Another unwarranted sequence of paragraphs dedicated to the aisles between abuse content and hugbox. I’m going to try to bridge the gap for once, instead of approaching the matter from the stance of, “It would be nice if one form of content suddenly wasn’t a part of the foundation of this following”. Hopefully this does more to unite the readers as opposed to the usual devolution that accompanies this topic, but here is a preemptive response to the naysayers for the spirit of the occasion.
“If you don’t like it, leave it alone.”
This rule of thumb clearly does not work despite it being the perfect solution to any conflict of opinion that would arise here. The root cause for this I find is that, for whatever quirk of psychology responsible, users don’t think “I don’t like that,” and leave offending content. Instead they engage with aforementioned content and put themselves at odds with those said content appeals to. I’ve noticed it happening at an uptick compared to the usual rate of squabbling in the comments section.
There is nothing that can be done within the mechanics of the community to alleviate this. There are no subdivisions of categories to make, no tropes to abandon, or filtering rules to write into existence.
The last recourse then, has to be a human element. Let’s try to understand each other instead of arbitrarily making assumptions and using the ignore function.
I realize how ironic and hypocritical that may read as coming from myself. I am self-aware enough to recognize this, address it, and commit to adjusting course. With the aim to humble myself, it is my goal to demonstrate willingness to be an example of tangible action, rather than pointless conjecture and well-wishes.
Plan Of Action
I invite readers of this topic to state where they stand in accordance to which genre they align with and if they so wish to expound, why so. Any additional details are welcome as well.
For Example
Up to now, I wished to keep my enlistment status in the US Military unknown, with a few exceptions. For the sake of context and clarity, I will state it openly. I know of a few other service members involved with the community: a retired airman, a sailor, and a marine. As for myself, I am a soldier. I will follow their precedent. Perhaps we will have a guardian in the fold one day to complete our DoD representation. Edit: I realize I forgot the Coast Guard. Hello, Puddle Pirates.
As for why I am here, I was on deployment during 2020. Bored soldiers are a timeless and universal creed, though we must go to war with our brothers in spirit for the banners they fly and the goals of our leaders. In my boredom, I came across fluffies because of Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed, like Reddit, is cancer except for Unsolved and Zefrank. And Ryan and Shane broke off from Buzzfeed a while ago –
So, fluffies.
In short, Buzzfeed reacted to fluffies as any ignorant purse-clutcher does. And that made me say to myself, “Aw yeah. Hurt those shitty things.” To not name names, there seems to be a belief that existing headcanon is what sways people to abuse or hugbox. In my case, that simply was not true. But Buzzfeed never acknowledged the hugbox side so take this as you will.
“Of course the baby-killer is an abuser,” said the hypothetical strawman in the audience. But I didn’t join in on making content with the intention to add to the abuse. My first pieces were neutral and sadbox.
But then I had frequent encounters with a certain kind of Redditor on the Subreddit and found that imagining fluffies dying and leading lives of agony conferred some great schadenfreude. The more undeserving the fluffy and the more unusual the abuse, the better, in my opinion.
As already written, at the beginning when I was a fluffy spectator, I had no inclination for hugbox. That remains true to this day. That said, I don’t have an aversion to it, either. I don’t care what anyone relates to in this community. I find that I leave cynical and subversive commentary on the few hugbox posts I look at, but I don’t mean to belittle the creator or the piece. Those are just my unfiltered thoughts in a space that aims to praise and fawn over imaginary creatures. My bad. I am aware that this is bad taste and take measures to lessen it, unless bantering with my usual compatriots. @Booperino @I_might_be_weasel @Stwumpo @infraredturbine
Lastly, I have a certain view of freedom of expression. That being said, I do believe in accountability as well. Act like an asshole and get treated like an asshole.
I hope this will aid future interactions between older and newer users in the future.
Anyway, I’m writing this during some BS mandatory briefing that military personnel are all too familiar with so I’ll see what becomes of this later.