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#thats bc im a lightskin latino! i got my color from my dad but me and him look nothing like our relatives - they're all much darker.
demonboyhalo · 3 years
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Why do you watch and support the dsmp when it’s full of racists, anti semetists and transphobia? Why does supporting and listening to poc, Jewish and trans people matter so little to you?
I'm not going to be discussing at length any individual cases/arguments about racist, transphobic, or anti-Semitic beliefs possibly held by Dream SMP CCs. Instead, this post will center on the absolute reach this Anon is making with their generalizing claim of bigotry against the cast and me. If you want threads about what the CCs have done wrong or a catalog of why they should be canceled, you'll find them in designated critical!tags. Idk why Anon decided to choose a daily clips and memes page who has made 2 total posts tagged "discourse" to vent to so?? you're not gonna get essay length debating like this again lmao (Keyword: Essay. This is a long post! Filter that tag if you don't want to see this.)
I genuinely have a dozen counter-arguments I could give for this intentionally provocative ask, but I'm certain drama-centric Dream SMP blogs have already worded those exact arguments with far more eloquent pathos than I could muster. So, I'm going to completely deviate from the response you want me to give, and instead be laying out an issue I have with this ask that people tend not to approach anon asks with
Give me a real human who is politically correct at all times. Sincerely, could you? Or would you never be able to, because no matter how educated, experienced, and empathetic a person is, they make mistakes? Try and name a show, a movie, a book - any piece of mainstream media! - that is truly, truly PC. You couldn't, because mass media is created by writers/producers/directors who consciously and unconsciously hold discriminatory beliefs reinforced by the society we live. That implicit bias exists in everything they produce.
We're influenced by our surroundings, as you should be well aware, and culture IRL is far removed from the highly sanitized/filtered/curated feed you'll find on Tumblr. Racist, transphobic, anti-Semitic, and all around bigoted views are firmly rooted in our governments, our mentalities, and apparently to your ignorance, our pop culture. Since so many forms of hatred are still legal, defended, and advocated for by those in political power, no entertainment will escape those traces of bigotry you're frustrated with the Dream SMP for having.
And so you classify the cast as "full of racists, anti-Semites, and transphobia", and condemn me for "supporting" them, while I would argue it's a piece of media that tries it's hardest to be the opposite. I have no doubt bigotry will crop up with the sheer depth intolerance is baked into societal constructs, but there's only a few fandoms I have found as intolerant to discrimination as this one. It's astoundingly diverse, with more canon representation in its characters than I’ve seen in...the majority of media outside of fanon interpretations. (Admittedly, Tumblr has calmed down as a platform in recent years, so maybe you've seen horrific supporters directly influenced by DSMP CCs in other places. But then I'd have to ask why you've come to a Tumblr blog to guilt trip about what appears to be largely unfounded claims of major discrimination in the cast.)
The DSMP is produced by a group of random Twitch content creators, which means it is being acted out with millions of eyes analyzing these flawed young adults and teens trying their best to be entertaining live. However, having a platform doesn't automatically give a CC the time and mental fortitude to instantly be sensitive to every social issue. So yes, I think there are instances when a CC makes bigoted comments or jokes by sheer virtue of being young and only so educated, but there's a grand total of 1 who habitually acts in a way that could match your description, and he was killed off very early on. Beyond that, it's noticeably uncommon for "problematic" conduct to occur compared to what you'd expect from Twitch/YouTube gaming culture. When anything actually offensive arises - as in actually a problematic stereotype/misconception and not just fake evidence made by antis - it's 60% a one off bad taste joke 40% addressing a tweet from 2017 with a shit take, and both are followed by educational threads trending on Twitter to explicitly teach the CC on that topic. So yes, the DSMP are not perfect, never will be perfect, but they're certainly not consistently pushing racist, transphobic, or anti-Semitic narratives. Edgy jokes resurfacing from the awful period of humor that was 2010s? It's happened, and every time that creator has owned up to it and made clear that was their shitty high school humor that they've long grown out of. (Because yes, people can change and grow from their past selves.) But actual bigoted beliefs being held or campaigned for - even subtly - by any DSMP creator? Nope.
In essence, you've asked why I would support content made by flawed individuals who aren't PC, but every avenue of entertainment is made by flawed individuals who are fundamentally less PC than the DSMP's distinguishing progressive storytelling, bc others have to answer to corporate TV studios and movie direction teams that are 99% old Hollywood white guys. All entertainment reflects society's institutional prejudices. This makes me ask, how much vitriol do you hold for the mainstream media that truly is harmful and controversial in the way that the DSMP painfully isn't? If you would have me blog about another topic, what alternative could you suggest that genuinely is more inclusive to the discriminated people you're trying to champion for? What CW show or anime you're on Tumblr for isn't being produced by actual bigots behind the scenes, unaccountable in a way the live streamers on the DSMP have no way of replicating? When you consider the largely sanitized, teen-friendly, and open content of the DSMP so harsh and disgusting, what pieces of media are left for you?
So, I'm not entirely sure what parts of the SMP you consider so egregious that you would label it's entire cast to the severity you did. The CCs have made mistakes, but they also are committed to improving themselves. I understand the doubt you would have for the integrity of a field dominated by college-age white cishet guys. They have the least incentive to care about social issues, yes, but this fandom is notorious for being PC - to an overt degree even. That's not always good either, but it does mean that when a CC is remotely intolerant, their own fan base will call that shit out. Surprisingly, young adults/teens who haven't even hit their late twenties are open to education on issues important to their fans? When compared to big name shows or million dollar franchises, you'll realize that this audience can directly reach out and inform the creators on significant campaigns and political causes. I watch and blog about what I do because this fandom has curated a culture within the media we watch, and the plot drives some very significant parts of itself off what we find interesting and consider okay. The creators actually care, consume, and listen to our critiques and ideas, including them into the story they make - can you say that about any other media?
Finally, I'll address that last line of your ask. Taking into account that this is a clips and memes blog...what are you basing your assumptions on? Reading my Minecraft Roleplay quotes will, shockingly, not tell you much about what intersectional issues I care about, listen to, and experience daily??? Your ask gives me such grief because you've made a sweeping claim while failing to consider that 1: I might be a member of some of those groups and 2: that my political advocacy is done IRL - not on Fandom Tumblr. I can excuse the 1st one at least; you've no real way to know I'm not white or cis, and even then, being part of a group doesn't mean you have no internalized hatred towards it. However, the 2nd point is....one of the worst points you could have sent in an ask to me, specifically. I'd say that listening to, learning from, and supporting marginalized groups is actually something that matters a great deal to me. That's why I've had meetings with my State Representatives to lobby against discriminatory bills for the past 3 years. I've gone twice in person, and this legislative session over Zoom, since my activism group wasn't able to meet with them inside the Capitol Complex.
Overall, I have volunteered over 200 service hours educating my peers on Mental Health, Reproductive Justice, LGBTQ+ Issues, etc. and plan to continue my advocacy in higher schooling. If you're American and do want to help combat racism, transphobia, and antisemitism IRL, educate yourself on the House/Senate Bills moving forward in your State's legislative session this year. Learning about Trojan Horse legislation that can set up legal precedence for further harm to marginalized groups is infinitely more productive than starting an argument with a high schooler’s Minecraft blog. Saving yourself from the stress of awful roleplay is easy too! If you hate seeing my type of posts on your feed, block the tags you see under my other posts, and then block me. Anon, I'm just hoping you understand that sending holier-than-thou fandom discourse to kids on Tumblr is not the social justice move you think it is.
Extra in tags:
#these tags are just clarification on personal context so feel free to ignore#i could have argued with this ask in a lot of ways - but at the end of the day - i'm not a drama blog#i don't have receipts on the PC of each CC or clip threads bookmarked. i make clips and headcanons about their characters.#so i decided to argue what i do sorta-know. that being: the validity of calling the CCs racist transphobic antisemites#namely how INCREDIBLE of a reach that is - along with what a reach it is to say i'm deaf to such social prejudices considering what i do IR#please direct CC callouts and discourse to drama centric debating blogs in the critical! tags not me :thumbs up:#i won't talk to much about my advocacy bc. y'know. this is the internet. but my volunteering is with PP.#my work revolves around Reproductive Justice and EVERYTHING that entails. reproductive rights is different and far less encompassing -#- so that's why i made the distinction. (look up Reproductive Justice to know exactly the lengths it goes to)#moving on! followers of mine might remember me making a joke about being safe from questioning my gender and being confident in she/her#...god i was so fucking dumb. yall remember that bi meme? the one a bunch of bi people related to which was like#'thank goodness i figured out i'm bi! finally i'm done questioning now that i've figured my sexuality-' then BOOM. gender questioning hits!#well MY cocky ass was like 'hah! i don't even know if i'm bi or pan or demi or whatever! how on earth could i start questioning by gender -#- when i don't even know my sexuality yet! surely i have a few years. surely.'#yea nope. don't even know if i'm bi when i got hit with the ole gender fuckery. finally took my pronouns out awhile ago while i decide#you might be saying 'lyka! wdym ur a poc? haven't you made jokes about being painfully white before?'#thats bc im a lightskin latino! i got my color from my dad but me and him look nothing like our relatives - they're all much darker.#ethnically? 100% POC. but race? complicated. latin america views race differently to the states so while i say i'm white most of the time -#my mother and my fathers parents are all considered mestizo. (same reason why quackity doesn't say he's white i think)#so while my parents will nag me if i say i'm white latinos/hispanics are classified as such in the states. i'm pale as all hell -#- but did i want my skin bleached as a kid and still think about it sometimes? yup lmao. im not v dark but no one in their right mind looks#at my double last name and dark hair/eyes and say 'ah clearly this is a fellow anglo saxon' asfjkl so yea people are racist#long post#drama tw#discourse tw#negative#dream smp discourse
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