As a master of the library and information science, I feel deep sadness about the whole way in which some ppl, even academically educated ppl, approach fictional literature or fiction in general these days and how it seems even somewhat getting worse.

This is gonna be a "rant thread" about all that the antis do, what happened to @actualadultJD, what's happening to others...
I worked on it for 2 days to make it clear, yet I'm sure it's not perfect, we're on Twitter after all, but it needs to get out

You can't get rid of harmful things IRL by slapping a label on ppl based on what fiction they consume or create & declaring them evil.
Or even name-calling & bully them.

You can't do it by declaring "evil themes" & demanding silence on them, either.

These are false enemies.

There're no themes that only harmful ppl like to see in fiction.

Yes, not even these *ation buzzwords some use so much these days.

They have no objective meaning anyway, because fiction itself is not objective. It's subjective to the author & to every single consumer of it.

Not everything is good for everyone, either.
If something triggers you, if you can't stand certain themes, it's up to you to avoid them as much as possible. It can be the most basic thing for some, it's not up to others to censor themselves, we avoid fiction that we don't like.

We can't get rid of harmful IRL stuff by picturing our characters based on harmful people as the Perfect Vilian™ only, making it seem like it's this easy, pretending like they're never loved, loving, not ever being nice & sometimes even rather mistaken/trapped than "true evil".

Why only showing them as some distant evil monsters, never more realistic (if that's what their autor wants)?

Why pretend they can't be among us, same in some ways? Of course they are! They may be our relatives, the nice neighbor of yours, that receptionist who always smiles. Be it nowadays, in Nazi Germany, in Inquisition times...
It's sad but everyone can decide to go the harmful way.

That's the only thing you can be sure of: people are unpredictable & becoming a hypocrite never stood in the way of any harmful behavior.

To be better ppl, we need to avoid falling for their way of thinking, cos they really are not fully different.

It's easy to fall if we start listening to our feelings over facts. Feelings can be much easier manipulate. Censorship surely is a part of it. Every harmful ideology is telling ppl what media they can't create/consume & what harmless thing can't do. Sex is often in its center.

Ppl don't do harmful things to be evil most of the time, they just do what feels good or necessary to them. No one's *phopbic/racist/etc. for wanting to be the Wrong™ - they believe they are right, have no other choice,...

The good vs evil binarity is false, there's no clear line, the world & our brains are not that simple.

Fiction, on the other hand, can of course be like that. It's okay to want to escape into the world where everything's much simpler. Or even into the world where certain harmful things don't exist.
But fiction also always was, should be & needs to be reflecting our real world.

There's enough space for both & more variations, neither is making the other less important. Simple ones, deeper realistic ones, theoretic ones,... Different ppl seek different stories.

Even the harmful ppl sometimes help others, they may love, be sexy, have sex (even with "heroes"). They can change & be better or remain terrible, they can have undeserved happy endings, simply cos that's how our world sometimes is.

Why would our characters have to be different?

If the "evil character" is a human being, why always dehumanize them?Sometimes it's good for the story but sometimes not.
Anyone IRL can be(come) a harmful person & we can't get rid of it by avoiding that truth and making some false generalization based on ppl's taste in fiction.

Trying to forbid stories that are too complicate or uncomfortable for some (you) would only feel better for ppl would be less aware, the theme would be less on their minds. But it wouldn't stop existing.
You can always avoid such stories instead of making that choice for others.

Harmful people can produce harmful fiction, of course, but it's never the other way around.
Their fiction is harmful because they fill it with their agenda to promote their harmful beliefs.

That's why the new Rowling's book is probably not okay - not for the theme, not for whatever its characters do, but for the transphobic author.
And the author should be called out for her transphobia as the book should be known for being soaked with it.

But when fighting harmful ppl, we have to be careful to not become harmful ourselves. Fighting fire with fire works only so far, until you burn someone, too.
Censorship of any kind, even 'just' quilt tripping ppl into avoiding certain themes, is no good.
It's harmful.
Full stop.

Such thing is not providing insight, critique nor even warning for triggers, it's just a harmful tactic how to manipulate lives of others.

Via emotions if they can't use physical force...

And yet it's not any better, there's a reason why the pen is mightier than the sword.

You can't get rid of harmful behavior IRL by policing fiction.
And you certainly can't get rid of it by demanding others to not touching some themes at all or forbidding some other elements in such stories.
Censorship never ever did any good.
Remember that.
Never.
Ever.
.