I plan on posting a lot of botanical illustrations tbh

[rynling]

I have many fears right now. This is not at the top of the pile, but it’s what I can handle this morning.

One of my many concerns about another Trump presidency is that discourse between leftists is once again going to get just as nasty as the discourse of white supremacists. In other words, I'm afraid that progressives are going to start attacking each other just like they did back around 2016-2021.

Let me give an example of what this looks like from my own life. I published a book right before the pandemic and was then denied tenure the day after a state of emergency was declared. It was intense, and I was depressed. A group of students at Temple asked me to come to their campus and give a talk about my book. I apologized and turned them down, saying that it was a pandemic and I wasn't doing okay. I was honest and admitted that I could barely put on pants in the morning. The way they responded was to get on Twitter and say, among other things, “this is the sort of autistic freakshow they let teach at Penn.” It’s wild that a bunch of gay people in the Disability Studies program would feel comfortable saying that sort of thing in public about another gay person who just outed themselves as disabled, but that really was the tenor of the discourse at the time.

The only way to respond to that sort of combative atmosphere, unfortunately, is to become the most obnoxiously online and morally pure person who ever was. It’s not enough to be informed about political issues and write political essays in your field; you also have to be keyed into online discourse and constantly post the up-to-date “correct” opinions about it, which is exhausting - especially if, indeed, you’re the sort of sensitive person who might qualify as “a freakshow.”

I hope that doesn’t happen this time around. Everything about this is devastating, and real people are going to be in real danger. I hope we can at least be kind to one another.

Comments

[scrawnytreedemon]

Very well put. When the powers that be are out of reach, leftists usually devolve into eating each other. It never really stopped, but I had hoped that Kamala being in office might make it a bit better. I wish the people in these spaces had more self-awareness as to how their toxic attitude is ruining their cause. They expect to be taken seriously while doing very little to behave in a manner befitting that.

Also, that nonsense with the students is disgusting. The ableism is astounding. God forbid you take measures to be responsible in a pandemic.

I don't know how anyone is meant to keep up to these standards. Like you say, it's especially difficult when you are neurodivergent, when you are disabled, when this nasty attitude hits that much harder.

If it does change, I will be pleasantly surprised. But as of now, my capacity to hope is running low. Seriously, best of luck over there.

[rynling]

Thank you for this comment. It's a relief to know I'm not the only one who has seen this, and that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I get the feeling that the social justice philosophy of "clean your own house first" has been interpreted in bad faith in the online spaces where it's frequently used. There are many ways to interpret what this expression means, but I sincerely doubt that one of them is "send death threats to fanfic writers because they like the wrong video game character."

My own experience of bullying is that it's not so much the one bad seed that's the problem, but rather the broader community that supports and encourages the behavior. I'd love to see a reduction in the thirst for blood exhibited by many online communities... but yeah. We'll see, I guess.

[lassarina]

.....Jesus Christ why are people LIKE THIS.

At least in my friend circles, I'm seeing people specifically say that in 2016 they freaked out, isolated, grew very mean, and shoved everyone away, and they are very specifically working against this tendency now. I hope that's true beyond my circles.

It literally costs fucking nothing to be kind.

[rynling]

That's lovely and healing to hear. I hope so too.

I think part of the problem, in online circles as well as real-life communities, is that many "normal" people will often tolerate and thus implicitly encourage bad behavior. Just this morning I had someone reblog one of my old posts on Tumblr with an unhinged rant filled with all-caps encouragement for me to kill myself. When I went to their blog to block and report them, just a cursory 15-second scroll showed me that it was filled with grateful and supportive asks from their followers. Even if this sort of attack weren't directed against me, I'd like to think that I'd immediately unfollow someone who posted something so creepy and hateful even once. But I guess people enjoy it.

(And honestly, I'm starting to think that the antifandom movement is like QAnon for the left wing. Regardless of political affiliation, the appeal of the Roman Colosseum is universal.)

I just hope that a greater number of level-headed people have the good sense to mute and block that sort of thing in the future. I tend to think that anger is an important but finite resource, and it's a shame to waste it on stupid internet bullshit.

[lassarina]

I have a friend who is fond of saying that tolerance is a social contract, not a virtue. If someone violates it, you are not obligated to continue to tolerate them. I think of that a lot.