This is officially the best response and a big ass mood right there
Friends, I still have nightmares over the KatAang vs Zutara wars in 2008 during the last season. I physically felt sick some days over shit that was posted in the various Livejournal groups bc friends of mine (on both sides) were being bullied, threatened and their personal information exposed. A girl I was mentoring, who was 15, had her inbox spammed by KatAang folk sending obscene pictures bc she said she understood why folk wanted Zutara after episode “The Southern Raiders”.
It was horrific and awful and sent so many folk into mental tailspins that made them abandon the fandom for years.
I’ve been a member of various fandoms for a loooooong time, and while my experiences overall have been pretty positive, some of the stuff I’ve seen (and sadly experienced first hand) on Tumblr is mind boggling.
Cultivate your own fandom experience.
If you don’t like something, don’t read it (or otherwise engage with it).
But mostly, shut up and let people enjoy things. For example, I don’t Star Wars, but the amount of unpleasant shit I’ve seen about some ship from the new films on my dash is absolutely appalling. Seriously. Stop going and looking for trouble. Stop trying to start shit.
There’s a time and a place to have meaningful discussions about characters, ships, headcanons, etc. - and those can be some of the most stimulating interactions you can have with other fans. Even when you disagree! It’s totally okay to have different opinions, just be respectful about it… And if you can’t be respectful, then don’t say anything at all.
The Cancel Culture and Purity Police on this website have seriously caused so many good people to disengage from being active in the fandom, creating content, and leaving feedback for fear of being targeted. Fandom is supposed to be fun.
Bullying, harassing, and threatening people is never okay, and it causes real, lasting damage. So, the next time you’re about to make a call-out post or send a nasty anon or bandwagon on someone who’s being targeted, don’t. Learn to think for yourself. Be kind. Have compassion. You never know what other people are going through, and it’s not the place of a stranger on the internet to dictate how others engage with media.
