helicarrier

[helicarrier]

Yeah, so I posted this on my personal blog already and I'm posting it here too. Recent events consisting of health issues and harassment, along with my recollections of what other people have been through lately on this website, have made me rethink my priorities. I'm going to be stepping back from tumblr.

I'll move my fics to AO3. I'm still deciding what to do about my collaborative writing and all the threads and headcanons.

Honestly, leaving has been on my mind for a while. But the absolute bullshit behaviour I've seen demonstrated towards me, and so many other people, has made me seriously question why I'm still here. I've never posted anything controversial. I've never intentionally tried to hurt people, or spread bad ideologies. I'm a conscientious person of what I think is good moral fiber. But holy fucking shitballs, what has happened to this website? The last few years on this site have been atrocious with all the harassment, the dogpiling, and the other shit where people derive, frankly, a scary amount of joy and amusement from attacking others like it's some kind of entertainment.

People have discovered that if you want attention here, you can do it quickly by fabricating "outrage porn" and dragging someone through the mud. People will believe it without hesitation, because they are so angry about what they are being told, they don't stop to think. People really eat up the "us versus them" mentality, especially when it allows them to feel like a part of a group, and when it gives them a purpose in harassing and/or getting rid of people who are designed to not be in that group. It's especially insidious because all of this harassment seems to be rationalized and justified by the groups participating in them. It's all in the name of this-or-that, it's just moral crusades, just socially-acceptable bullying and/or death wishes with a fresh coat of paint to appeal to a younger crowd. Because it really does seem like a vast majority of the people doing this stuff are in their early twenties or in their teens.

I really do understand why other people have left this website - it is such a buzzkill to feel like you're swimming in a shark tank. I have no desire left to share my work in a place like this. Why make content for a website where its users are so quick to steamroll others, for a quick laugh, no matter how vanilla the content? Why put in the effort to get suspicion; why put in the effort when it feels like I'm just rewarding a Bad Thing, at least to a sizable extent?

Like, I've been posting in the Bruce Banner tag since The Avengers came out. I've been here since many of those popular ship tags were literally empty. And despite the positive reception and complete lack of criticism, despite the masses of people who liked my content, I'm completely unmotivated to post things there now. Last year, there was an isolated incident with fanpols and moral panic people, where one person went out of their way to post some untagged ship hate in the Bruce Banner tag, and after I told them to tag it, they spent three hours scouring my blog for ways to retaliate (and it seems they still haven't blocked me). It was a textbook case of, "lol, let's point and laugh and tell someone they're better off dead because they write a character yet don't incorporate my own headcanons, let's call them [a dozen different types of bigot without due cause]." Predictably, none of their followers reached out and actually inquired about what they saw in the person's smear campaign (all the "damning" screenshots they posted of my blog were headcanons for Bruce Banner, none of which were any indication of personal views and were easily chalked up to either bad wording, ignorance, or literally just nothing because they were reaching farther than Elastigirl to find shit, and upon later inspection, it appeared they even shared many of the same personal headcanons they had harassed me for, which... Eugh). Nobody asked for clarification. They were told what to feel, which was outraged and vitriolic, and they clamoured. Guess what happened when I woke up, saw all this, and blocked everyone because I wasn't having that shit? "Lmaoo they must have blocked me because of my gay ships lmao what a homophobe".

I just. What.

How are people okay with saying this kind of stuff. Like, my brother in christ, you were blocked because you were a twatwaffle, a participant in an outrage porn dogpile. I have dozens of Bruce Banner versions in my headworld, and a shit ton of headcanons of both Bruce and other characters that run the entire gamut of sexuality and orientation; I'm literally a trans person with gay ships; the first ship I ever made fanart of was Cherik, for crying out loud, and two of my favourite ships have always been BrucexLoki and BrucexTony. You are not as accurate as you think you are. Not at all. Get off your high horse before you fall off, it's made of playing cards.

Oh, but I guess it's "funny". I guess it's okay to throw around loaded terms in that case.

Some of this stuff genuinely was funny to me. Because this person had literally scoured my entire blog (and when I'm saying "entire", I mean they went through every page, every post, every single bullet point in my extended reading portal, and there's a load of content in there, folks, and all their visits were recorded in my statcounter so it was pretty easy to see they had spent three hours on there looking for "bad stuff"), found one line in a headcanon that said (in keeping with official canon) this specific Bruce tends to be most attracted to people of the same ethnicity... And they sent me an ask saying, I kid you not: "does Bruce hate black people".

What even. How does this compute. The ask couldn't even offend me if it tried at this point, it was hysterical because of the total quantum leap in logic. I had literally never posted anything else, not a single other line, about ethnicity in any sense, nor would I ever insinuate what they were claiming. It was just a line I threw in because, like most lines, it's nice to paint a more complete picture, and if you've ever seen my content and how outrageously exhaustive it can get, I love painting.

It was less funny when they used this single throwaway line to call me a racist.

But seriously - the entire harassment campaign was based around stupid shit like that, and funnily, it was all tacked onto the original ship hate post this person had originally posted, which was pretty much bait for attention in the first place. Some of the screencaps they took even had contents that directly contradicted what they were even trying to roast me over.

In the end, once they realized I'd blocked them, they dared me to, just about verbatim, "come back and defend this boring white bread man you created".

Sure. Boring. So boring they needed to read all my content for hours (which showed a huge inability to curate their content consumption like an adult), and so boring they stalked my blog for months after the fact and made fun of the fact I went to the ER for an unrelated health issue. It's just ridiculous, especially because if all this criticism about my headcanons had actually come from a place of reparation and not using me as entertainment fodder; if someone had actually talked to me about something that concerned them, I would have completely cooperated and taken the advice. Because I really don't want to be a dick on the internet, I actively look for edification, and I really do want as best as I can.

But I digress.

It's strange, because despite what happened with these clowns, it's not that I'm afraid to be here. I haven't been intimidated into keeping quiet. Rather, I simply have zero motivation to be here or contribute. And really, I'm just deeply disappointed in all the disgusting actions I've seen in this fandom and elsewhere on tumblr, the brazenness of it these last few years. I don't know what happened, but it was never this bad. And people don't deserve it. I've seen a lot worse than what I've received, and let me tell you. It is horrible. Content creators don't deserve to feel like they're playing Russian fucking roulette every time they post some new content, or be fearful that the wrong person will see their work and make a playdate out of harassing them for literally no reason. And on top of that, nope, tumblr just enables this bullshit and doesn't do a thing.

There have been three cases in the last, what, three years, where people I know were dragged severely for doing absolutely nothing wrong. For making boundaries known, for writing certain things, for not responding within a certain time frame. In all but one case, it was always the same ending; they left.

Participation in fandom should not be this stressful for anyone. It really makes me miss the 2012-2015 era, because while it certainly wasn't perfect back then, it was a lot better than nowadays, with all the renewed moral panic shit that is doing nothing of value. It's just carpet-bombing the userbase, and disincentivizing people to make new things, any new things. If there isn't something obvious for the impassioned bully to hit, or something they can manipulate, they'll just make shit up on the spot. Want to guess how many people of good character have been ousted from the Marvel fandom alone since, say, even 2018? Well, I don't have the numbers, but I'm sure they're substantial.

It just kind of sucks, because I've written this version of Bruce here for over twelve years. And seriously, I have never seen anyone take issue with my headcanons until the harassment last year. I'm pretty careful about what I write, so naturally with the harassment aside, I did review all the headcanons I had written, but after that, and after getting the opinions of a few trusted friends (which I am so grateful for), there wasn't... Anything to fix. They were just headcanons. Not only was this harassment limited to the last year or two, but almost all of the harassment my friends have received has been within the last couple of years, too. Like, alarm bells should be going off there, because wow. Especially when I also consider how much harassment has happened to people outside of my friend group. Especially when I consider how commonplace it has become to throw around shit like "kys" or "I wish you died in the ER" to people you don't like. Especially because it seems like it's just getting worse and worse. I'm seeing this kind of shit in casual posts now, not even directed to anyone. "Go kill yourself". I can open ten carrds, and five of them will have "swallow a knife :) :)" or something in them.

Is it a wonder there are so few content creators here now? Especially fandom olds?

So yeah. I'm out.

If you're a genuinely good person who doesn't make a pastime out of harassing people, and if you ever recall seeing my stuff in the tag and enjoying it, be it my gifsets, my headcanons, or my fics, thank you for that.

If anyone here wants my AO3 or discord, send me a message.

Toodles.

#this is the longer explanation. posting here too. #bullying cw #harassment cw #suicide baiting cw #violence cw

[helicarrier]

I'm not using this tumblr anymore and will be moving my written work to AO3.

Honestly, after coming back and seeing a few shitty posts, and opening my gifsets and written drafts to contemplate posting something, I realized I just have no desire left to share my work around here because it feels like a damn shark tank. Fics, or RP content, or gifs.

If anyone wants my AO3, send me a message. I'm not giving it out indiscriminately because of the harassment I've seen lately (and yeah, unfortunately received). So I'm going to be vetting urls carefully. Same goes for discord if you want that.

#it's been fun. i guess. #twelve years of being on this site and literally all the harassment i've gotten was condensed into the last... year? #and the harassment i've seen my friends receive too for the most part. #all the censorship shit. i don't even post inflammatory stuff. #it's insane and at this point it's borderline self-harm to be here especially in the fandoms i tend to post in. #i can't even put this in the bruce banner or other tags to reach out to people in those particular fandoms #because of those bad eggs. #bored insecure people who make hobbies out of and derive joy from hurting others? no. #it's simply not a good place to produce content here anymore. #i'm going to miss the 2011-2015 era because that to me was incredible. #anyways hmu for my new ao3 (it'll be mostly bruce banner centric content). otherwise toodles.

[helicarrier]

I think my inbox is having problems, because I'm getting new mail notifications, but nothing is actually there in my inbox. If anyone sends me something and I don't post it by tonight or tomorrow, feel free to resend it, because it means tumblr probably bugged up and I didn't get it.

#maybe it's just lag from these other messages but who knows. anyways just a fair warning.

[helicarrier]

Hey, your analysis of MCU Bruce Banner was like the most resonant text on the entire internet to me. As a science bros shipper since the Avengers, the significant underestimation of the Doctor since the AOU has often overwhelmed me. Would you please allow me to translate your analysis into Chinese for posting on the Chinese roleplay site? And of course with the original author credited at the beginning.

Wow, this is quite the compliment. Thank you. I'm glad you liked the analysis and I appreciate the interest in translating it. You're welcome to do so, I would love a link to it when it's done. c:

#answered #anonymous

[helicarrier]

your comment is showing on the reblogs section of that bike post <3

Hey! I just checked, and you're right, thanks for letting me know. I'm not sure what happened there; maybe some kind of server-side lag. But at least it's showing up now.

#answered #anonymous

[helicarrier]

Your Avatar gifs are so beautiful, thank you!!!

You're very welcome, I'm happy you like them!

#answered

[helicarrier]

Doing the lord's work, thank you, fuck scammers

You're welcome. c:

#answered #anonymous

[helicarrier]

Hey! I'm new to your blog so forgive me if it's been stated elsewhere but do you take requests for gif sets? I saw your current avatar ones and thought they were awesome and was hoping you'd do a set for Ao'nung or Neteyam but if not obviously no worries!

Hey, it's cool, I haven't mentioned it anywhere! I do take requests from time to time, and I'm happy to make those gifsets for you, as I was planning on giffing the movie in general anyways.

Just bear in mind they won't be posted until the movie is released digitally. Tumblr has also pushed their gifv format even further and appears to have disabled the "transparent pixel" trick I've been using to keep my gifs high quality, so anything I try to post is super mushy and gross and it's making me cry. I need to find a new workaround for that first.

(On that note, if anyone knows a new workaround, please let me know. Google and tumblr's search function is, as per usual, really unhelpful for gifmaker resources.)

#answered #anonymous #gif making #gifs

[helicarrier]

If someone asks me about my issues with DNIs, I think I’ll just refer them to this post from now on.

Tumblr, as a website, is designed for quick, casual content sharing. You can follow blogs, then immediately like and reblog posts from them. New posts are even recommended to you directly on your dash, so you don’t even need to look at their originating blogs to interact with them. DNIs put a wrench in this intuitive manner of using tumblr. They force someone to stop and detour and read a page before they touch any posts from a blog they don't know, and that contradicts how tumblr is intuitively meant to be used. If you see a post and you like it, and if there’s an icon right underneath it, your first reaction is to click the icon. I’m sure most of us have instinctively clicked “like” (or “reblog”) on a post we found interesting.

DNIs prevent this kind of “casual” interaction. Their existence means you have to stop yourself before you interact (in any way) with a cool post, find the DNI page of the person who reblogged the post and, if applicable, find the DNI of the person who made the original post as well (because they’ll also receive the notification, unless they deleted the post on their blog), read it, then return to the post. Nothing about DNIs are baked into the functionality of tumblr in an intuitive way; if anything, the only real “do not interact with me” function you will find here in tumblr’s infrastructure is the block function.

Because DNIs are so antithetical to how tumblr functions, they're an inherently futile way of preventing interaction with certain groups of people, too. Most people aren't going to read my rules or my pinned post before they interact with my content. I would not expect them to, because it doesn't occur to many people, and it's a lot of wasted time. Even people with certain kinds of users in their DNIs routinely interact with posts made by those very people, proving this point. It is so inconvenient and absurd to read a page every time someone so much as likes a post by a random blog. Those people you don't want interacting with you? They're probably reading your blog; liking your posts even if they don't expressly say they're x group from your DNI. They're doing the same to my posts, too. That's just the price we pay for being in a public space focused on content sharing. And I accept this. Other peoples' behaviour is completely out of my control. I just block people when needed, because it is my responsibility to curate my space.

And that is the crux of the matter: I refuse to pass the responsibility of curating my space onto strangers. I refuse to make it someone else's problem when they are using tumblr in the way it was meant to be used. Ideologically and functionally, it does not make sense to me.

Just think about it: tumblr is a public website. Unless your blog is password-protected, people can find it anytime, and if they really want to interact, they'll interact regardless of your DNI. It’s not like most people will say, "oh, drat, I'm a racist, I should leave!". Maybe they’ll just interact because the labels you dislike are not visible on their blog, so they'll fly under your radar. And at times where peoples' labels or behaviour are visible, the good ol' block button is the golden standard. It always has been.

If I become mutuals with someone, sure, we'll agree to scratch each others' backs, and tag whatever the other person needs tagged. But that's different from expecting every stranger who comes across my content, wherever it shows up, to follow demands that are all the way over here, on this blog. If someone reblogs one of my photosets way over in the Stranger Things fandom, and people see the reblogged post, they shouldn't need to come to my Marvel/Random Shit™ blog and read my pages before clicking the stupid little heart button. But imagine needing to do this with every single person, every single post of theirs. Sure, maybe you’re familiar with the DNIs of the people you follow. But what about all the posts they’ve reblogged? Those posts have OPs. Do the OPs of those posts have a DNI that’s favourable to you, too?

DNIs aren't even optional reads now, and everyone suffers because of that. The proliferation of DNIs has made a culture where if someone accidentally forgets to read a DNI, doesn't know that DNIs exist, or misinterprets the contents of a DNI, it’s considered acceptable to harass them for it. It's anxiety-inducing.

“...Shit, I forgot to like their DNI.”

It doesn't help that I never know what "basic DNI criteria" means, or what the "etcetera" means either, because it changes from person to person. Folks, I’ve seen homophobes with “basic DNI criteria” in their pages. That aside, you can say "bigots DNI", but a lot of transphobes don't believe they're bigots, so you could still get radfems liking your posts. You could say "bullies DNI", but many fanpols don't consider themselves bullies, because they believe if someone writes fanfiction from the perspective of Hannibal Lecter, of course their reaction to it isn’t “bullying”, it's just justified shaming!

Everyone is the hero of their own story, and everyone thinks they're the exception. They will be the exception to your DNI, too. Again, this all goes back to the "you can't control who interacts with your content" thing. It's maddening to try and think of all the angles, all the ways to "catch" people, all the ways to plug up all the holes. You may not want to hear it, but you never will. You can get the broad strokes, but you’ll never get everyone, you won’t even get close. Even if you do somehow manage to fit all the exact terms into your DNI, and you end up with a DNI longer than a CVS receipt, you’re still going to run into all the people who... Simply don’t read it. Meanwhile, you look a little too preoccupied with who’s looking at your blog on a public website, and even if a well-intended person comes across your blog, they may just check out because they’re uncomfortable with the micromanaging.

...If they can read the DNI. Look, I’m all for creative formatting, but I see so many DNIs (and carrds in general) that have hot pink writing on a red background, or baby pink on baby blue, or yellow on lime green, and I can’t read any of it, not to mention it’s a migraine risk among other things. I’m not reading dozens of these pages every other day.

It doesn't help that many DNIs are rude, angry, hostile pages that tell people to kill themselves. That's not right. When someone volunteers to read an information page, they are doing that person a courtesy. It is shameful people need to read things like "kill yourself", "swallow a knife", and other verbal sewage. It doesn't matter if it's directed to them or not. Simply looking for people to follow and interact with, simply liking a post, should not be an exercise in mental fortitude. Needing to read awful threats over and over again should not be a requirement for engaging on this site. Imagine having depression, intrusive thoughts, and so on, where this stuff could land twice as hard. It's gotten to the point where my eyes immediately gloss over when I open a DNI, because my mind simply doesn't want to see any more shit and is trying to protect me. I'm at the point where I don't want to open DNIs at all.

But as you guessed, there's a problem with that. Because DNIs are almost compulsory on tumblr now, ignoring them has two possible outcomes: one, you annoy a ton of people, because maybe their DNIs say they don't want you around, but you're interacting with their stuff anyways. Maybe you get labelled as the person who ignores DNIs. Two, you stop your browsing in part, or as a whole, meaning almost nobody gets likes or reblogs from you anymore, because you’re trying to not waste your time, you’re trying to preserve your sanity, etc. And this hamstrings content creators.

One of the biggest flaws in DNIs is that nobody is obligated to reveal information on themselves. Minors can easily hide their age. Bigots can hide their bigotry. People can remove info from their description until they're clear of someone's initial "new follower vibe check", then put it back. Nobody knows you're a dog on the internet. It's naive to assume people will be honest about themselves, and adhere to a DNI.

DNIs are often so incredibly vague and their attitude so charged that people can't even ask for clarification, because the writer of the DNI could be radicalized and have very unhealthy views, and absolutely attack someone for reaching out. A DNI might say, "don't interact if you support incest", but it never clarifies in real life, or fiction. There has been an enormous uptick in moral panic over fiction lately, so lots of people might ask for clarification, but if they do, the person could say "in real life and fiction, duh!", flame them because they "didn't know something so obvious, it must mean they're sus!", then flame them again because they viewed the poor person's blog and saw lots of mature content they think people shouldn't write. It's absurd, but unfortunately, that kind of panic has spread. Many people use DNIs as extensions of their unhealthy interaction, media consumption, and browsing habits.

So I usually avoid DNIs.

All in all, I don't mind if someone politely asks other people to not interact, or if they say they block for certain stuff, if there’s a clear awareness that it's not a be-all, end-all solution, and that people will still interact. As long as they put the onus on themselves, rather than other people, to curate their space, it’s cool. For example, if someone is an 18+ blog, and they ask minors not to interact? Cool, if they don’t “punish” or otherwise attack minors who find posts of theirs on other blogs, and “like” them from there without going all the way over to the OG blog to see if they’re allowed to do like it. Because again, that’s a bit of an unfair requirement to impose on people. And whatever.

Because people shouldn’t feel like they’re playing minesweeper when they want to click a heart. Between the terfs, racists, and all the other issues, we have enough on our hands already.

#dni #dni lists #psa #essay #fandom #censorship #twitter #bullying #harassment #*deux ex machina voice* it is done. #death threat mention cw #graphic threat mention cw #racist mention cw #terf mention cw

[helicarrier]

“Blowing up at people is bad” anon, I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about, so I’m guessing you have the wrong person / inbox. I’m not publishing your ask because it’s inflammatory and obviously not applicable to this blog anyways, so I don’t want it lingering in my posts.

#... #wth. really. #is there like some powerball-type draw where they pair a random message to a tumblr username going on?

[helicarrier]

I’m back.

I’m not going to be online daily, but I’ll pop online and post some gifs every once in a while. I’ll respond to asks when I can.

Lots of health stuff going on.

I left one of the Discord servers that I frequent. Some of the new members weren’t vetted well and I felt really unsafe. It’s a shame because I liked the vibe of the server and it was very small, but it wasn’t worth the risk.

Edit: Looks like tumblr is auto-converting all gifs to gifvs now and destroying the quality. I won’t be coming back much at all until that’s fixed or I find a solution.

[helicarrier]

You paid us trinkets to kill a prince. Iron Man (2008) | Jon Favreau

#ironmanedit #iron man #iron man 2008 #marvel #mcu #tony stark #rdj #robert downey junior #shaun toub #faran tahir #jeff bridges #mark iii #mark i #mark ii #marveledit #mcuedit #dailymarvelgifs #dailyavengers #my edits

[helicarrier]

I spent three hours on that reblog, and it’s not even showing up in the notes of the post lmfao. Functional website.

#shitposts #fml. so much for that. #i don't think i've pored over a post more especially with all the links and citations.

[helicarrier]

(Long post incoming.)

I don't know if this was a joke!post or a circle jerk post, but I'm sure many people have read this and thought, "yep, valid, dumb cyclists, grumble grumble". I'm gonna point out that these memes, and those sentiments, are based on car-centric culture, and were most likely created by people who have never ridden bicycles, who have never needed to risk assess/negate while on a bike, or from people who've been led to believe roads always have been, and will be, exclusive to people in cars. There's a lot of well-intended people who don't know quite enough about cycling, especially in North America, to realize how bunk these memes are.

The attitude behind these memes are, at their foundation, actually based on very old propaganda from the automobile industry. Nope, this isn't a weird conspiratorial thing, I promise! Vox did an excellent article on it. Adam Ruins Everything did an entertaining skit, if you're pressed for time and want to laugh (then cry). The term "jaywalker", interestingly enough, was actually based on the slur "jay", and it was meant to villainize people who walked in the street, when at the time, walking, bicycle, and carriage was the standard way to get around, in addition to being a great place to socialize. Guess who invented the term? Yep, the automobile industry. They saw that people were dying by the bucketloads because of their product, the car, so they started a vicious campaign to save their product and shift the public view of those who walked in the streets. Walking went from being typical, to something only "dirty h**ks" did. So if you've ever looked at someone crossing an empty street and and gone, "ugh, jaywalkers" (I've done it too!), it's based on a belief that roads are only for vehicles, created by the companies that sold you those vehicles, so they could sell more vehicles and make more money. Kinda mind-blowing, right? And kinda shitty and insidious, when you think about it. It's become so ingrained in North American car culture that there are bylaws about it now, and we don’t really think about its origin anymore.

So these memes, which are based on the notion that roads are only for vehicles, suddenly feel really shitty on principle. In addition, even though vehicles are generally seen as the primary purpose for roads in North America now, people on bicycles do have a right to use the road, along with any dedicated bicycle infrastructure that's available. Most North American states/provinces transparently say that people on bicycles can use the roads in their bylaw documentation. Check out the info for British Columbia, Texas, Oregon, Ohio, Quebec, and California.

Notice how the California link explicitly says, "if you’re moving slower than traffic, you can take the lane if it's not wide enough for a bike and a vehicle to safely share side-by-side".

Signs like this exist, too.

So if you're telling someone on a bicycle to "get out of the road"... Chances are, they're not breaking any laws. If the presence of bicycles is hampering the way you drive on a regular basis, please contact your local bylaw enforcement and/or city council, and tell them to add protected lanes, because that is really the issue here!

Second, just to get it out of the way... Remember that not all people on bicycles are adults. They're not all men wearing spandex (known as MAMILs, or "middle-aged men in lycra", which is the derogatory stereotype most people associate with "cyclists"). These negative connotations are why I won't be saying "cyclist" here, and will be saying "people on bikes". Cycling is an all-ages activity, yet I don't think most of us would call children on bicycles "cyclists". I like to think the only reason our North American culture views "cyclists" as all adults is because no parent would allow their children to cycle in roads with traffic. But elsewhere, in places with better, safer cycling infrastructure? Cycling is a great sport and a mode of transportation for many people! Children, and seniors. Seniors lose independence in North America as they age, because they lose the ability to drive a car. But they maintain that freedom with a bicycle. They can still get around. Cycling also gives them the chance to socialize, which is so nice because a lot of the time, being of older age can be incredibly lonely. Socializing is much harder, if not impossible when you're in a vehicle, partially because it's much harder to make eye contact with other drivers and talk to them through glass and metal. Here are two articles about how bicycling, when framed as a valid transportation mode, can have enormous benefits for city travel and those populations:

How the Dutch created a casual biking culture

How Amsterdam became the bicycle capital of the world

For comparison, here are five negative ways that vehicle dependence can affect cities and the people in them. (Vehicle dependence being defined as a city’s reliance on motorized vehicles to the point where it’s the only feasible way to travel without significant inconvenience or hardship.)

If we frame cycling as something with no other purpose than being a sport, we ignore the health benefits gained from a bicycle (which doesn’t require a sweaty cardio workout like MAMILs aim for!), and the utilitarian benefits it provides, like cargo carrying (even the kids!), commuting, and even just the pleasure of cycling to sightsee. Cycling being all-ages is actually one reason why the city of Toronto, Canada has investigated, and dropped, the idea of requiring bicycles to be licensed... On three separate occasions, the first occasion dating all the way back to 1935!)

Moving on... Let's discuss the meme about the stop signs. Okay, so it's weird, and sometimes annoying, when someone on a bike rolls through a stop sign. But, may I introduce:

The Idaho stop.

In many places, this law allows people on bicycles to treat a stop sign as a yield sign, and a red light as a stop sign. Here's a wiki article that shows where the Idaho stop is currently legal.

You might be thinking, "this sounds counterproductive. Surely, the Idaho stop makes everything more dangerous?" Actually, not really. According to many studies (1, 2), the Idaho stop actually makes it safer and more efficient for people on bicycles! It also reduces the frustration for people in vehicles, because they don't have to wait for someone on a bike to fully stop, then gain enough momentum and speed again to clear the intersection. It's very easy to zip across an intersection in a vehicle, but it's pretty hard on a bicycle once you stop. Bicycles have less mass, and they can't get anywhere near as much momentum as a vehicle within the same span of time. Many people don't realize this because, understandably, they don't have the experience of riding a bike (either enough, or at all) to inform them of this stuff.

If this is hard to understand, check out the Wiggle protest. (And here's a video.) These guys went on the road to demonstrate what would happen if every person on a bicycle was expected to make a full stop at stop signs. At one point, around 100 people on bikes were queued up at a stop sign, one behind the other, waiting to go through stop signs, and it took a damn long time. Comparatively, 100 vehicles at the same stop sign would clear the intersection in a fraction of that time. The Wiggle protest was organized to magnify the issues with bicycles needing to fully stop... All within the law! Talk about not-so-malicious compliance.

Besides, bicycles are a few hundred pounds on average. Vehicles are four thousand pounds on average. Vehicles can easily kill people. Bicycles are not going to kill anyone on the road unless by some freak accident. The potential for damage when someone on a bike treats a stop sign as a yield sign is way lower than if someone in a vehicle did it.

If someone on a bicycle cuts you off at an intersection, remember that people in vehicles do this all the time, among other things, but we still hesitate to paint all drivers with the same brush. This has to apply to people cycling as well. Me... I get cut off by drivers all the time. Drivers pull into the wrong lane. They misjudge how much time they have to clear intersections. We need to remember confirmation bias. Every day, I see at least two vehicles making illegal, three-point u-turns right in the middle of roads. There are jackasses of all kinds, behind every kind of transportation. Oh The Urbanity! did a short video touching on the confirmation bias experienced by drivers due to living in a car-dependent culture.

There's another factor at play where, lots of the time, people on bikes have to cross immensely wide roads (often, they are stroads) to reach the other side, perhaps during very small breaks in heavy traffic, and they barely have time to make it. In these cases, you may ask: "why do cyclists always cut me off/make me slam on my brakes here?! They have a stop sign!". But instead, try reframing the question as: "what nincompoops designed the roads to be so wide, have such short breaks in traffic, and not have any controlled crosswalks, that people who are walking and cycling are forced to make a dangerous dash across the road, which is guaranteed to endanger them and annoy drivers, just to cross?". Because really, infrastructure like that isn't helpful to anyone, not the people walking, cycling, or driving. It's just stressful.

Now, the "cyclists yelling when cars pass too close" meme... I'll break this one down simply. If someone is cycling on the road with vehicles, it means there isn't good alternative infrastructure available (I'll touch more on that later). And when someone is cycling on the road, they have two choices. First, they can ride near the curb. Maybe there is a painted bike gutter there, or maybe the street doesn't have a painted gutter, but the street is very wide, so they choose to avoid confrontation with drivers and stay well to the side, to let them pass without incident. Neither are exceptional choices because again, they lack physical barriers, but hey, that's what a lot of people are forced to work with. The second option, well, it comes into play when you have situations like this. Maybe there's a painted bike gutter, or some other kind of infrastructure, but there's a big risk of someone not being on their A-game and opening their door in your face, which can maim and even kill people even if they are travelling at low speeds. There's also the problem where, even if you're in a painted bike gutter, or you're near the curb, drivers simply don’t give enough space as they pass you (painted gutters, in fact, seem to give drivers a false sense of separation from people on bikes), which can be freaky as hell. So, to avoid this, you decide to "take the lane", or act like a vehicle, so you can't be closely swiped by drivers, and you give the illusion that you take up more space than you do. It's usually a safety thing.

The problem with that is, of course, you get the first and last memes in this series, which tell you to go back to the bike lane. And funnily, those memes contradict the third meme in the series, which depicts a scenario that happens when people cycling do stick to the side of the road (which results in a lot of drivers passing super close, or even "punishment passing"). So it's very damned if you do, damned if you don't... And to make it worse, in both those scenarios, the person is usually following the law!

"Taking the lane" is promoted by many, many municipalities (Ohio, for example; see letter C) to improve visibility, prevent vehicles from making right turns into them because they'd be in a blind spot, and to prevent them from being doored because in most car-dependent municipalities, staying "on the side of the road" means being so close to parked cars that you could get doored, which can be disabling if not lethal, and you're often so close to moving vehicles as well that you could go under someone's wheels.

Even then...

It's not like following the law protects people on bicycles, when that law involves very flimsy, dangerous infrastructure. This guy followed the law. He got cut off and cussed out. This guy followed the law. He stayed in the painted bike gutter, where he was doored and ended up dying under the wheels of a dump truck. Vehicles routinely use bike lanes as parking lanes, forcing the people who are actually supposed to use the bike lane into traffic in an unpredictable way. Ghost Bikes exist, and have become a popular way to memorialize people killed while cycling.

A lot of people complain about people cycling in the road "when there's a good bike lane right there". But logically, if a ton of people aren't using a bike lane, it means there’s something wrong with the bike lane! Some people will always use the road (yeah, like many "MAMILs"), because they want to go fast and wider roads provide more room for error. But if that bothers you, again, please contact your local municipality and ask for dedicated lanes so people can zoom around without contacting vehicular traffic as much! People who aren't "MAMIL"s, on the other hand, avoid bike lanes because the lanes have constant bumps in them (especially if they were just marked over an existing sidewalk, where unlike walking, your wheels will pass over every single crack between the concrete slabs, which is really uncomfortable...). The lanes could be too narrow to pass other people safely, making it a PITA to use. The lanes could be too close to parked cars and people want to avoid being doored. There could be a lot of debris in the bike lane. The road could be a more direct route to their destination than the bike lane, which could be super circuitous (and may not even reach their destination!). Or, the lane could simply have no good connections to make it worth using, effectively being a bike lane "island". When I was exploring my city, I lost count of how many safe bike lanes abruptly stopped and dumped me into dangerous 70km/h zones without any infrastructure at all, so I don’t use those lanes anymore, and I don't see many other people using them, either. Those kinds of lanes are definitely not appropriate for AAA (all ages and abilities). The Netherlands has gotten AAA down to an art, but North America still struggles with it. For most places in North America, it’s somehow sufficient to, paint a white strip next to six lanes of fast-moving traffic. That’s because bicycles are still an afterthought. And the people on bikes, and even pedestrians, are still considered second-class citizens in respect to drivers.

When you're on a bicycle, small impacts can make the difference between life and death. Literally. If you are in a vehicle and you're very close to another vehicle, you won't think much of it because you're protected. If you're on a bicycle and you have a near-brush with a vehicle, that shit is scary! You're a meat sack on two wheels and you're only staying upright via gyroscopic effect. So yeah, if a two-ton machine brushes past you instead of giving them space, you'd probably get freaked out. Is it a wonder that someone on a bicycle will yell at a driver who, if they were just an inch closer, could have killed them? Not really. Especially if they have to deal with it constantly, almost day after day, and when a lot of the aggressive behaviour from drivers is because those drivers associate anyone on a bike, regardless of whether they’ve actually done anything wrong, with certain unfair stigmas, and they hold everyone who cycles accountable for the actions of other "cyclists" who might, in fact, actually do shitty things.

The bottom line of this post is, all the problems in the memes are caused by lack of sufficient infrastructure available to people on bicycles, which forces them to share the road with vehicles, which are inherently much different in capabilities, safety concerns, etc. Therefore, the frustration in these memes is better off directed not towards the people who are trying to make the best of that crappy infrastructure, but to the higher-ups who designed it in the first place! And these memes are really grounded in a lot of stigmas and bias against people on bicycles, including confirmation bias and status quo bias. People who have multiple bad experiences with people in vehicles don't become "anti driver", but when they have one bad experience with someone on a bicycle, somehow, they become "anti cyclist".

Like Jason from Not Just Bikes has said:

"The sad truth is that labelling people as 'cyclists' dehumanizes them, and puts them in an outgroup that some people believe justifies literal violence against them."

Hopefully you can see the problem with the above memes now.

Conflicts between bicycles/vehicles can be drastically reduced by providing safe, separated, AAA (all ages and abilities) infrastructure for people on bicycles (and other personal transportation devices, like scooters and cargo bikes!). Cut out the interactions with vehicles as much as possible. Make it safe, so people don't have to make decisions that, like most of these memes exemplify, benefit their safety (to an extent, since unless vehicles are limited to low speeds, sharing a road with vehicles while on a bike is inherently risky) but aggravate people who are in vehicles. If you were going, "lmao yeah, that's totally right!" at the above memes, please consider writing to your local representatives and asking about dedicated, safe bike infrastructure so you don't have to deal with the problems that your municipality kinda, well... Forced on you, by forcing people on bikes to ride directly in traffic in the first place. It will benefit everyone.

Relevant articles:

Why do cyclists ride in the middle of the road? Is it a cyclist's right to 'take the lane'? Ten common myths about bike lanes – and why they're wrong Three Myths Used to Argue Against Toronto Bike Lanes

Relevant youtube channels:

Strong Towns Propel Shifter Oh the Urbanity! Not Just Bikes

#commentaries #city planning #long post cw

[helicarrier]

Just saw some enormously ignorant memes about people on bicycles and how they have to take full lanes sometimes, and don't go through stop signs every time. Nothing acknowledging the dangers or the road rage they face in other circumstances, or how all of these memes are built on vehicle bias from car-dependent municipalities.

Oh boy. People are so clueless.

I'm writing another essay.

#commentaries #car dependence #this is going to be the written equivalent of throwing hands. #five people have died in my city over the last two years due to collisions with vehicles. #there are 'ghost bikes' everywhere. some of them did what these people wanted. #one of them stayed in the bike lane. was doored. went under a semi truck's wheels. #so this kind of meme bullshit? no. no. #this cyclist did what the people reblogging these memes wanted them to do. they died for it. #that is why (part of the reason why) people on bicycles take the lane in many situations. #what more can you do to be visible on a bicycle if you're in a painted roadside 'bike gutter' and nobody #checks their blind spots when opening doors or when making right turns? right? #which means you have to negate that risk and stay in the middle of a lane. which at least limits issues to the driver behind you. #death mention cw

[helicarrier]

Hot Toys really nailed that Miles Morales figure. Damn.

#shitposts #if i actually had disposable income... #i haven't bought any new figures in years. i'm still sitting on my a1 loki and iminime bruce banner custom. #the detolf looks so sad with those empty shelves. #also whoops i put the wrong link before. this is the right one. ht has made like three different miles figures haha.

[helicarrier]

Anti-Arguments and Rebuttals for them

Things to remember:

Antis usually want an easy target. Freelance artists/writers, small businesses, etc.

But it's easier to get angry with a smaller entity than one you know you'll never be able to do anything with/about.

A lot of antis just deeply enjoy the thrill of witch hunting. If you pay attention, you'll notice a lot of them engage in cancel culture and make memes about the topics they call themselves taking a stand for or against.

Antis will almost always use a strawman argument. Most things on this list will consist of these sorts of arguments.

1. Fiction affects reality.

The funniest and most ridiculous thing about this argument to me is that it always comes out of nowhere. No one ever says anything that implies this isn't the case, yet antis seem to think everyone except themselves are woefully unaware of this fact.

If fiction didn't affect reality, then people wouldn't use fiction to work through trauma. Obviously, fiction does affect reality.

But I somehow doubt you'll ever come across an anti who wants to ban all violence and/or disturbing content in media. No one wants Fortnite, GTA, Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty to be taken off the shelves forever. No one wants Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, Death Note or Dragon Ball to never be available to watch again. Yet all contain negative content. Negative content that is consumed by kids daily.

If an anti was really concerned about fiction and the fact that it can affect reality, they would be tackling these bigger problems. Some of these games and a lot of violent or disturbing media in general have been linked to real life attacks. There are so many more.

But I'm not gonna end my argument there and just say, 'Since antis are okay with this wrong thing, then they should be okay with that wrong thing.'

No. At the end of the day, it comes down to the person. Educate children on safe ways to consume media. If someone shipping two cousins together somehow influences a person in the real world to do something terrible, then there's something wrong with that person.

If an SA victim is dressed a certain way and get's SA'd would you blame the SA victim for how they were dressed or the perpetrator? You also have to realise that by placing the blame on fiction, you're enabling similar behavior.

Because too many times throughout history we've seen a murderer get the 'benefit of the doubt' because they were inspired by some form of media. That's no excuse.

2. If you read/write something you must condone it.

Okay, lets say I'm writing a story wherein the protagonist is assassinating a Hitler-like character or entity. The character describes their murder as though they are completely happy about it. Everyone in the story continue on with incredible lives, something that would not have been possible if not for the murder.

Let me first ask, what do you think about this? Do you hate or at the very least disagree with the way the murder was glorified/romanticized because you think that murder is reprehensible no matter what? Or do you think some form or semblance justice was served?

Neither is wrong or right. Not in fiction. Objectivity would come more into play if this were a real situation, though.

But just because I, the author, decided to write it from the character's prespective doesn't mean I condone murder. That didn't mean that I didn't get to acquire any insight on the possible prespective of the character. But even if I did, I could flat-footedly disagree regardless.

I don't feel as though I can explain this. It's something you have to understand. But I'll post this link and hope you can put at least some of the pieces together, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoralityTropes

3. It's okay to harass someone because shipping something that problematic is just wrong.

The point is, no one in fiction is sentinent, except for in our minds. Morality is much more flexible.

It throws me that animals are sentinent, yet we'll know this and eat them regardless. We're hard-pressed to value animals above people, let alone put them on remotely similar levels.

But somehow their is a group of people out there who are condone harassing or threatening people because a completely non-sentinent being is being hurt from their prespective. Really??

Humans go by a general consensus. That we won't put animals above humans. Yet, we're willing to put invisible, fictional entities above humans? This sounds eerily similar to radical cult/religous groups. The only difference is that antis (hopefully) know for sure that a fictional characters aren't real. Most religious people at least have an excuse, even if it's a terrible one.

4. Aging up Characters is wrong

The most unbelieveable argument, but I'll bite. It's not. It's not pedophilia. By Google definitions, pedophilia is a sexual attraction toward children. A pedophile is someone who is sexually attracted to children.

This is not pedophilia. Characters have been aged up in media ever since media has existed. You are not sexualizing a child by aging them up, even if said drawing is suggestive.

When you incorrectly use this term, you make it harder for real victims to be believed, you trivialize the struggles that actual victims have/are going through. If it's weird and suspicious to you, then fine.

5. All proshippers are pedophiles/condone pedophilia.

Firstly, please stop saying this as a lot of proshippers are minors. You are further spewing misinfo on what a pedophile is toward someone who is still developing and may meet an actual pedophile but aren't able to properly identify them because some stranger in line kept insisting an artist who aged up a character is one. Minors are very easily influeneced by the internet. Being harassed does more damage than shipping something they will likely grow out of.

And those who are not minors usually are survivors of CSA/SA and cope with their trauma through drawing or writing certain content. They get to rewrite or redraw what happened to them and give themselves a better ending.

You don't have the right to tell them how to cope. Fiction is supposed to be a safe space, thus, why it is a medium recommended by therapists and has been for centuries. This shit has literally been researched.

Secondly, adult proshippers usually have something along the lines of 'Minors DNI' on their pages. I notice that even antis who post explicit/NSFW content don't, though. Which is ironic.

And the 'not all victims cope this way so they don't have to cope this way' argument is valid.

6. Well, I wouldn't attack them if they weren't public with it.

That's no excuse. You have entirely too much time on your hands, first off. Be hateful towards a person who actually deserves that hate.

Secondly, as long as they have proper warnings on their page, it's their shit. You can't tell them what to do with it.

Lastly, I've never met a proshipper that forced an anti to interact with them or their content. I've never met a proshipper who can somehow resist being blocked by the complete stranger who happened to stumble across their page.

Generally speaking, I don't believe in the 'don't like, don't interact' thing. Not with video games. Or TV. Or social media. You have the right. But when it's another human being, I highly doubt that's something that can't be accomplished.

This also sounds weirdly familiar to the, "Well, if gay people weren't throwing it in my face, I wouldn't have anything to say about them!" Antis are oddly authoritarian.

In Conclusion:

There's no excuse to harass anyone over fiction. And if someone has a very difficult time seperating fiction from reality, I highly recommend therapy in all brutal honesty.

Nothing will ever make telling a suicidal person to kill or hurt themselves okay.

Nothing will ever make falsely telling a survivor that they are their abuser or like their abuser okay.

If I tell Charlie Brown to kill himself right now it won't matter.

If I tell a real person to kill themselves, my words can and just might have real, lasting, effects.

If I tell Percy Jackson to kill himself he'll be okay and we know this without question.

If I tell a real person to kill themselves because they told me they ship Percy with Hera or whoever the fuck, theirs no way of knowing. And if you're fine with that - if you even so much as defend that - then maybe you should engage in something less hateful.

How about worshipping a flying spaghetti monster (since you may as well be)?

#commentaries #censorship #this is such a good summary of the arguments antis use and how empty they actually are. #pedophilia mention cw #suicide mention cw