Ex Astris Scientia

littlemissnarcissus

bisexualwhovian

A bisexual and an asexual walk into a bar.

Nobody notices.

nomoremissnicebi

A bisexual and an asexual walk into a bar.

It’s a queer bar.

People there assume they are a straight couple and ask them to leave because umm :/ this is a safe space :/

klimbelajio

thatlittledandere

Straight people think that either you know you’re gay from childhood or something big happens one day and you Realize (and it is like that to some of course) but lbr for many it goes like

I’m straight
No I’m bi
Wait am I biromantic ace?
No I’m definitely bi
…I may not be bi
Am I straight after all? Am I ace??
Maybe I’m demi??? Who knows
I might also be aroace…
Fuck it I’m pretty sure I’m queer

or whatever

thats how it was like with me too and like im some sort of queer but i dont care anymore i dont even know what i am idc some sort of gay

rainingmoondrops

curlicuecal

Hey, let's talk about anons like this, because I know some people haven't been in a position to see the patterns these play out in on broader scale and may indeed not spot the trap.

And it is a trap.

An ask like this has several purposes.

First, it uses social justice language in passive aggressive and manipulative ways to try to coerce a behavior. In this case, the desired behavior is usually for the recipent to participate in community shunning and/or harrassment. The language above is intended to put the recipient on the defensive where, in the haste to disassociate themself from the Bad Thing, they quickly disassociate themself from the bad person, often with no particular fact checking or evidence.

The message is also intended to create a sense of being surveilled and judged by an unknown amount of people with unknown amount of social power and an unknown amount of relevance to your life.

Notice that these asks are usually framed as if they are coming from a follower or potential follower, someone who is addressing you personally and who cares about your opinion and who your blog has an effect on. However this is usually.... very much not the case. If you've ever had the misfortune to watch a gossip campaign from like this from the outside, you will very quickly notice that messages like this get sent in mass batches to dozens and dozens of strangers. (You can often turn these up with a tumblr search, if you look.)

The sender does not know you and probably does not follow you. They have a person they don't like (possibly for their stated reason and possibly not), and they are going through the reblogs of a post from that blog and mass messaging *everyone* with a form letter. They will not see your response and they will probably never even see your blog again.

Which brings us to the second goal of whisper campaigns like this:

Notice that I blacked out the names above? That's because when the recipient answers anonymous asks like this, they provide a platform for the opinion on their blog. An anonymous message like this that gets posted doesn't just spread gossip and apply pressure to the recipient, it is spread to the recipient's entire community.

The *goal* is to get access to your community. The *goal* is to use you as a soapbox.

Is the information accurate? Did anyone check? Does the anon have an ulterior social motive? BIG SHRUG

If you go into the comments on one of these whisper campaigns you will see that *most people never bother to check.*

They assume good faith from a follower, they're off balance defending themselves, and they jump straight to conciliation.

It's a really, really effective form of social manipulation, and really really commonly misused.

malaloba

This is what bullying on social media can look like especially in left-leaning/social justice minded circles. This is how otherwise caring people get roped into participating in harassment campaigns.

kaijuno

I’m reading the Zola’s Story tag and yall goin in too deep with this psychologically analyzing the ppl and talking abt how ““ppl think its a good read bc they like dehumanizing sex workers”” nah. why does tumblr have to overanalyze every fucking thing cant yall just read the story and be like “thats wild” instead of going on some god damn social justice rant like

reblogging again cause yall needa calm tf down lmao

I’m reading the Zola’s Story tag and yall goin in too deep with this psychologically analyzing the ppl and talking abt how ““ppl think its a good read bc they like dehumanizing sex workers”” nah. why does tumblr have to overanalyze every fucking thing cant yall just read the story and be like “thats wild” instead of going on some god damn social justice rant like

zola's story zola

I’m glad I started using Tumblr and started becoming aware of social justice things before there were many people on here. If I was the ignorant and unaware 13 year old that I was in 2010, only in 2015 instead, I probably would have been doxxed and sent death threats instead of being taught what was right and wrong. A person who grows up surrounded by the media and politics that they are in this day and age don’t know how to just wake up one day and be unproblematic. It takes months and sometimes years to unlearn behaviors and attitudes. A lot of people on Tumblr don’t understand that anymore and immediately resort to witch hunts for 13 year old CHILDREN that don’t know any better. Instead of being taught, they get shamed and treated rudely and that has literally almost always the opposite effect on a person. They become more problematic because they villainize the people that attacked them and this whole attitude that some people here seem to have adopted in the past 2-3 years can be extremely counterproductive.