( No Title )
See, here’s the thing.
➡️ When you have a community term that your community originally defined as “supporter of freedom of expression in fiction and artwork”–
➡️ but your enemies insist means “active child abuser”–
➡️ and the term is vague enough bystanders outside the argument don’t actually know which is correct and assume that your enemy is being truthful–
➡️ you might as well drop the term and adopt clearer language.
YES. It’s unfair to have to stop using a word because someone else changed the meaning.
YES. Having a snappy word to define your community makes it easier to find one another and congregate.
But it also makes it easier for you enemies to decide how you’re perceived by the public.
If you actually explain your stance on a subject without relying on a snappy buzzword that the public doesn’t know the meaning of, then your enemies **actually have to go into detail about what they’re accusing you of and why**.
They can’t just say “they’re an X” and people who don’t understand know it’s true because it’s all over your blog. They have to say “you’re an abuser” and then they have to actually dig up some proof of it.
And sure, people who already side with them might decide that whatever “proof” they have of their accusations is good enough to burn the witch over, but the actual common bystanders who don’t know what’s going on won’t be fooled.
They’ll see whatever the accusation is and go “that’s absurd, why are you treating this perfectly normal fiction like it’s some kind of crime” and move on.
So then how do we form this? What’s the word? (non aggressive, curious, I don’t know the answer to this, I am actively looking for solutions as well but not even sure how to go about wrangling together enough people to get people on the same page about this.)
How do we get enough people who are pro-fiction / pro-ship to get together and find a new word or a new phrase or a new way of expressing what the stance ACTUALLY is not what the enemy has decided it is?
Here’s the thing.
We don’t actually NEED to assemble a tight knit group of people who are very passionate about freedom of expression in fiction.
MOST PEOPLE– at least 66% of tumblr, specifically– according that one recent AITA post– believe that writing whatever you want is okay.
We just need to AVOID the antis. And they’re easy to avoid because they loudly and insistently declare themselves. And then you can block them. 🤷
If you really want to assemble a group of people who are very passionately in favor of freedom of expression in fiction, that group can consider itself free to use and follow the tag that I’ve been using “freedom of expression”.
Or you can keep using that other word. It’s no skin off my back, and I’m not in a position of authority for telling people they have to stop.
But at this point, it’s like calling yourself a satanist. Yes, it’s fun, and edgy, and you’ll meet other satanists, but anyone who wants to villainize you just has to point and say “look, a satanist!”
Again, there’s no *need* for a community word for true believers– you just need to avoid the minority of people who want to throw rocks at you.
Discussion ¬