I have no idea whether it's accurate or just nostalgia but I feel like radblr has decreased in discourse quality over the years. When I first joined Tumblr around 2016-17 I remember that I was hooked by the thoroughness of the posts, they were uncompromising, thoughtful and sourced.
Atm my impression is that it's mainly rants, shitposting and TRA receipts, which is fine and already existed, but that the actual thinkpieces are gone. If it were a newspaper it'd be like they kept the editorials and comics but got rid of the feature articles. At some point the umpteenth "Moids will really do x while[...]" gets old. You've been here for some time, what's your impression ?
I think many people were not necessarily prepared for transactivism to last a decade, and for a while fighting against it - even at a very small scale like a simple blog - felt like being Don Quixote fighting against windmills. It's only now that the tide is beginning to turn, and it's not exactly a tsunami yet. When something unfair or shocking becomes a part of daily life it's hard to keep the energy you had in the beginning when you thought it was still possible to overturn it before it became too bad.
And to be honest, there were some things I anticipated years ago that were in my mind worst case scenarios, like rapists in women's prisons, sterilized minors, etc... That became reality. I observe all that remotely of course, there is a distance that comes with just being an anonymous blogger and not an activist, but still that gets to me. Sharing receipts and press articles is a way to keep contributing to the discussion, but when the worst became a part of daily life sometimes you just don't know what else to say except I told you so.
I think a lot of women who used to post long, sourced think pieces just took a step back when they observed that, same way I did. Specifically on Tumblr, I think there is also a problem with a certain side of radblr who's not exactly into feminism, but rather into bullying. They're a vocal minority but it's enough to discourage discussions. Writing a long post takes time and hard work, I'm not sure someone coming here today would feel like her ideas would be welcomed and politely discussed the way they could be a few years ago.
