#joffyrants

I've always wondered why that is? Maybe it's because when you create something drawn/written/spoken it's usually got quite a lot of yourself put into it? Carving a wooden statuette or playing an instrument isn't always so personally intertwined with your mood or emotions, maybe that's why? A very large generalisation I know, but I'm not qualified to talk about this in a more specific way. I'd hardly describe myself as a writer given I don't write often, nor publish a lot, but then again I guess that feeds into the whole "self doubt" thing.

Social media makes it infinitely worse too, everyone's obsessed with numbers and status and that constant rush then crash of "Number go up, me happy! Number go down, life over" that social media's designed everyone to do. It's so consumerist, you want the numbers so bad because they're literally force-fed to you in a way that "This means you did good! If this ain't here, you suck and should quit!" It's such a toxic environment it continues to baffle me, it pains me to see genuinely beautiful and creative people wither and die under the unforgiving sun of literally sharing their own stuff for other people to see and enjoy because they've been conditioned to think "If people don't see this, it was a waste of time."

I really hope someday I wake up in a world where people have collectively un-learned that reliance on numbers. It fucking blows ass and crushes literally everyone involved when the Mighty Algorithm™ doesn't push someone's post enough. It crushes me even seeing the effects, in friends and strangers both.

And yes, I do in fact know how fucking HARD it is to unlearn that mentality. It's designed to be a struggle, because if you unlearn it then the big CEOs lose money because you're not filling up their little piggy troughs every day. But fuck them, and fuck being a slave in the 21st century to same faceless wanker you can't even fistfight when he beats you. Fight to unlearn those algorithms and inferences that have driven you to madness. Please. I beg of you, remember what you do is what YOU do for YOU, not for them. If it's your job I understand it's different, and the world we live in SUCKS BUTTS for artists, but a dead man paints no pictures, and a dead man speaks no poetry.

Please, for the love of whichever God you believe in or force of good you follow, be it man or myth, do NOT create for the fucking internet. You're going to be miserable. You're being DESIGNED to be miserable. You're not a content farm, you're a human, try to remember that and make shit for YOU. The numbers don't matter, they're meaningless and 90% of them are bots anyway.

FUCK EVERYONE ELSE!!!

Seriously.

I'm so sick and weary of logging on here and seeing creators I adore, and people I don't even know alike, apologising for not uploading or basically begging for a break like they're not a human with needs.

You're literally a human being, with thoughts, feelings and emotions. You're not an art factory, you're not some positivity pump, you're nothing other than a genuine human being living a genuine life experience.

SO GO LIVE IT!!!

YOU OWE THE INTERNET NOTHING!!!!

There should be, and realistically is, no shame in just fucking leaving if you want to. There's no contract you signed, there's no permit you bought or lease you hold. You're a person who decided to share their art with the world, FOR FREE, and garnered an audience of faceless people behind screens who enjoy that art because YOU wanted to make it and share it.

Let me be frank as best I can. You owe the internet nothing, you owe the world nothing and you owe yourself EVERYTHING. You are the only person who can live your life, you are the only person who can create the things you create and you are the only motherfucker that should matter to you when you create those things.

Art is supposed to be a wondrous joy that inspires the mind and indulges ideas that other creatures can't even comprehend. It's supposed to be a magical and fun fantasy land where anything is possible because you make it possible. It's not a 9-5 unless you make it one, so stop making your hobby a 9-5 unless you're getting paid for it, and even then put in limits because no job that you choose to do should end in you burnt out and wishing you'd never started in the first place.

Remember when we were all kids? When we all drew and wrote for fun simply because we could? We'd show people are shit and be like "Mama look!" and she'd clap her hands all proud. But she wasn't why you picked up that crayon, you just did it for you because you wanted to make some shit.

That's how it should be. That's how it is unless you let those fake ass numbers on a screen rule your life. It's all meaningless, the praise may be genuine but that doesn't mean you should spend your whole life running in circles and performing for an audience.

Be a human being! Be an artist! Fuck everyone else!

OH! and to top it off, the UK has been trying to ban the CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS since about 2021, and as we don't have an enshrined constitution, that will mean we literally have no rights at all (unless you're wealthy of course).

Please, for the love of God don't come here. Don't come to the UK. America is bad but we don't even have trials anymore, we are NOT a preferable solution. The only difference between the US and UK is our media is stuck with "impartiality" laws, so we don't get the evil shit our government does covered. We've been a US satellite state since the 80s and it's only getting worse.

Go to Ireland, go to New Zealand or Sweden or Denmark or anywhere but please do not come here, it's not safe anymore. It never was, but oh boy they aren't even hiding it now.