Sirius: Say something rebellious.
Percy: Um...okay, I think the working class should uprise against the rich people.
Sirius: I said rebellious, not revolutionary.
Ghost: What exactly are you doing in my spare mask?
Soap: Trying to get out!
Ghost: Why are you wearing it, in any case?
Soap: Well, it's like this, LT. Now, promise--promise!--you won't laugh.
Ghost: All right, I promise.
Soap: Well, it's just that you're so big and heroic and strong and I'm not. And I though that if I tried on your mask, it might make me FEEL big and strong and everything--and "burn the world" like you do and that sort--you said you wouldn't laugh.
Ghost, covering his mouth: Nooo n no i'm--i'm no--not laugh--laughinngg, Jo-Johnny!
Barnaby: *teary-eyed* Oh, gawsh, this play is so sad, just- just give me a minute- *reaches into pocket and pulls out a handkerchief attached to a handkerchief attached to a handkerchief attached to a handkerchief to a handkerchief attached to a handkerchief-*
fandom autopsies done by people who weren't on the front lines actively consuming and interacting always befuddle me. not because i believe it's super hard to summarize a fandom after its peak through solely outsider research but because actually i do kind of believe that
not trying to be a plagiarism apologist but I feel like a lot of ppl don't recognise that they're plagiarising bc they don't understand why u cite sources and therefore don't get how to do it properly. and idk if the focus on "copying/stealing" is actually constructive bc their teachers taught them to rewrite stuff in their own words so they don't understand the point of synthesising information.
the point is if ur actually contributing smth new then u NEED sources to underline that you didn't just make up what ur saying on the fly - rather than it being undesirable to admit to any ideas you didn't just dream up all on your own. and the contribution might just be summarising the existing literature, or applying existing ideas to a new context. actually coming up with new theory is the culmination of a lifetime of work.
I don't think we necessarily do anyone favours by pretending it's super obvious and intuitive. it's something you learn by doing, by writing progressively more original work as you get comfortable. the idea that information "belongs" to individuals is not necessarily constructive in the long run. obviously it's not okay to pass other people's work off as your own but understanding sources as proof texts rather than artist credits helps you to understand how you should interact with them. it's interesting to me that a lot of these ppl flip solely between just reading an article to you with different syntax vs just 100%making shit up out of nowhere which kind of tells you they think original work means doing the latter and when they understandably fail to do that all or even most of the time they resort to plagiarism