in the clearing

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My Life Changed When I Discovered Peer-to-Peer File Sharing at Age 10 by heart__rot

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Many of you may have seen the horrific news out of Biddeford, Maine today: Joan Sebastian Guerrero, an innocent 26 year old man on his way to work, was murdered by ICE agents—reportedly in front of his family, including his young child. While there is no world in which anything would justify this act, reports indicate that ICE agents stopped the wrong vehicle while attempting to execute an arrest warrant; Guerrero was not the target of this warrant. He committed no crimes, was legally authorized to live and work in the US, and was murdered in the street where his body was left for more than five hours.

While Maine experienced a surge in ICE activity at the beginning of the year, national coverage of this activity ceased when out-of-state agents retreated. ICE activity did not stop here in Maine, as made very clear by today's events.

The Maine Solidarity Fund was created last year by a collective of frontline organizations, cultural anchors, and direct service providers with deep ties to Maine’s Black and Brown immigrant and trans communities. The fund was designed to provide rapid-response funding to members of our most targeted communities. Since the fund's creation, well over $1,000,000 has been distributed to nearly 500 immigrant and trans Mainers.

Prior to today's events, the fund was running very low. Donations have begun to pick up in the aftermath of this shooting, but more are desperately needed. The organizations at the heart of the MSF are in contact with Guerrero's family and are at the helm of the state's anti-ICE structures and initiatives, including upcoming actions related to this shooting.

To those wishing to support immigrant communities in Maine, donating to the Maine Solidarity Fund is a wonderful way to do so.

(Please note that on the donation page, you may see that we've raised more than $1,000,000 out of our $2,000,000 goal. Almost all of what's been raised has been distributed—that number does not reflect funds currently available.)

Other important resources tied to the MSF and affiliated organizations include:

The Maine Immigrant Defense Hotline: A statewide and community-led rapid response and resource network providing real-time information, safety monitoring, and mutual aid for immigrant communities across Maine.

LighthouseME: A statewide resource hub connecting immigrant communities with trusted services and support.

Once again. I can understand the kneejerk impulse here, I do. It sucks to imagine, say, a creator scrolling online coming across some needlessly vitriolic post about something they worked on. But anyone is allowed to go "That's dickish" and move on, or people can engage with "I think this is oversimplified blah blah" if they want to but at the end of the day it isn't some kind of crime against the hobby or a fandom or even a singular person if someone just shoots off "This sucked I wasted my night" in their own accounts.

Like. A lot of people are trending towards thinking I'm talking about the importance of constructive criticism and like, sure, I think that is probably a more interesting avenue of analyzing something's flaws, but once again if you're not like, addressing an artist or interested in doing a deep dive that doesn't mean you're Not Allowed to be flippant or quick to judge. It's kind of startling how many times I've seen someone be like, "I can't stand this album" on their blogs, untagged, had that shit shared, only for it to come across someone's feed and for them to respond with "Why? What's wrong with it? People are allowed to like it, why are you being so negative, why are you tearing people down for no reason, this isn't even real critique," as though the intention in the first place ever was or ought to have been substantive critique in the first place.

OK sometimes you don't like a certain art style. That's fine. Doesn't mean the art is bad, it's just not to your tastes.

That doesn't give you the right nor even a reason to be a dick on the Internet because you don't like something. If you want to be a dick, do it to someone who has time and energy to give it back. Because at that point you deserve shit in return.

If someone is outright asking for constructive criticism, that still doesn't give you the chance to be a dick. It means they want help learning something they're putting time and effort into.

Why do I need a "right" or "reason" to post anything online? Why is it that my enjoyment of something is intrinsically justifiable, but my lack of enjoyment requires justification? And based on whose standards? If I can thoughtlessly tweet out a "This album rocks," without expecting people who hate it to demand a longform review from me to explain my enjoyment, I'm not sure I understand why I can't say "This album sucks" without having to go into the trenches about its positive qualities and negative ones. Why do I need to formulate every opinion I have in the form of an art school critique addressing nobody at all?

Why can praise be thoughtless but criticism must, at all costs, be formulated in art school constructive form in case the creator happens to see it and get their feelings hurt or a fan finds it harmful? Particularly when someone could very well have their feelings hurt by thoughtless praise of something as well! I'm not even trying to claim a more substantive form of criticism isn't more interesting or more valuable for one's interpretive abilities. I just think this notion that there is a moral obligation in all online spaces-- no matter how siloed-- to tiptoe around the potential hurt feelings of a hypothetical audience that may or may not even be courted, is at best stultifying for any real plurality of opinion and at worst enabling people whose insecurities about their own hobbies lead them to confidently dictate what people say in whatever passes for privacy in an online space nowadays.

I dunno, I've read works of brutal polemic that I've found immensely creatively engaging, thoughtful, and substantial in its knowledge of a particular form or medium. I've read works of praise I've found miserably trite. Why is the former not allowed to exist because of its dickishness? Why is the latter beyond critique itself?

Why do you think someone being a dick is "expecting" someone to listen to your opinions? Why do you think that person is "expecting" any sort of audience at all? I am critiquing the inherent assumption that people who are "rude," however this is defined (and I believe it is ill-defined specifically because so much of this is conflated with whose feelings are hurt rather than the actual substance of whatever hypothetical comment is centered here), and have repeatedly emphasized in multiple places that there is a difference between approaching someone and insulting their tastes and creations versus airing an opinion in the (admittedly, increasingly decreasing) privacy of an online space.

This is not about politics. If armed settlers threaten U.S. citizens and soldiers help detain them, wouldn't that merit an investigation?