Syobon wrote:
I don't go to Tumblr myself, but I imagine that like any website there are good parts and bad parts, and it's unfortunately the vocal and abrasive minority that receives the most attention.
Kind of, but tumblr also is kind of a mixed bag of insular communities that keep to themselves (and can sometimes be dangerous or downright cultlike, basically the reddit problem) while also having an easy avenue for people to find things to hunt. All it takes is someone going through a blog, finding something they don't like, and then tagging it with something like "problematic" to signal boost it to the right people. Then everyone else who searches those tags/follow blogs that collect and comment on "problematic posts and users" find someone to unload some "knowledge" on.
It's basically the equivalent of a 4chan raid only it doesn't seem to run out of steam and enthusiasm because the target is always moving.
There are plenty of good people on tumblr, but honestly, they're quickly being run out either because of bullying or fear of bullying. All of my friends left tumblr about a year ago when the writing on the walls was really starting to become evident. It's becoming harder and harder to shut these people out without just abandoning the site itself.
And that doesn't even get into the amount of tumblr users and blogs dedicated to documenting and hating on people in other social media like twitter and sometimes facebook. Even being entirely removed from the site doesn't mean you're safe from the bad parts of it.
AquaBat wrote:
This is why I hate this PC trigger-warning don't-hurt-my-fee-fees-please movement that's spreading right now. Artists, designers, writers, and all creators in general should be able to create whatever the hell they want whenever the hell they want without fear of some dumbass screaming "PROBLEMATIC!" all the time. Those people treat these artists so much worse than what the things they create could ever do to anyone.
The problem isn't PC or social activism. It's assholes co-opting the ideals and movements to be bullies because it's the only way bullying isn't "reprehensible" on the internet, or because they believe their offense to a matter is more important than it is to other people. Tumblr has a bad habit of speaking out for marginalized groups that do not want them to speak for them, and very few of the individuals involved in these crusades tend to actually be a part of the slighted minority in question. Most usually have some reason to claim slight and solidarity such as gender, sexuality, race, mental disorders, etc. but the majority are generally not offended because it applies to them and how people view them.
Besides which, on a lot of matters, people disregard actual feelings of people in the slighted minority because they go against the grain of the movement. If a trans* person speaks out against hate against something that's trans*phobic they're either misinformed of the true dangers of it or are a part of the problem the group is trying to rectify. Take, for instance, about 5 years ago with the "
Ground Zero Mosque". Many
family members of the victims of 9/11 spoke in favor of building the mosque as a means of healing the divide between Islam and America.
This is why it's hard to say that you are fighting on behalf of a group when the group themselves may not even be of the same mind on an issue. In part your actions are going to go against the wishes of people in the group, and you have to justify the reason you are going against them is because of YOUR own bias and ideology telling you that doing so is right. Not because those people are liars or traitors or deluded into drinking the heteronormative white male kool-aid.
It's the people that are the problem, not the ideas.
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