zestinpeace

Another animal on the computer

  • he/him

Call me Zest. :3 Internet furry, fan of art, computers, and overthinking. Sydney, Australia. Born '98.


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i'm also in a weird position where i broadly agree with the more popular position on cohost re: moderation and "problematic" content; i.e. i agree that self-proclaimed progressives who rail against it are wrong, and the "think of the children" defence is seriously wrongheaded). but i don't feel the same Spirit. i don't really agree with how gung-ho and supposedly all-embracing a lot of people on here are about that position. the whole point of kinks and perversions is that they will truly offend or reflexively gross out not only a majority of "normal people", but a large swath of the people you otherwise share a mutual understanding with. i mean, i've always been mutuals with friends who have kinks that i can't even stand to look at. obviously, the right thing is to be mature enough to realise somebody's weird fetishes aren't a reflection of their inherent character or personal value, and that's a skill that a twitter teen who debates ethical shipping will never understand. but to see a post going around like "woooowww those twitter puritans bullied the cartoon snuff fetishist people keep inadvertently retweeting, can you believe these puriteens?" as if it's an embarrassingly puritanical witch-hunt is silly to me. like...of course they did? yes i think everyone deserves a place to be their weird, deeply personal self, and that the internet should be a place for that. but not every place on the internet will be like that, because even if you strip away all the politicised and immature toxicity in the world, people are still going to be people. am i going to carry a banner for every incest shipper who has ever been made fun of? i can argue for their right to post in peace, but it's my god given right to see their strangest posts and say "ew" to myself. to claim to be a fountain of love, understanding and appreciation for every fetish on earth just feels personally dishonest. i feel no pride in that. it all feels very AO3 to me, which is obviously an emotional rather than rational reaction and therefore not strong enough to make me fundamentally disagree with it. but it does feel like it's missing the point, and that makes me feel alienated. i feel like we focused so exclusively on killing cringe that we denied ourselves permission to admit that someone is being cringe. and there's an extent to which that feeling, and the mutual trust needed to express it, is essential to a healthy friendship or community. sometimes telling someone they're cringe is the right thing to do. but the cringe-inducer has the right to decide what to do with that information.


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in reply to @zestinpeace's post:

i dont think that this neccesarily contradicts what the community beliefs, i think its fine to be repulsed by things just as long as you dont conflate your repulsion of media and art with morality. ive said ew to many things ive seen on here, if its a really bad reaction, muted the person, and moved on. i think thats fine and i would assume most people are like that