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ladyofleithian...but I figured that I might as well explain more about the “Enough” spork being postponed.
So the TL;DR version is that on the Reylo Fic Recs Facebook group, someone (God help me if I find out who) posted a fic request for a concentration camp AU with Ben/Kylo as a prison guard and Rey as a prisoner. Jewish members of the fandom were pretty understandably triggered, but there were people who decided that it was the writers and readers of fics like this who were somehow being oppressed in fandom, including a guy I blocked on Discord for, among other things, saying that Earth should be wiped out just because some people didn’t ship Reylo.
This is going to be important later.
Now, this guy, who I’m going to be calling Pissbaby McFucknut to protect his identity, was always kind of a guy who had a really Ahab-esque grudge against the cancel culture boogeyman, bringing it up even in discussions that didn’t involve him and acting like even someone so much as saying “hey, this is really triggering” made them a monster. (He also tried to turn two Discord servers I was in against me after I blocked him, but that’s not really relevant to the story) I thought that outside of the Discord server I found him in, he was a nice person. I was wrong. Because he basically did a lot of other awful stuff (including opening up a writer who’d been sent rape and death threats for their political views to revictimization just because he thought they were a white woman trying to silence POC without any proof), but the first thing I noticed was him taking a poem about the Holocaust and repurposing it to whine about Jewish people being triggered by Holocaust fic. (He threw a tantrum over the idea of people calling him anti-semitic, but what else do you call someone who treats Jewish writers like shit?)
The writer I sporked called it out, and the guy’s friend (who long ago, I’d had good interactions with) started gaslighting this writer, even though the writer was nothing but kind and courteous, even expressing sympathy for the guy’s suicide attempt (and I will say any suicide is tragic. Really), and generally discounting her feelings even though the writer is not only Jewish, but had a grandfather who nearly died in a Nazi death camp. And these fucking wastes of skin were telling her, basically, “lol fuck it we don’t care about your trauma. My feelings are more important than your feelings!”
Even when Pissbaby was being called out for misusing a Holocaust quote, he was more concerned about losing followers — which he somehow equated to bullying. I swear people like him give Millennials a bad name — as opposed to, y’know, the idea that he hurt someone. It would have been simple to patch up the whole situation with “I’m sorry I misused a Holocaust quote; I’m aware now that it was insensitive and distasteful”, but he didn’t, because we live in an age where somehow apologies are a sign of weakness/being a bad person. (Then again, Pissbaby’s self-centered in general. I remember actually witnessing him ranting about how he hoped a former friend of his killed themselves. I mean, whatever happened, suicide baiting someone is never acceptable)
I don’t know if that’s why the author put her fics on Private, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Honestly, for all I ripped into “Enough” (and it’s sad that until this incident, I didn’t know the author was Jewish, it really is), she didn’t deserve any of this. I wish this hadn’t happened — and no, it’s not because “oh woe is me, my spork isn’t completed yet”, but because it’s deplorable.
Everyone deserves to feel safe in fandom, and everyone deserves to be heard. I don’t know why in this day and age saying “I don’t like Nazi porn” is controversial, and calling out someone for being insensitive (to say the least) to Jewish people is controversial/a sign you’re an irredeemably terrible person — and maybe that’s what hurts the most about this incident, because we live in 2021, where people separate a “good POC” and a “bad POC” into “how much will you just allow yourself and others to be treated like shit by assholes trying to be ‘edgy’”, and the fact that other people were willing to act like genocide didn’t matter is genuinely disgusting. It’s up there with people who say “the Holocaust didn’t really happen”.
And it doesn’t really affect me, except for the fact I sporked this author, that in the most tangential way possible, I was close to this incident. And it once again makes me wonder about humanity, and why people get to this point.
I guess I just don’t understand.
But yeah, that’s why I’ve postponed the “Enough” sporking, for the time being. That and trying to find it on the Wayback Machine thus far has been a bitch. I thought people deserved an explanation, at least.
Thoughts?
So the TL;DR version is that on the Reylo Fic Recs Facebook group, someone (God help me if I find out who) posted a fic request for a concentration camp AU with Ben/Kylo as a prison guard and Rey as a prisoner. Jewish members of the fandom were pretty understandably triggered, but there were people who decided that it was the writers and readers of fics like this who were somehow being oppressed in fandom, including a guy I blocked on Discord for, among other things, saying that Earth should be wiped out just because some people didn’t ship Reylo.
This is going to be important later.
Now, this guy, who I’m going to be calling Pissbaby McFucknut to protect his identity, was always kind of a guy who had a really Ahab-esque grudge against the cancel culture boogeyman, bringing it up even in discussions that didn’t involve him and acting like even someone so much as saying “hey, this is really triggering” made them a monster. (He also tried to turn two Discord servers I was in against me after I blocked him, but that’s not really relevant to the story) I thought that outside of the Discord server I found him in, he was a nice person. I was wrong. Because he basically did a lot of other awful stuff (including opening up a writer who’d been sent rape and death threats for their political views to revictimization just because he thought they were a white woman trying to silence POC without any proof), but the first thing I noticed was him taking a poem about the Holocaust and repurposing it to whine about Jewish people being triggered by Holocaust fic. (He threw a tantrum over the idea of people calling him anti-semitic, but what else do you call someone who treats Jewish writers like shit?)
The writer I sporked called it out, and the guy’s friend (who long ago, I’d had good interactions with) started gaslighting this writer, even though the writer was nothing but kind and courteous, even expressing sympathy for the guy’s suicide attempt (and I will say any suicide is tragic. Really), and generally discounting her feelings even though the writer is not only Jewish, but had a grandfather who nearly died in a Nazi death camp. And these fucking wastes of skin were telling her, basically, “lol fuck it we don’t care about your trauma. My feelings are more important than your feelings!”
Even when Pissbaby was being called out for misusing a Holocaust quote, he was more concerned about losing followers — which he somehow equated to bullying. I swear people like him give Millennials a bad name — as opposed to, y’know, the idea that he hurt someone. It would have been simple to patch up the whole situation with “I’m sorry I misused a Holocaust quote; I’m aware now that it was insensitive and distasteful”, but he didn’t, because we live in an age where somehow apologies are a sign of weakness/being a bad person. (Then again, Pissbaby’s self-centered in general. I remember actually witnessing him ranting about how he hoped a former friend of his killed themselves. I mean, whatever happened, suicide baiting someone is never acceptable)
I don’t know if that’s why the author put her fics on Private, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Honestly, for all I ripped into “Enough” (and it’s sad that until this incident, I didn’t know the author was Jewish, it really is), she didn’t deserve any of this. I wish this hadn’t happened — and no, it’s not because “oh woe is me, my spork isn’t completed yet”, but because it’s deplorable.
Everyone deserves to feel safe in fandom, and everyone deserves to be heard. I don’t know why in this day and age saying “I don’t like Nazi porn” is controversial, and calling out someone for being insensitive (to say the least) to Jewish people is controversial/a sign you’re an irredeemably terrible person — and maybe that’s what hurts the most about this incident, because we live in 2021, where people separate a “good POC” and a “bad POC” into “how much will you just allow yourself and others to be treated like shit by assholes trying to be ‘edgy’”, and the fact that other people were willing to act like genocide didn’t matter is genuinely disgusting. It’s up there with people who say “the Holocaust didn’t really happen”.
And it doesn’t really affect me, except for the fact I sporked this author, that in the most tangential way possible, I was close to this incident. And it once again makes me wonder about humanity, and why people get to this point.
I guess I just don’t understand.
But yeah, that’s why I’ve postponed the “Enough” sporking, for the time being. That and trying to find it on the Wayback Machine thus far has been a bitch. I thought people deserved an explanation, at least.
Thoughts?
no subject
Date: 2021-05-18 10:21 pm (UTC)In any case, this guy is terrifying (and a prime example of why the anti-SJW movement is toxic as fuck - not saying people who go overboard with activism don't exist, but anti-SJW's have become far, far more toxic, not to mention that people now use the term "SJW" to hide behind so they can be racist/sexist/homophobic in peace). I'd say he needs serious help, but in order to change, you have to REALIZE that you need to change.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-18 10:44 pm (UTC)Yeah, he is terrifying, he really is. He claims to be in therapy now; I really, really pity the therapist who’s got him. (I’m not even saying that to be snarky; from the bottom of my heart, I feel sorry for that therapist) And you nailed the problems with the anti-SJW movement; they seem to have this sort of Wonderland logic where it seems like anyone who speaks up against oppression is somehow a monster.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 01:23 am (UTC)Anti-SJW's have basically gotten to the point where if you say ANYTHING about racism/sexism/homophobia, you must be an SJW.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 01:41 am (UTC)And yeah. It’s really depressing. I mean, yeah, some people go too far, but that’s because they’re assholes, not because they’re progressive. There’s people who’ll latch onto any movement for their own ulterior motives; that doesn’t mean that fighting isms and phobics is automatically bad. It just depends on how you do it.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 12:06 am (UTC)But I think it was good that you wrote this. I think that even if the point you're making here will be lost on the more...asshole-ish members of the populace, it's still good that you're making it. I hope that people see this, not because it reminds them that awful human beings exist, but because it reminds them that not everyone is an awful human being. For me, and I expect for a lot of people, just knowing that there are good people out there to balance out the bad ones is a huge relief. There are people like you, and Esme, and even, from what I can see, the woman who wrote "Enough." Even if she wrote an awful story, she still seems to have a sense of decency, and really, a person doesn't need to do right in everything they do to be a good person. They just need to do right when it counts.
Aside from that, while I imagine I don't have as much firsthand experience with these "anti-SJW" types as you have, they are still infuriating, and I have seen them in some bizarre places. Discord seems to be one of the worst places, at least on certain servers. I once saw a veritable horde of them on a My Little Pony server. A FRICKING MY LITTLE PONY SERVER. Needless to say, when I tried calling them out on their shit, they banned me. Anyway, hope you can find some less draining subjects to write about going forward.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 01:36 am (UTC)And yes, Esme’s amazing. And the woman who wrote “Enough” — she definitely proved herself when she made that stand. (I just wish she hadn’t had to be reminded of what her grandfather went through. She deserved more than the treatment she got) And thanks! I try to be a good person, at least.
Yeah, the thing about the author is that a few of her stories weren’t my cuppa, but there was one story that actually treated the subject of vaginismus very sensitively that I actually liked. And I had a feeling (not that it really means that it wasn’t upsetting to read) that the fic was kind of written without really thinking about the implications. Sort of like the author wanted Rey and Kylo to get together and live happily ever after and iron out the galaxy’s issues, but really didn’t think about the implications of what she was writing. I definitely had instances when I was a young writer starting out when I didn’t think of how things came off. And I think the problem with some less-than-stellar fics is that their authors don’t really think things through. Most people don’t want to write a bad story unless they think it’s funny.
/armchair psychology
and really, a person doesn't need to do right in everything they do to be a good person. They just need to do right when it counts.
Well-said! I think you’re very right. (And for the record, juniper, I think you’re a good person too. :)
And ugh, that really sucks about the MLP server. It really does. You shouldn’t have been banned just because you tried to stand up to them.
God, I hope I can find less draining subjects going forward too. Maybe I can give myself a break and find some unintentionally hilarious fics instead.