#emmettlab

Hello fine people of Cohost. As much as I hate to make a Twitter-esque call out post, I feel as though it's a necessary evil to warn people of a person who's attempting to migrate over from another platform, after having his accounts there terminated six - Yes, six times in a row for the same reason.

call out posts are not a necessary evil. anyone can make a call out post for any reason. not only is it entitled to think that you, a stranger on the internet, have the right to objectively claim someone is a danger to others, but you are actually putting others in danger by making a call out post.

the purpose of a call out post is to isolate, attack, and dehumanize your target.

it literally does not matter how many 'don't harass this person' disclaimers you add onto your call out post (not that you did here), or how many times you claim your intention isn't to attack this person (and you actually labelled these attacks as 'criticism').

you know that it will happen, and you do not care enough about the safety of the person you are 'calling out' in order to prevent it.

and why is that?

because by making a call out post like this, you have already deemed me a bad person. and to people like you, 'bad people' are not worth protecting. to you and people who think like you, i am no longer deserving of basic human respect and decency.

that is your idea of 'justice'. but is it 'justice' or just revenge?

call out posts like this are not coming from anyone of authority or expertise. you are some random person on the internet, who could be any age, who has their own personal bias, deciding that you are in the right because of so-called 'receipts'.

receipts are not evidence; they have no legitimate standing. they can be taken out of context, wildly misinterpreted, dug up from years ago, or even just blatantly fabricated. but people who take call out posts seriously tend to disregard this. why is that?

it's because people who make call out posts like this are

A. typically appealing to people with the same opinions as them B. using highly charged emotional and morality based language that people are more likely to agree with out of fear of being a 'bad person' C. choosing to pile together 'receipts' in one long document, so that it seems as if there is a large amount of 'evidence' against the victim

and yes, i say victim. because regardless of how 'guilty' someone truly is, they can be a victim of call out culture. they can be a victim of harassment, doxing, stalking, and all of the other fun things that come with being 'cancelled'.

now, let's address the six terminations.

They have continuously returned, and claimed that their termination has been because of "anti proshipper hate", however this is skirting around the real issue of his termination; He has, and continues, to make not safe for work content depicting a minor character, as shown by the below email from Tumblr Trust & Safety, as clarified by the statement “The blog in question has been removed from Tumblr for violating our Terms of Service or our User Guidelines.”

(i'm going to disregard the misgendering because i'm pretty sure that was unintentional.)

you're right, to an extent. for a long time, i refused to acknowledge the real reason for my termination and convinced myself that the ToS was unclear. this was me trying to protect myself and my image. i've come to terms now that yes, i was violating the rules.

but it wasn't just because of what the work featured, and the screenshot of Tumblr's email does not specify that it had anything to do with fictional minors being involved. yes, that's against their rules as well! but ultimately, you are not supposed to post NSFW content on Tumblr, and that's exactly what i was doing.

i was able to get away with it (like most people) up until antis started reporting me, and that's why the reports were legitimate. i am not able to post NSFW here and i've learned my lesson; all of my blogs are strictly SFW now.

also, my account was not terminated six times because i continued to post NSFW content. i did stop, but either the damage was done at that point or someone tried to report me for 'block evading', because whenever i posted in the whump tags, my blog would be gone soon after. Tumblr never gave me a reason for any of the terminations, so i can only speculate.

To put it frankly, I don't care about the incest part of the content, if that was the worst of it, I wouldn't have a reason to make this post. But, what I do care about is the fact that he's creating sexualized content that depicts a minor, and is using the veneer of "anti proshipper hate" to deflect - Quite justified, in mine, and plenty of other people's opinion - criticism that sexualized art depicting minors is morally and legally detestable.

why does the incest part not matter to you?

there are real life victims of incest. abusers can use fictional art of incest to groom their victims. there are incest survivors who are deeply triggered and hurt by fictional art of incest.

why does that not matter to you?

this is exactly what makes this mindset so hypocritical. you pick and choose what is and isn't acceptable, even though your logic would suggest otherwise. you say that sexualized art depicting fictional minors is morally and legally detestable. okay, but incest is morally and legally detestable to many, many people and in many places.

why is that not included in your crusade?

and you, as a whump fan, enjoy works depicting gruesome, fucked up, absolutely immoral and illegal thins in the realm of fiction. why is that okay?

there are real life victims of murder, kidnapping, rape, assault, torture, abuse, manipulation, gaslighting -- all things commonly depicted in whump. why do those victims matter any less than victims of CSA? why is that any less "morally and legally detestable" than CSA?

is it because this really all comes down to personal feelings?

To make it short; I love Cohost, I think it’s a good platform with plenty of great people on it, and the last thing I want to see is it become a refuge for someone who creates content that sexualizes minors - Fictional or not.

Cohost has clear rules against fictional content sexualizing fictional minors. obviously, someone who breaks those rules should not be on the platform. what you really mean is that, because you don't agree with my work, you don't want me to be on any platform that you're on. and that goes back to the purpose of a call out post:

you want me isolated. you want to chase me out of any space that you occupy, because you lack the maturity to just message me directly and talk like adults. you lack the courage to stop hiding behind anonymity and put a face to all of the hate that you can so comfortable spew behind a screen.

I don’t think it’s much of a hard sell to say that, in general, most people agree that sexual content involving minors is horrible, some would even go as far to say immoral and evil - I know I would, personally.

okay so, in your opinion, most people agree with you.

that's just your opinion

even if it was true, that doesn't necessarily make it right

it certainly doesn't make it right to attack me over your opinion

you think it's immoral and evil? great! block me and move on with your life. that's literally all i have ever asked is that, if someone disagrees with me or doesn't like me, they just block and move on.

most people are able to do this because they are secure in their identities and morals; it's the people who are insecure that feel the need to turn it into a crusade.

Now, I will be the first to say, taking him at his word that it’s a coping mechanism for abuse that he had suffered at the hands of his father, if it was just that, then as much as I would disagree, I won’t say that I’m the arbiter of how people should cope with trauma and the after effects of said trauma.

i mean, you are though. you categorize an art form as 'immoral' because it makes you uncomfortable, completely disregarding all of the people (like me) who make this content to cope with trauma. like when you say here-

However, my issue is with the fact that this is content that he posts publicly. And beyond that, he very generally talks about it in the way people would talk about kinks - Something that would be very out of place if the sole purpose of the art was to cope with and vent about trauma.

first: people can post whatever they want publicly. it's called freedom of speech and expression. you can't censor fictional content just because you take issue with it.

second: kink and trauma are often intertwined. not that someone has to have trauma to 'justify' any kink they have, but it's just hypocritical to say you won't be "the arbiter of how people should cope with trauma" and then do exactly that.

That being said, either one of those things alone wouldn’t be enough for me to say that it’s explicitly done as a fetish, however both of them combined makes me say that it very much veers into the territory of pedophilia, by the written definition.

you and so many people do not understand what pedophilia is. at this point, i'm honestly just going to make a video about it.

pedophilia is a mental disorder that can only be diagnosed by a professional, not strangers on the internet. you have to meet certain criteria that goes beyond just "sexual feelings for children" -- which, of course, is referring to real children and not fictional characters. to assume that i feel any sort of sexual attraction to real children based on what i enjoy in fiction makes absolutely no sense and is, again, incredibly entitled.

you don't know me. you are not in my head. you have no idea what i am thinking, feeling, or experiencing. you're just making things up that fit this version of me that you've created in your own mind, the version that you feel justified in dehumanizing and degrading.

As can be clearly seen, posted to his own blog that has since been terminated, he addresses that it’s sexual content of minors, and even going as far as to distinguish kids from teens, so it’s very much not “barely legal” or “jailbait” type content that we’re discussing.

so…is the assumption here that it would be more okay if i was making content of fictional teenagers? because that makes no sense. fictional teens can be fictional kids too, y'know.

i'm glad you included a screenshot of someone saying my content helps them, because i've gotten many messages like that. and no, not just for the 'non-kink' content, for the kink content too. it's almost like everyone handles trauma differently.

Furthermore, the above screenshot displays his general attitude towards people who call him out for his content/behaviour. And there’s no way to twist the above post into being about any sort of “proshipper vs. anti shipper” argument, as the relationship between his characters Loden and David/Ben (Ben is used as a disguise name for David after escaping jail and changing his identity in order to “be a better father”) - Nowhere does he mention incest, but purely the fact that it’s sexual content that is depicting minors.

it's weird that you keep trying to present this as some objective moral issue when yeah, no, it does come down to "proship vs. anti". that is literally all this is.

also, i have no idea what behavior i'm displaying there, aside from just trying to get past Tumblr censorship. xD which yeah, i don't do that anymore.

Drawing attention to the second-to-last tag (And yes, I very much see the #tw feral nsfw tag, that was mostly to do with stuff such as spiders and insects, and I don’t wish to draw attention away from the main point) it very blatantly says “#tw pedophilia” - No hold bars.

your main point being that fictional underage is The Most Evil of All Evils and everything else can be excused. …alright.

but yeah, let's talk about this and why this isn't some 'gotcha' moment. i tagged things based on what i think people would be blocking. "tw pedophilia" is a very common trigger to tag for, and so that is what i used in order to make sure anyone with that trigger blocked would not see those posts.

that doesn't actually make it pedophilia.

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a good chunk of this 'call out post' is just showing screenshots of me trying to get past Tumblr censorship, so i'm just gonna skip all that. i've already addressed it and acknowledged my fault there.

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And one last thing to show as to why I do not believe that this is just a coping mechanism for dealing with trauma related to his own trauma, but is just something he does because he is genuinely attracted to sexual content depicting minors;

once again, playing arbiter on how people cope and explain their trauma, and assuming that just because i say something at one point means that it is 100% true with no change of being wrong or changing whatsoever.

The sheer pettiness, the callousness of how he responds to the hate asks he gets; Saying “…i would draw more underage for every hate ask i got but don’t have the time or energy, but honestly i’m tempted to do just that.” - That does not read with the energy of someone who draws content such as this to cope with the trauma that has been inflicted upon them, it reads with the vindictive pettiness of someone who makes ragebait content for the sake of getting under people’s skin. Especially when emphasized in the following paragraph by “…congratulations, another fictional child has been sexualized because of you!”

look, you don't have to agree with how i responded. i'll be honest and admit that i'm not proud of how i responded either.

but i was in a really bad mental place because of the anon hate, and because i was unmedicated at the time. would i have handled things differently now? yes. but do i blame myself for reacting the way i did, knowing how much i was dealing with and how i was dealing with all of it unmedicated? no.

i'm in a much better place now, and i forgive my past self. he didn't go about it in the best way, but that was all he could do at the time. and at least he didn't stoop to your level and go harass/attack people.

As much as I’m sure some of the hate you’re getting from people is from “antis”, it’s by and far not the only reason as you try to categorize it; It’s because you draw and write sexualized content of minors.

…so, yeah, that would make you an anti. it's the ideology that things in fiction should be censored, despite being fictional.

repeating yourself doesn't make it an objective moral failing, it's just repeating one of the main anti talking points.

And I know you love your excuse of “Well it’s technically legal where I live because it doesn’t depict real children”, but that doesn’t mean that it’s morally right.

why is whump morally right then?

Moreso, you act like content warnings for stuff such as child abuse or child sexual assault - And I will not refer to it in any other way, since regardless of how you try to frame it, a child cannot consent to sexual acts - is enough of a deflection for people to just not look at the content you create.

in my opinion, it's extremely insensitive to real child victims to compare fictional content to real life CSA and CSEM (child sexual exploitation material). but refer to it how you want, i guess, i'll just have to keep correcting you and everyone else who calls it that.

and…yeah…that's how the internet works. you don't want to look at something, don't look at it. i did my due diligence in tagging and providing warnings; that's all i should be expected to do. now, granted, i shouldn't have been posting anything NSFW on Tumblr, but now i post on Aethy with no problem! and i do the same thing there as i did on here: tag and warn appropriately.

And just saying “Block me if you don’t like me” isn’t enough to get around you creating new accounts, because regardless of intent, you still end up showing up in the tag searches for people who like the content of those tags.

it really is not that much effort to just click 'block' if i show up in tags you like. and if you think it is, i think your online experience is going to be particularly stressful.

But lumping that in with people who are justifiably angry about someone drawing sexual content of children? That would be like me calling people racist for not liking rap, or ethnic/”weird” foods - I’m sure that sounds like a familiar argument, doesn’t it?

you're gonna have to explain this one to me. like, am i supposed to group my harassers based on whether they use slurs or not? am i supposed to agree with you that this is 'constructive criticism' and not harassment? what does this have to do with calling people racist for not liking rap or certain foods? what??? 😂

And onto your ever so thoughtful response to what I had to say;

obviously this is sarcasm, so let me ask you this. in your anonymous ask, you not only tried to guilt trip me based on your own (completely valid) personal trauma, but you literally called me evil.

and you expected my response to be thoughtful?

on that note, there was nothing wrong with my response. i was only summarizing an anonymous ask that i had gotten and exposing the typical anti talking points, which is why i used proshipper tags.

i did not respond to you or address you personally. and i specifically did not do that because i knew that i would have trouble remaining respectful.

As much as pedophilia may be classified as a mental illness,

it's not pedophilia. next argument.

And frankly, I don’t care if I dehumanize people who think it’s okay to sexualize minors,

yup, that's what i meant by the purpose of a call out post.

next argument.

Because yes, when you create content and post it publicly, specifically that of sexualizing children, it gives the impression that it is okay.

it doesn't.

And this isn’t some kind of “Violent video games will make people violent” kind of rhetoric, it makes people, specifically pedophiles who think it’s okay to sexualize children or even go as far as to assault actual children, feel as though they’re seen or have some kind of community that accepts them, similar to the push of the Minor-Attracted Person community to be normalized in addition to the LGBTQ+ community.

yes, it is that kind of rhetoric.

you're talking a lot about pedophiles for someone who

A. clearly is not an expert on pedophilia B. is totally fine dehumanizing them

what you're describing is a child predator, someone who actually assaults children and who, shockingly, might not even be a pedophile!

this idea of pedophiles being some ticking time bomb is not only ignorant and inaccurate, it's dangerous. stigma and shame is dangerous for everyone, victims included, because now we lack crucial data when non-offending pedophiles are terrified to self-report and too scared to seek treatment.

It’s so gracious of you to dismiss me explaining why the above two points are an actual issue by calling what I explained “weaponizing my trauma” against you. It’s also convenient that you don’t explain what the trauma in question is, considering that if you did, it would probably discredit a lot of that statement in general. But to clarify; Yes, I was sexually assaulted by two family members as a child, and in a large part it was influenced by them finding content that made them feel as if someone having sexual feelings towards a child is a normal thing to feel.

look, i am genuinely sorry that you went through that. and i understand that it's probably the main reason you feel justified in doing this.

And that’s not me “weaponizing” anything to attack you, that’s me providing solid evidence as to why normalizing content like this is harmful. but it isn't solid evidence. it is personal anecdote. and i have never once tried to deny that fictional content -- any type of fictional content, NSFW or not -- can be used to abuse, groom, indoctrinate, and harm other people. i just acknowledge that the solution to this is not censorship and 'cancelling'. It’s almost as if hiding context for a statement makes it easy for you to control the narrative around what was being said.

i didn't include your statement out of respect for your trauma.

And for you being so eager to call me out for “weaponizing” my trauma, you’re just as eager to use your trauma as an excuse to create child porn.

i don't use it as an excuse to create fictional content. i know that people don't need an excuse to make anything fictional. i just acknowledge it as one of the main reasons, and i bring it up when people like you claim that they can 'tell' when someone is doing it to cope or not.

Yes, I did end my ask by calling you evil, because I see people who find it acceptable to sexualize children nothing short of that; Evil. Vile, repulsive, disgusting, disturbing, and evil.

i don't agree with dehumanizing people based on what they enjoy or create in fiction.

My eyes particularly are drawn to the part where you attempt to compare you drawing child porn to a woman being assaulted for wearing a specific kind of clothes; A dog whistle statement used to victim blame women for men being unable to control their sexual urges around them.

i used an example of purity culture rhetoric in comparison to anti rhetoric and you…called it a 'dog whistle'…okay. i don't think you know what a dog whistle is.

“Kalstio was five years old when she learned that everything is a choice, and that your choices have consequences.”

Now, why would this be notable in combination with the previous post? Is it perhaps the fact that the way that’s written, it also gives off the aura of victim blaming, for a five year old to be expected to understand consequences, especially in regards to content that you enjoy to write so much about?

i'm not trying to be condescending here, but this is just showing me you lack media literacy. what the author writes is not necessarily what the author thinks. you want to know why it gives off the aura of victim blaming?

it's because Kalstio has internalized her parents' victim blaming.

that doesn't mean that i, Emmett, am victim blaming.

holy fucking shit.

And you may be asking, “So what does this have to do with arguing about fictional content being used for real world harm?” And the simple answer is that, content like this, especially used the way you do, has the very real effect of making people think that responding to stuff in this was is acceptable; That blaming women for actions they have little to no control over is acceptable, that viewing children in a sexual way is acceptable, regardless of if it’s fictional or not.

you can make that argument for any type of fictional content. not just the stuff that you hate the most.

I also want to address this response you made to a commenter to your post, I really love how you’re going out of your way to make antis the villains of your narrative, pushing the idea that the issue is proship, and not pedophilic content.

but it's fine to make me the villain of your narrative?

yeah, again, it's not pedophilic content and it is literally a proshipper vs. anti argument. just because you might not identify as an anti doesn't mean everything you are saying is exactly what antis believe.

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there's some powertripping over wanting me to get arrested, so i'll skip over that.

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Because you’re not the audience for this post. It’s so that everyone else can see how much of a disgusting, hypocritical cockroach you are.

and there it is, once again: the real purpose of this call out post is to isolate, attack, and dehumanize me.

personally, i think that is disgusting.

As simple as it can be; I don’t believe pedophiles should have a platform.

i'm not a pedophile, and i have some very bad news for you.

People who are capable and complacent with content that has been, will be, and always has been used to harm children, regardless of what people like Emmett would like to make you believe.

still not addressing why it's just this content that should be banned and not every other type of content used to cause real life harm.

I don’t care about the proship or antiship argument

doesn't matter if you don't care about it, you're still making it.

and I don’t care about the drama

bro, you are the drama.

What I care about, as plain and simple as I can state it, is the fact that he believes it’s okay to sexualize minors, fictional or not.

no, i very much do not believe it's okay to sexualize real minors.

I believe our world, as much of a shit hole as it is, is a slightly better place when people can agree that sexualizing children is disgusting and not okay. And as long as people such as Emmett have platforms that allow them to produce, spread, and monetize their work doing such, I will do everything in my power to help fight back against it, because if my actions have helped save even one child from being groomed into accepting stuff like this as acceptable, regardless if it’s from Emmett himself, or simply someone who discovers his content and think it gives them a voice, then I have done my job.

and here we reach the moral grandstanding part of this 'call out post'.

here's a thought: my actions can help save others too. because when i was groomed by adult men online, you know what helped them the most? me, a child, thinking that if i was fantasizing about adult men, then that must mean i actually wanted to do those things with adult men. you know why i had those fantasies? because of what an adult man did to me.

had i known the difference between fiction and reality, had i known that what you enjoy in fantasies is not necessarily what you would enjoy in real life -- i would have never agreed to do those things with them.

i would have never been groomed.

i would have never spent all of my childhood, and my teenage years, and most of my twenties, blaming myself and hating myself. i would have never dealt with that unnecessary shame, guilt, and disgust with myself for what i fantasized about, and for what i did with adults online, as a result of being a victim.

and that is what i will use my voice for.

And once more, to you Emmett, I don’t care whether you want to just label me as an anti hater, dismiss me as someone who just hates you for no reason, or even if you want to say that the pain I’ve endured because of people like you who give predators space to roam is “weaponizing”, because truly, you never did mean anything to me, so your opinion is as good to me as mine is to you.

i clearly meant enough to not only write this call out post, but go on another tirade later where you admitted that your reason for doing this was to 'avenge' a friend that i had apparently wronged.

and not, y'know, message me about said friend.

All I want to see is you reap the consequences of your actions; After all, even you said that Kalstio learnt from the age of five that your choices have consequences - Didn’t you?

so you're flaunting your lack of media literacy again as some kind of 'gotcha' one-liner? …alright. you want to know what i learned?

i learned that this comes with the territory of being an online creator. that this is the risk we take when speaking out against rhetoric that has historically been used (and continues to be used) to dehumanize marginalized communities. and no, i'm not talking about pedophiles.

this type of rhetoric has and continues to be used against people of color and queer people.

and one important thing i learned about myself is that i am willing to fight against it, even if it means dealing with shit like this.

what you and everyone else who sent me anon hate did was absolutely deplorable. but i have to come to terms with the fact that people like you will create versions of me in their head to hate, and that's okay. that's not who i am. everything that you've said here isn't about me, Emmett. it's about your "emmettnet".

and in many ways, it's about you. doing something like this is a self-reflection of you and the kind of person you are, the things that you're the most afraid of and insecure about. maybe you'll understand that at some point.

i've come out a stronger person because of this experience, and that's why i finally responded to this. if it triggers me to think of something, i make the effort to understand why it triggers me and then decide if i need to do it. this was something that i needed to do, so that i can move on and take the next step in healing: forgiveness.

honestly, i can't say i've forgiven you yet. but i will with time.

i understand why you did this, even if that doesn't make it right. and i understand why it affected me the way that it did.

it does me no good to close myself in a bubble free of criticism and hatred; if i'm going to be an online creator, i have to learn to not take this stuff personally. i have to learn to let it go.

i hope that eventually, you'll learn to do the same. but if not, that's fine. it won't stop me from healing and growing. and as much as you don't want me to have a platform, you can't stop that either.

people enjoy my work. people enjoy my presence. i put a lot of time, effort, and love not only into what i create, but into the communities that i build. it is my goal to always provide a safe, non-judgmental space, and i have been very successful in doing so.

i have gotten countless of messages from people thanking me for doing so, and i do my very best to honor that. to continue to make a positive difference, even if not everyone will see it that way.