Your Unfriendly Virgil Stan

And I did my best to answer that question, and I thought I’d post my answer here too, because I sense this question a lot. Sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken, but there: “Why is the fandom arguing so much? It used to be so nice.”

And I guess I can see part of the point. Return of the Jam did prompt a new wave of discussion. There’s been a lot more criticism recently in some circles. As the fandom grows and shifts, so does discussion, and that can make it seem like these issues came out of nowhere.

But a lot of these issues aren’t new. I’ve seen a lot of arguing in my time in the fandom. And some of it has been pointless, but some has been holding creators and people accountable. Ignoring issues like racism, the lack of epilepsy warnings, the animators getting stiffed, etc? It just allows people to continue hurting others without any repercussions.

Fandoms will always squabble, and fandoms will always be flawed. Creators will be flawed. It’s impossible to find a piece of media, or a person, completely incapable of being criticized. So criticism continues to happen–and it’s an important part of improving ourselves and others.

Yes, there’s often something controversial every month. Because these things have root issues! They’re steeped in ableism, racism, transphobia, and purity culture. They aren’t the type of issues you can get a one-stop fix for. And by dealing with each issue as it comes, we continue to examine what’s at the root.

These issues aren’t isolated. They aren’t individual things we get angry about for fun. They’re symptoms of larger, systemic issues that we work to dismantle. Through holding creators accountable, we hold ourselves accountable, and examine the biases that we are all given by society. And this will happen in any fandom, any community, and any place.

I don’t blame anyone for being a bit burnt out by all the discussions, and if you’d like, you can block the #ts criticism tag. But know that this isn’t at all a new thing. Debate, discussion, and criticism is an important part of any community. It can’t be a safe space if it’s not safe for anyone to speak their mind, even if they don’t phrase it very politely.

I think it’s a good thing that discussion is happening, and that people get support, and people are protected from being hurt. I see change in this fandom every day and it makes me smile. And I also see how far we have to go–because again, there’s not an easy fix for most of this stuff. It’s an endless journey of improvement.

Arguing can be tough. I get it. But if this fandom had no arguments, I’d see more of a problem.

People disagree. People are hurt. People criticize. I’d much rather have a place where those people can raise their concerns, than an isolated bubble where nobody is allowed to speak. A safe space with no safety for discussion isn’t safe at all. It’s just silent.

TLDR: Why does the fandom argue so much? Because we have things to argue about. And because nobody should ever be silenced.

This fandom has a maaassive problem with toxic positivity and hero worship. Being vocally critical of Thomas will get you an inbox fill of everything from demands that you leave the fandom to being told you’re an awful person who needs to die

A lot of people didn’t feel safe to say anything at all until the unpopular opinion blogs started coming out, a look through any of their pages will show you how this fandom handles people doing anything short of kissing the ground Thomas walks on

Every time you bring up Ableism it’s “How dare you! Thomas is the most inclusive creator ever! He would never do anything ableist! You’re the ableist one because he’s probably adhd!”

Every time you bring up Racism it’s “Stop being so nitpicky! You just hate Thomas and want to start drama! He could never be racist, he’s friends with Leo and Gavin!”

Every time you bring up Storytime Madlibs it’s “It’s their fault for being exploited, they signed the contract! So what if they’re all really young inexperienced artists who were overworked, misdirected, and not even credited right? Besides, Thomas’ company is really small, you can’t expect them to fairly pay the people they hire! What, you think Thomas should go broke trying to actually pay the people he chose to hire? He has no money! ”

(Which is ironic bc the same crowd will say you want Thomas to starve if you criticize the patreon, so I guess artists only deserve to be paid for their work if it’s Thomas)

Honestly the worst thing that’s happened to this fandom is its reputation as a “nice” fandom. You see it less now, but the reason to things were so “nice” back then is because we Ba Sing Se’d everything. “There’s no fighting here! We’re the nice ones, so stop voicing your opinion if it isn’t nice, okay?”

And everything that’s happened over the years has been building up and building up and building up and it’s coming to a head because we just can’t take anymore, especially since episodes are extremely few and far between so that already makes things tense and all we can do is stew in our thoughts

Half the fandom switched to dream smp because there’s no content. A lot of us are still here because it’s a hyperfixation/special interest we can’t shake and we’re only invested in one character arc that’s been teased for years but never explored

See it’s the th-

wait a minute