Plasma Ring

@ring

nearly-stable torus, self-similar

solid he, nebulous they

I'm Ring ᐠ( ᐛ )ᐟ I strive to be your web sight's reliable provider of big scruffy guys getting bullied by ≥7-foot tall monster femboys

You will never guess where to find my art account! Hahahaha! My security is impenetrable! (it's @PlasmaRing)

Plasma Ring @ring7/3/2023, 5:45 AM

Also I see people trying to point out, "Fiction exists so we can explore things we wouldn't want to do in real life safely" but that doesn't work for people who are terrified of the moral impact of fiction because just the idea that you'd want to dwell on that or explore it in any capacity makes you dangerous.

I think most of them understand the value of catharsis or defanging something that scares you, because their tastes in fiction very often demonstrate that, but a lot of them just...believe they're bad and fucked up for doing it and hide it. I worry!! I worry there are kids who are going to be 25+ before they begin to slowly untangle the fact that liking trashy BL or fanfic of their favorite shounen powerlevels anime or stories where bad things happen to good people doesn't make them secretly evil.

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Solistor @sunlightFrequency7/3/2023, 4:51 PM

I feel like a lot of this also has to do with fear of being judged in our modern always-online society. On Other Social Media Site, you can barely go three posts deep without tripping over a bunch of people harassing everyone else for minding their own business when it comes to so-called "problematic content", and it makes it hard to feel safe in your own skin when your harmless opinions could make you into the Main Character of the Week and get barraged by so much hate just because someone relatively popular decided that you have the wrong tastes and needed to turn you into a moral statement.

I think a lot of folks see that happening and are internally judging themselves for it, because they don't want to be the next person to get harassed and called a bad person just because they happen to enjoy different fiction than the rest. It's the whole social chameleon thing - you learn to fake stuff and put on masks just to exist safely in society, or amongst a group of people you want to be part of. It takes just as much growing up as it does learning to not care what other people think and say about you to reach that point where you're comfortable saying "yeah, I like that kind of fiction," and not everybody reaches that point.

Plasma Ring @ring7/4/2023, 3:26 AM

yEAH absolutely, I see this so much with people who will be like "oh my GOD someone SHIPS this??? How??????? I simply CANNOT conceive of this, it would NEVER cross my mind to be so depraved and I need BLEACH for my EYES now" and it's something like Naruto porn that everyone who has been on the internet for more than five minutes knows exists. I always feel awful when I see that because I suspect most of the people involved in that know it's an exercise in proving you're willing to pick up a rock, even if you're not necessarily one of the ones actively throwing them.

Solistor @sunlightFrequency7/4/2023, 5:32 AM

What's sad is I feel like at least some of it is just fronting for the sake of keeping people off their backs, rather than genuine passionate disgust or hatred. Like "haha yeah fuck those guys please don't start attacking me too" and it just contributes to that Being Online anxiety. Like, if people didn't get sucked into communities where hating on people was the primary character trait, I feel like more folks would be comfortable being true to themselves and enjoying the media they want to enjoy.

Plasma Ring @ring7/4/2023, 6:33 AM

Yep. I know some people who have gotten clear of it, and they just feel so much better for not being involved. even setting the problematic fiction thing aside, it's just miserable being in groups where the main thing people are bonding over is being mad about something and no one wants to make anything for fear of getting criticized. It reminds me pretty much 1:1 of the early 00s roleplaying communities where everyone was whining about how horrible Mary Sue characters were while being terrified to actually roleplay because they knew they were only on the Good Side of it as long as they never exposed their own writing to criticism.

Solistor @sunlightFrequency7/4/2023, 6:57 AM

GOD you're so right about the RP community parallels. I'm glad I started in a community where nobody really seemed to give a shit about what kind of character you made as long as they were entertaining, but I've definitely seen and felt that in some other places I've gone to. Just goes to show that brand of elitism isn't only restricted to one corner of the internet.