this callout inquisition shit needs to STOP.

theosophicalwitch:

jumpingjacktrash:

making and circulating lists of bad people to hate is SO UNACCEPTABLE. it is just a really shitty thing to do.

it’s also immature and stupid. it’s just nasty gossip. it’s the same middle school bullshit as like, “omg i heard suzy blew daryl behind the gym” “omg what a slut” and a lot of theatrical gasps and pearl clutching, and of course no one asks either suzy or daryl whether this happened or how the rumor got started. because gossipmongers don’t care what’s true or who gets hurt. they just want to feel important because they had exciting news. and the people they tell it to want to feel important too, so they spread the exciting news, and pretty soon this bullshit rumor is rolling across the internet like a sewage tsunami, and the reputation of the person being talked about – chosen practically at random, often enough – is utterly destroyed.

is that who you want to be? do you want to be a sneering whisperer, do you want to be the one who’s always going “omiGAWD DID YOU HEAR???” and then smearing anyone you can find a plausible speck of dirt on? do you want to be a Rita Skeeter?

or maybe it’s worse than that. maybe you sincerely believe that anyone who has sinned must be destroyed. maybe the middle school gossip squad is too tame for you. maybe you want to be a pitchfork mob. maybe you have violent urges driving you; maybe you want to hurt someone. maybe you label people as Bad and Wrong so that you can get away with hurting them. maybe you would like to be a modern-day Torquemada, burning heretics in the street.

or maybe, just maybe, you’re reading this and going, “no, that’s not me, that’s unfair, i only reblog callout posts to protect people!” in which case, let me ask you… if i wrote a callout post about you tomorrow, with completely made-up facts and vague but juicy accusations, how many of your gossip buddies do you think would reblog it? how many notes do you think it would get? how many people do you think would see or reblog your rebuttal if you wrote one? when you pointed at me and said, “but none of this actually happened!” how many people do you think would believe you?

“A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” – Terry Pratchett

I fucking hate callout culture.