Well, having been blocked by sunquail for disagreeing too prominently with a toxic mindset (which I was pretty down for at this point, to be honest), Iâll address @agouti here. Iâd âstay in my laneâ, but since Tumblrâs a social media site and you posted it publicly, sunquail, you turned into my lane.
If the terminology co-opts an emotion, feeling, or relationship I am party to, why shouldnât I have âthe rightâ to argue about them? Not that I think language should be parceled out to people based on their demographic intersections to begin with, really, but your argument doesnât even make sense within a typical social justice construct, at least not to me. Does that mean that non-whites who find certain denonyms derogatory, and donât wish to have them applied to them, canât voice this displeasure?
As for @sunquailâ blocking me... as I said, Iâm fine with that. While I admire their artistic sensibilities, I knew Iâd be blocked as soon as I opted to reply to their little âcall outâ post of that anti-SJW who started the âfriendshipâ meme. Their original reblog on the matter looks something like this:
As you can see, it follows the same poisonous mindset that I, in earlier posts, have taken issue with sunquail about. Essentially, a person said something that sunquail found disagreeable. This was something as understandable as saying that a âqueerplatonicâ relationship, which can be experienced by anyone as stated in its own definition, might just be a deep friendship. This same individual posted that a âplatonic dateâ, which is just a dinner with a friend, might not been the domain of queerdom or non-heterosexuality. I hold these same views (though I fully acknowledge the legitimacy of asexuality, or people simply not being interested in sex or romance whatever their stated orientation).
sunquail holds with the notion that people who donât respect the legitimacy of these terms are bigoted, with âshittyâ and âwrongâ opinions. They would prefer you unfollow them, and notify them so that they can unfollow and block you, so that sunquail can live in a reaffirming little bubble of like-minded people and never have to so much as encounter a dissimilar viewpoint. I take umbrage with this, because that sort of mentality is what leads to myopic little communities (online and in real life) where people begin to live in their own delusional pocket dimensions, drowning out reality with a chorus of mutual reassurances that they are infallible.
Now, there are other things sunquail believes that I, personally, find ridiculous-- multiple systems and kintypes and such. This isnât about that, though. This is about the fact that, when sunquail was having difficulty actually justifying taking such a strong stance on such a minor and seemingly contrived issue, and cutting off even unrelated contact with people because they didnât share that view... sunquail could not. sunquail instead posted a few mildly-insulting posts assuming my sexuality, insinuating that I was âskeevyâ, a âdickâ, and had âcrappyâ opinions, and then went silent on the matter...
Until, of course, they were able to dig up âevidenceâ (unsubstantiated claims from the Tumblr call-out culture rumour mill) that the originator of this meme which had so offended sunquailâs sensibilities was a pedophile. See those tags in the above image again: how sunquail immediately latches onto this dubious assertion, presumably having done no research into its veracity, and then attempts to imply that this alleged pedophilia is SOMEHOW CONNECTED to not believing âplatonic datesâ and âqueerplatonic relationshipsâ are somehow distinct ideas related to identity politics or sexual orientation instead of regular old friendship. In essence, because sunquail saw someone on the internet say that one person who feels differently about âplatonic datingâ wants to diddle kids, sunquail can safely disregard everyone who holds that viewpoint (or really any viewpoint sunquail disagrees with) as a pedophile or disgusting garbage monster of some ilk.
By the way, I looked into it. It seems @steven-universe-official likes futanari porn (problematic to some, but hardly illegal, or immoral by most liberal standards), porn of video game characters (on the internet? outrageous!), and once used an explicit image of a grown-up Inkling from Splatoon as a profile pic. Thatâs it. If thereâs some secret pedophilic past to steven-universe-official, I apologize and rescind my defence but... If this is it, I can see why some people might take umbrage, but calling them a pedophile is ridiculous, and calling someone a pedophile so that you can feel superior to me is the grossest goddamn thing Iâve seen recently, at least barring alt-right shit and the President of America.
And thatâs the thing, isnât it? This toxic attitude, this urge to block out criticism and to personally attack and discredit those who disagree with you? Thatâs how alt-right hives of scum and villainy function. They invent persecutions and conspiracies, and spread rumours to discredit and denounce their perceived enemies. They attack or banish anyone who so much as thinks out of line, or dares to question whether or not every single idea they think is correct. They make bold statements about the nature of society, language, reality, and if you question them they declare you âcuckâ, âdegenerateâ, or some other memeworthy catchphrase.
Or, to borrow from sunquail, âshittyâ. âskeevyâ, and a âdickâ. Or, if you really irk sunquail, a pedophile. And once sunquail (or any number of other alt-left, super-SJW bloggers who think like them) denounces an idea or a person in such terms, everyone and everything connected to them needs to be cut away like a cancer. Discussion and understanding are impossible. They donât want to speak about it, think about it, or encounter it ever again. They remain insulated from the world at large, and they build this buffer out of protected linguistic artefacts tied to either real maters of sexuality, gender identity, culture, and ethnicity, or else to fringe internet fads.
And thatâs why this particular issue touched a nerve with me, thatâs why Iâm calling out sunquail (and not the other person I was discussing this matter with, who was far more civil), and thatâs why occasionally I get in long-winded internet arguments that break up my art-blog.