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No they’re not.
If you ever try to criticize me for advocating for myself, whether it be through feminism or something else, I’ll make you pay.
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If you have ever been to the hate-group known as DeviantArt, you’ll know what I am about to get into.
I am an autistic asexual, and I am full of ideas. I dream everyday and night of worlds where nothing exists and yet everything exists. I dream of worlds that defy logic and characters that follow their own reasoning. For example, what if there was a world out there that was basically a living videogame? What if this world was in a perpetual creative flux where, say, a person could become whomever they wish with but a thought?
Apparently, though, the world that us homosapiens inhabit does not waste time with dreamers for a second.
If you are looking for a place to share your creative spirit, do not go to DeviantArt. The “artists” that make up this horrid place dedicate themselves to nothing else except spreading hate. They will not just hate what you create, but they will also hate who you are. They will do whatever is humanly possible to destroy your character and your life. I should know because I regrettably used to be one of their kind. When I first arrived to that place in 2006, I was immediately exposed to nothing but drama. Somebody said this, some people did this, and yadda yadda. To make a long story short, someone viciously wronged me once and I would make fake account after fake account just to get back at her. The anger and negativity of DeviantArt is so infectious that one can easily be transformed into something that they were never meant to be.
I digress, however.
There are hate stamps, hate stamps everywhere not just of what you love about others, but also about what you love about yourself. Are you overweight and satisfied? Are you of a different minority relating to skin color or sexual or gender identity, and concerned with another’s well-being? Are you a female or perhaps on the autism spectrum who feels that you are being misrepresented? If you are any or all of these, then the point will be made that you are not welcome. Your all-around existence is practically invalid because you either are annoying or you’re disturbing the peace. Don’t even think about defending yourself lest you want to be labeled “butthurt.”
The people on DeviantArt are not there to help you get better, but to help you conform. They won’t say what you need to improve on, but they will tell you to give up. I have met all kinds of “unique” individuals on DeviantArt that are so extreme that I tend to wonder about their mental state. I have met people who say that they enjoy making others feel worse about themselves. I have met people who say that they enjoy pessimism and negativity so much and want to take everyone down with them. What’s worse, they have the most twisted sense of entitlement as if they are allowed to hurt others. I remember once someone calling me a bully and a hypocrite when I got angry at her for telling me that I was going to hell for being who I am. The moderators did nothing to stop it, they even enabled it by saying it’s a sincerely held belief. Well, guess what, you filthy ingrates, I don’t believe I am going to hell, so where is my goddamn care and sympathy?
4 comments
“I know you are, but what am I? Nah nah nah nah.”
~ How I respond when that happens.
Step one, proclaim it a deeply held belief that they are whatever they say you are. Step two, start a cult.
I mean at the end of the day the law is the law. As long as people are legally allowed to do something, they’re allowed to do it.
Morally speaking you can say whatever you like, and if your morals go against social norms, you can be a misanthrope and live away from society. But people have always done whatever they’ve wanted, and that’s really all there is to say.
Do I look like the kind of person who gives a shit about what’s “legal?”
You’re entitled to advocate for yourself and your values. Others are entitled to do likewise. You’re entitled to criticize them, and they’re entitled to respond. This can lead to anger, hurt, and pain on all sides. Everyone is free to disengage, but no one ever wants to back down.
Ultimately, someone has to take the imaginative leap of trying to understand what the world looks like from the other’s perspective, and why they behave as they do. This can make it easier to let go of hatred, and focus your energy on productive responses. Unless what you want is to feel righteously angry, and focus all your frustrations on a specific target.