnt me defending salem or debunking anyone's opinion. i just wanted to toss my hat into the ring. ive done a bunch of research on the 1900s, so i felt like showing my findings

here is what salem said about the piece in question

a gollywog is a racist depiction of black people. youve probably seen one if you know anything about pokemon or dragon ball z. hell, even sanrio has a gollywog character.

the above screenshots are from stormy weather (1943). in the first screenshot, look at the woman's hat on the right. her hat has a gollywog on it here is another example of it happening in fred astaire's swing time (1936).

salem said he was inspired by the harlem renaissance. the harlem renaissance art comes in many different styles, but theres a few pieces that caught my eye

sources: x, x

in fact, this website has a bunch of artwork done by jacob lawrence. its not letting me link it, so i'll just copy it here. just remove the space after .org

https://www.wikiart.org /en/jacob-lawrence/all-works#!#filterName:all-paintings-chronologically,resultType:masonry

tombstones (1942), bootleg whiskey (1943), pool parlor (1942)

i also found another website that shows art made from the 1900s

here are other websites that talk about the harlem renaissance: x, x, x

i think salem was inspired by jacob lawrence's art. im not sure if i can definitively say his art work is minstrel or portrays gollywogs. his artwork has a white mouth and orange-ish eyes instead of round white eyes and big red lips. on salem's drawing, you cant see the lips of his sona.

the claim

im not sure if i agree with this claim. yes, the chest area does line up, yes the pose is similar. however, nothing else lines up in the slightest. i dont think this is enough to prove that he traced brujo's art

the head and neck done line up, the arms done line up, the stomach and hips dont line up. i dont understand what the point of tracing something is if youre only going to trace the boobs and maybe the shoulders.

ive "traced" poses before. usually, i break down the pose to its bare essentials, then i use that in the drawing.

dogshit line work strikes back. this is what i meant when i said i "trace" poses. the blue line represents the line of action.

hi selene

inb4 i get accused of tracing lol

YOU WERE FOURTEEN?? im so fucking sorry you went through that. i dont know how old you are right now, but please avoid 18+ if youre a minor. trust me when i say that its very easy to get manipulated or used for someone's personal gain. abusive and manipulative people are wolves in sheeps clothing. its really hard to spot terrible people before its too late. so please, dont trust random adults on the internet and please stay safe. whoever you are, your well being should be prioritized

ive said it before and i'll say it again: if the respect you have for others flies out the window, then youve never had respect for others in the first place. i dont care if salem is a bad person. a fat or chubby person being a piece of shit doesnt mean you can make ozempic jokes.

"but salem is evil and bad!!!!" my stance was never "guyz,,, be extra niceys to salem :'(," my stance was always "think about how your actions can effect others." salem isnt some nobody artist. there many non-paraphiles who have looked at the tags and these "salt" blogs. theres plenty of normal people who have taken a look at these salt blogs, and dismissed all of the valid criticism made because of their behavior. by acting like this, these snarkers are pissing all over their credibility.

screenshots provided by anon

if everything people have wanted to say have already been said, why bother with these accounts? why bother with making more and more? why bother spending so much time shitting on his art or characters? and sure, wolfertinger69 does volunteer work. i genuinely think thats awesome and im happy someone is making a difference in the real world. however, that doesnt absolve it (wolfertinger69 goes by it/any) from criticism. it didnt have to post that ask when it wasnt feeling well. if they truly had a life outside of tumblr, then it wouldve just answered that ask on its own time.

im sure some of you anons have noticed my inactivity. i dont always have the time or energy to answer all of your asks in depth. i dont always have the energy to look at what everyone is posting. im not perfect nor am i better than anyone; however, i try to live by example. its frustrating to see people in this godforsaken community not live by example. its frustrating to see people say "salem needs to change. salem needs to take accountability for his actions. salem needs to listen to my criticism," but are allergic to people criticizing them.

truly, if theres nothing else new to say, then i think itd be best to take a step back. people should only post if something important happens or if they want to archive something.

no no, name names. i tried looking for that post myself, but i couldnt find it. if you want, you can submit the screenshot and i'll post it on your behalf

slapping on a "dont worry because i really DO think salem is a trans man and i'm not implying he isn't" doesn't make it not the weirdest post i've seen about this in a while. congratulations, you've cleared the tiny bar of using the correct pronouns, that totally means you can shut your brain off and post paragraphs speculating about the inner gender thoughts of a complete stranger. that'll keep people safe!

sorry to drop this random post in your lap, i've been sort of keeping up with this whole thing for a while and feeling yucky about all of it, found your blog and you seem very reasonable.

salem wanting to include transfems when he makes his posts doesnt mean much. "but what about his other trans siblings,"

trans women are often picked on and singled out to a massive degree. theres always fearmongering about "men faking their gender to compete against women" or "creepy men in the women's bathrooms." and yes, i know transmascs are often silenced. both of these things are true. however, i dont think him making positivity posts including transfems is weird

idk how open salem is about his identity irl. if hes not open about it, people likely see him as a black woman, meaning he experiences misogynoir. i cant blame him for wanting to be inclusive for transfems, especially considering how much shit black transfems face. i dont think him being an ally to trans women or relating to their experiences is bad.

"he's so focused on getting validation from his klansfem mutuals who only view him as their token black / transmasc friend."

is it weird that salem is still on good terms with wis and other racist people? yes. is it weird that people tokenize salem? yes. however, i dont think this means "he wants to be transfem." he cant control how other people act. he cant control people seeing him as "an honorary TMA." obviously. he should speak out against people tokenizing his existence. obviously, he should cut off people like wis. i think its more of an extension of him wanting validation and praise instead of him "wanting to be a trans woman"

if people think the guy who keeps talking about his "tboy boobs" is transfem, theyre stupid as shit. seriously, what do they think "tboy" means? salem posts ad nauseam about how hes a tboy. all of his tboy characters are just extensions of himself and how he wants to present. he feels dysphoric in his body, so he draws art of his male characters that look like him. what else is the guy who plasters "im a tboy" supposed to do when other people are too lazy to look at his profile for 5 seconds?

"Another thing is his clear aversion to masculinity. Let me state before I even get into this: I do not think that femininity is equivalent to womenhood, or that Salem not liking masculinity means he isn't a trans man."

"I am mentioning a pattern in his behavior that could be viewed as evidence to him wanting to be transfem due to the fact that femininity is commonly associated with woman..."

and yes, i know theres more to the second quote, but OP is already contradicting himself. you cant say "femininity isnt equal to womanhood" while making the point of "femininity is commonly associated with woman." if a man is feminine, that doesnt make him a woman nor does it mean he wants to be seen as a trans woman. it doesnt matter how others think or see it. the associations people make arent objective.

"Salem himself seems to associate femininity with woman and masculinity with men."

i somewhat agree with this. while trans people dont have to transition to be trans, nor do they have to conform to gender norms, he often conflates the two together. a trans character can medically transition and be gender non conforming. likewise, a pre op/non op trans character can conform to gender norms. again, i think he makes his trans male characters resemble him: a trans man whos feminine and pre op/non op. its very common for people to self project onto their characters, so i dont know how fair it is to criticize salem for doing that. hell, i self project onto my characters as well.

"Salem does not like masculinity. That's obvious. From the fact that he called transmasc art 'twink slop with top scars slapped on'"

those two have zero correlation. while that was a poorly worded thing he said, i think that isnt him admitting to disliking masculinity. if you look at trans rep in media (even amongst indie/smaller projects and even fan art), trans men are portrayed as skinny, waifish twinks who have undergone top surgery. often times, trans men in media/fan art arent depicted with phallo/other types of bottom surgery. i think this is what salem was referring to when he said "twink slop with top scars.

i dont think anyone has to like femininity or masculinity. for example: i dont like femininity/being feminine. that doesnt make me a bigot or some kind of misogynist. that doesnt mean i fetishize men or gay people.

"We've even seen how anytime he makes a masculine character, he either feminizies them later on, or completely drops them"

as someone whos made hundreds of characters, dropping characters is a normal thing to do. its very difficult or stay attached to a majority of your ocs. ive made several different stories, but im mostly attached to one. ask anyone whos a writer or character designer and theyll tell you the same thing. im not going to criticize salem for dropping his characters and sticking with whatever hes interested in

"to elaborate on that, he seems to specifically relate femininity to a character's body, while he relates masculinity to a characters clothing"

wrong. hes made hitomi less curvy over time. she used to have boobs and hips, but now has a rectangular body shape. shes occasionally drawn with wider hips or small breasts, but shes still pretty rectangular. also, hitomi isnt really that masculine anyway. most women wear jeans and shirts. judging solely by her clothes, hitomi is more of a tomboy/gnc woman.

"This also explains why he doesn't have any gay couples, only lesbian and straight couples... A gay couple would be too masculine for him just on account of being two men."

i dont think anyone is obligated to fill out a checklist when making diverse characters. i follow an artist on toyhouse who exclusively draws women and lesbians 24/7. i really dont care if salem wants to draw lesbians and transhet couples for the rest of his life

"he called Hitch a "boy whos girlshaped" (along with calling Hitomi "boyshaped.") THIS is what I meant by he relates femininity to womanhood and masculinity to manhood."

finally, a point that i fully agree on

unfortunately, the last paragraph is takes all of the above points and combines it into one big wall of text. i dont have the energy to keep repeating myself

the full post is under read more for transparency

thanks for reminding me about this.

and of course, the usual chucklefucks are eating up this person's art. idk how everyone is shitting on salem's art, but are eating this up. the anatomy is abysmal. the foreshortening in the blue cat drawing is god awful. actually, i dont think this person knows how legs or arms work in general. i also dont like the color palette they chose for their redesigns.

salem's palette is far too muddy. the bright blue ears and eyes clash with the everything else.

thats not how deer antlers work.

also, thats not how hands work. the way hes gripping the sword looks flimsy, as if a gust of wind could knock it out of his grasp.

the shirt is drawn poorly. the sleeves are baggy, but shirt conforms to his torso. thats not how tshirts are usually made. theyre usually oversized all around, or body conforming all around. shirts made for afab/women are usually cut and sewn in such a way to accentuate the chest and their curves. this doesnt look like itd be flattering for any woman/afab to wear. it wouldve been better if salem was given a baggy hoodie or shirt. usually, pre op trans men wear baggy clothes to hide their curves and chest

the placement of the punisher patch is bad. it wouldve been better if they gave salem a jacket and put the patch on the sleeve.

this person was nawt cooking in the slightest. the lore is stupid as well. "cartoonist, vigilante" okay man.