I am not going to lie to you with every single round of this discourse I am less and less inclined to fight the good fight akjndkjawd it is just so repackaged every time. there is so much blatant and intentional ignorance. people coming into our space and morally grandstanding about things they actually don't know a single thing about but also refuse to actually educate themselves and engage in good faith conversations. at the end of the day it's never going to matter what we say, their minds will never be changed, and the best we can do is support each other in doing whatever the fuck we want to do anyways.

because it's genuinely infuriating to witness this level of misunderstanding and being completely oblivious to all the reasons why their points don't hold up!!!! or how it absolutely directly relates to other things THEY love and enjoy being condemned. like oh my fucking god you're exactly right!!!!! the same line of thinking goes along with queer media being censored and they are using the SAAAME talking points as conservative homophobes trying to shove all queer people back into the closet for good.

and im sorry but at this point I'm just using your message to rant but like…I genuinely so badly need these people to delete the twitter app and go immerse themselves in the real world and other media. MAINSTREAM media. popular media!!!!!!!! media that has been around for decades. I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality when I open twitter and I see these people so passionate about something that actually people off of twitter and away from fandom spaces would probably not think twice about. and if they do, they're usually at least like??? not fucking aggressive about it. most people genuinely do not care. something about being on twitter has rotted peoples ability to think for themselves and approach perfectly common topics in a normal way. like it is literally not a fanfiction thing. are they not understanding how many fanfic writers based their fic interests and the things they read/write off of OTHER popular media tropes that they enjoy? I do, anyways. I like the things I like because of the shows I watched manyyyy years ago (pretty little liars being a big reason for my student/teacher interest). anime that I've watched in the past AND present. a long fucking laundry list of BL mangas/manhwas that I have paid money for and read that have LITERALLY introduced me to these concepts. its beyond frustrating when you have yearssss under your belt of just casually consuming popular media and then when you dare to be consistent in the interests you've always had people are literally enraged about it kawnkjdwn

like at a point are they also just boycotting mainstream media? they're gonna have to boycott crunchyroll because I accidentally stumbled on graphic sex scenes between high schoolers by watching the BL they were advertising on their front page! they're going to have to boycott Netflix for hosting pretty little liars, a show that introduced me to romanticized student/teacher relationships between a high schooler and an adult! (as well as all the streaming services that NOW host it lol) they're DEFINITELY going to have to boycott pretty much every single major manga/manhwa publisher for the LIST of "problematic tropes" that they're introducing to an entire community of consumers to!!!!!!! and I have not even began to discuss the concept of horror fiction and true crime and that rabbit hole we could go down.

genuinely it is absurd when you actually sit down and consider it. which is why at a certain point I have to sit down and remind myself that we are living in this stupid fucking twitter bubble that is absolutely not representative of the real world. and when we step outside of it, yes there is still this looming imminent threat of censorship (which is easy to spiral over when you see just as bad it's getting) but at least we can find some comfort in knowing that real life and the state of media is nowhere near what is happening on twitter and in these fandom spaces where people speak with zero knowledge or experience and are only speaking emotionally or with every single bit of their opinion being formed based on other people's misinformed think pieces on twitter about the topic.

it scares me how conservative and puritanical fandom spaces are becoming. me personally I often just feel stuck and part of the problem when I see it and don't say something. but saying something just riles them up. and I often wonder if saying something only further solidifies their hateful opinions because they become defensive and stubborn. this is something I'd be interested in hearing others' opinions on. I always think it's important to speak up about things because it makes people feel seen and safe and less ashamed of their interests and beliefs. that's what people seek community for, after all. and I think it is SO SO SO important because it may be the only place they get that type of validation. I know just how important that validation is, too. but where does the line have to be drawn? at what point is the discourse no longer effective for either "side"?

idk kjanwkdjnw I'm annoyed and frustrated. anyways, yes, thank you for sending me a message and enabling my ranting LOL I was honestly already sitting here annoyed so it's nice to just say what's on my mind lol I was contemplating just sharing a bunch of resources or talking about media other than Kpop that I enjoy just to indulge a bit and remind people that there are other things out there but I came here first.

like I also just think it's important to remember that even if people are on their twitter account where they mostly talk about Kpop they did likely HAVE OTHER HOBBIES AND INTERESTS and for me that is very much the case. I do not base all of my opinions on kpop rpf discourse lol this is the first time I have ever in my life engaged with rpf directly, but before getting here I had already solidified many of my core beliefs years ago. so! I am quite confident, but also willing to listen and discuss and evolve, but I will not be doing so in response to people spewing mindless hate for reasons not even they understand.