Tumblr is quite possibly the most venomous, myopic and fascist corner of the Internet that exists today. A hotbed of the absurdly ludicrous from the exponentially ballooning number of genders one can identify as to the massive vitriol directed at the most benign statements, Tumblr is a study in victimhood and self-diagnosed mental illness.
There is a staggering number of examples to demonstrate just how terrible Tumblr is, but the latest big story stretches the bounds of believability, sounding more like something out of The Onion.
The debacle in a nutshell? A fan of the Cartoon Network show “Steven Universe” was mercilessly bullied and reviled, allegedly to the point of suicide by Tumblristas for not drawing characters accurately, such as not drawing a character fat enough or drawing different interpretations of characters.
Debates about the nature of art aside, it’s not a far stretch to say that self-expression is generally considered a human right. Everybody has their own unique perceptions of everything and part of the human experience is sharing those perceptions. Declaring that certain depictions are acceptable and others are a sin of biblical portions is selfish and close-minded.
While I personally think it’s ridiculous to get angry at someone for not drawing a character fat enough, I accept that some people may get angry and that they are not wrong in feeling anger to what they perceive as offensive.
What I cannot accept is the behavior of those who do get angry. When I see something I don’t want to see, I stop looking and stop going places where I know I’ll see something I don’t want to see. What I don’t do is relentlessly bully those who created it in the first place.
Sadly, that is what happened to the artist who goes by the name of “Zamii”, over 40 critical blogs and accounts were created purely to bash the artist. Ignoring wasn’t enough, writing a short note expressing one’s feelings wasn’t enough, hours of dedicated effort needed to be spent with the express purpose of hurting the artist.
This is how Tumblr works, this is how social justice warriors work. In their twisted way of viewing the world, it is completely acceptable to cause as much harm as possible to those they disagree with. When truly pressed on the matter, most respond that since they belong to an unprivileged group of which some individuals have been hurt, it is their right – if not their duty, to hurt those they believe have it better than them.
To bully someone to the point that they feel the need to commit suicide is completely aborrhent behavior and it’s incredible to see people believe it is an acceptable way to bring about change. If these people got any modicum of government power, there would be death camps dotting the country within months.
Most telling in this debacle is that the creators of Steven Universe support Zamii. Those who created the characters in the first place should be the ultimate authority on what depictions of their characters are acceptable or not.
However, all is not hopeless. Reddit threads on the subject are overflowing with support for Zamii with disbelief and condemnation for the bullies. This doesn’t change anything for Zamii however. It’s hard to think of something worse for an artist to go through than to have the most hateful idiocy spewed at them for doing what they truly love to do.
It’s my firm belief that all this hypersensitive nonsense is a fad and that the social justice movement will self-destruct in the near future. I’m not too worried about the overall impact, and am looking forward to talking to an incredulous younger generation who can’t grasp the fact that at one point, people actually think the way they do now.
In the meantime, however, there are innocent people getting hurt for nothing. Real, actual victims are suffering because of this movement. The more ill will and bullying Tumblr gets noticed for, the more a backlash becomes inevitable.