Derailing
I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t really understand how you can derail a conversation. Like, someone can reblog a feminist/anti-racism/islamophobic/pro-gun/etc. post (a post that’s trying to make a point) and say something completely opposite or against the post. But I don’t understand how that’s derailing the original post. Obviously the person doing this wouldn’t have reblogged the post without any commentary, so it’s not like they are taking away exposure positive exposure. They are just exposing it to a new, probably less supportive audience, changing the ideas the post stands for so it can represent a new crowd.
I get how that would be derailing in real life/the physical world since in order to have that alternate conversation, you have to prevent one that was originally going to happen from taking place, but something is lost in translation to Tumblr
(This always gets me when someone, for example, posts a bisexual!Steve Rogers headcanon focusing on the difference between his romantic relationship with Peggy and with Bucky, and someone reblogs and adds a gay!Steve Rogers headcanon with him and Peggy being the best of buds, then tons of people start hating on them for derailing bi-representation. I'm sorry, but no. Even if there was a glitch and somehow all permutations of the post had that gay!Steve headcanon added so people couldn't reblog it with only bi-Steve if they really wanted, people could still decide they liked the bi!Steve one better, or, hey! Like them both. You shouldn't be trying to limit the perception of a character by people by policing all other representations of them and saying they're wrong for not letting yours shine. If yours is the awesomest, people will recognize that awesome and choose it as their headcanon (Korra and Asami being bi comes to mind, though that was heavily implied in the show and outright stated by the directors as the intent by the time the series ended). If it's not that awesome or just not as awesome as the gay!Steve headcanon, you shouldn't be trying to force them to believe it just for the sake of bi-representation; people should be able to believe whatever is to them the best fit.)
do people call adding on to posts derailing because it forces the original authors to act or alow a hated permutation of their post to float around? I don’t know :?
