I know we're all having a good tug off of the old "The Lilo hater is actually super right-wing" but that really doesn't change the larger argument I'm concerned with, which is how punitive (and violent) rheotric is alive and well in criticism, specifically "progressive" criticism

I really don't want people to wash their hands of this kind of deeply poisonous rhetoric just because "a baddie" is peddling it, and not somebody who shares an axis of oppression with you

I can't tell those talking points from "good moral concerns" in my inbox

That's a problem many people can confirm

We can split hairs on what qualifies as "legitimate criticism," but this kind of baseless, dehumanizing, and frankly absurd projection onto fictional works is the basis of the three hatemobs I've seen mobilized to destroy the lives of vulnerable trans artists this week

Sooo yeah

It's going to be extremely difficult for me to chock this one up to "one of the bad ones" when this is the kind of rhetoric aimed at real people who can't defend themselves

Everybody just noticed because it was thrown at a beloved property owned by a corporate monolith

Like, yes, this person sucks and their criticism is racist and classist

Do we care when somebody says the same thing to a real person for not being a silent, compliant model minority, or?

Or does it only matter when it's a cartoon we like?