If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.
If you aren’t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity.
Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not.
The First Law of Fandom
Don’t Like; Don’t Read (DL;DR)
It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else’s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.
There are tools out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it – STOP.
The Second Law of Fandom
Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)
Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It’s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It’s not up to you to police fandom.
If you don’t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.
But you have no right to say to any creator “I do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.”
It’s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That’s censorship. Don’t do it.
The Third Law of Fandom
Ship And Let Ship (SALS)
Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.
It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.
You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.
It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.
These three laws add up to the following:
You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.
Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.
Diane Duane Is in some financial difficulties and is asking people to take a look at her ebook store, which has her and Peter Morwood’s catalogues (or at least the stuff to which they have the rights.) The prices are very good, so if you’ve wanted to get a Young Wizards box-set, you can get them now for ~$2 a book.
One of my favorite authors. Let’s see if we can help her out.
THIS. I saw a post the other day that literally said if you do it to a fictional character, you’ll do it in real life.
No. Just NO.
I’m so glad someone put it into words.
Thanks, Lin. BECAUSE FUCKING THIS.
there needs to be an asterisk attached to this sort of thing because theres always those nasty jerks who will take it and use it as a reason to indulge in cruelty
Art is the place to safely explore all the other sides of you.
A huge brewery is being built in the nearby city of Mexicali, and Gallegos – like many others – fears it will suck up what little water remains to make beer for export to the US.”
[…]
Gallegos and other farmers see themselves as the victims of an unhealthy deal between the state government of Baja California and Constellation Brands, the third biggest brewer in the US.
They’re managing the water as if it were loot to be divvied up among them,” he said. “The government’s intention is to leave us with nothing, without land and without water.”
[…]
If this brewery was such a good deal wouldn’t it be [across the border] in Calexico or Las Vegas?” asked farmer Eduardo Cisneros, 75. “They just want cheap water and cheap labour.
Mexicali Resists, the local movement of farmers and residents, have been fighting this decision since it was announced. They have held demonstrations outside government offices and set up protest camps at the construction sites of these water pipes. They are asking to join them in a boycott of Constellation Brands. This includes the following beer, wine, spirit, and sparkling brands:
Alice White, Anderra, Arbor Mist, Ballast Point, Black Box Wines, Black Velvet, Blackstone, Blindfold, Blufeld, Cadet d’Oc, Casa Noble Tequila, Charles Smith Wines, Clos du Bois, Cook’s, Corona brands, Cuttings, Diseno, Drylands, Estancia, Franciscan Estate, Funky Buddha Brewery, High West, Kim Crawford, Manischewitz, Mark West, Meiomi, Milestone, Modelo brands, Monkey Bay, Mount Veeder Winery, Mouton Cadet, Night Harvest, Nobilo, Pacifico, Paso Creek, Paul Masson Brandy, PopCrush, Primal Roots, Ravage, Ravens Wood, Red Guitar, Rex-Goliath, Robert Mondavi brands, Roget, Rosatello, Ruffino, Saldo, Saved, Selaks, Serpent’s Bite, Simi, Simply Naked, Svedka Vodka brands, Taylor, The Dreaming Tree, The Hogue Cellars, The Prisoner, Thorn, Thorny Rose, Toasted Head, Tocayo Brewing Company, Tom Gore Vineyards, Urlo (scream), VNO, Vendange, Victoria, Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards, Wild Irish Rose, and Woodbridge.
“We’re already having water shortages. Now imagine when the plant starts working.”- Mexicali Resists protester, Ana López. “
I just saw the weirdest ad on YouTube. I thought it was for a new WWII video game, but it didn’t seem to be selling anything – it looked like some kind of weird pro-Poland propaganda and just said “Poland did a lot to save the Jews” and then ended with a hashtag about Germany.
What… what did I just watch, and why was it on a YouTube video about sea slugs in America?
as far as I can tell, poland has made it illegal (!) to accuse them of being complicit in any nazi activity which occurred on polish soil, most sensible people objected to this, and the polish government are now putting weird propaganda ads on american youtube for unclear reasons
Hey… Poland? What the fuck?
Yeah they’re basically pulling all the propaganda out that they can saying that they weren’t AT ALL complicit in the murder of Jews and Roma along with the Nazis.
This is a part of Poland’s massive push to erase their own complicity in the Holocaust, and in post-Holocaust antisemitic violence. It is part of Poland’s rising antisemitism. It’s not just American youtube, however. It’s also Israeli youtube. So essentially, Poland is targeting the two countries in the world which have the largest Jewish populations today with this propaganda campaign.
There are multiple advertisements doing this.
I have yet to see one, but I will report any if they show up while I’m watching youtube.
Basically, here is a quick timeline of current related events which make this propaganda campaign terrifying:
60,000 far-right nationalists march on Poland’s independence day, Novermber 2017. chanting “Pure Poland! White Poland!” [Whoops, guess they forgot Nazi Germany saw them as Slavs and therefore lesser? Oh right, re-writing national myth is a part of fascism.] Demonstrators were highly antisemitic, one claimed he was marching against “Jewry.” Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the Polish government seemed to praise the event: “It was a beautiful sight,” the interior minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”
“Whoever publicly and contrary to the facts attributes to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State responsibility or co-responsibility for the Nazi crimes committed by the German Third Reich… or for any other offenses constituting crimes against peace, humanity or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the actual perpetrators of these crimes, shall be liable to a fine or deprivation of liberty for up to three years.”
Discussion of ANY Polish complicity in the Holocaust is therefore also part of the proposed ban. Punishment can be jail time, fine, or “restriction of liberty.” Supporters of Polish President Andrzej Duda urge him to sign the bill regardless of strong objections from both the United States, Israel, and the academic community/Holocaust scholars. The measure passed through Parliament on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan 27th 2018. This causes Israel to postpone diplomatic meetings with Polish representatives, and both Israel and the USA voice objections to the measure.
February 6th, 2018: an article which asks an important question – Poland wants to outlaw blaming Poles for Nazi atrocities. But what about the Jedwabne massacre?To cut to the chase, in an occupied town of Poland in 1941, the Polish residents rounded up the town’s Jewish population, and then willingly (and freely) slaughtered an estimated 400-1,400 of their Jewish neighbors [numbers are estimates as the site was not fully excavated, but rather exhumed in a controlled section], as German forces looked on. The Germans had even refused to let them use firearms, and so the gentile Polish residents of Jedwabne used farm tools as their method of execution.
Then, as of this Shabbat (Saturday, Feb. 10th 2018), jumblr users begin to post warnings about Americans seeing these Pro-revisionism Polish videos on youtube. Others confirm Israelis have been inundated with these videos as well. Although I don’t know if it began earlier, I have noticed that people started first seeing these ads introduced on the Jewish weekly holy day/day of rest, and I do wonder if slipping them in when many Jewish people wouldn’t have noticed was intentional, which feels especially sinister.
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