recently i’ve been investigating how trust works among the online left. i think it’s interesting bc some online friendships of mine have become irl, but bc of the parasocial nature of being a creator, people prescribe values onto you that you may not have ever expressed

so what’s interesting to me is that people will regard my political opinions as though they are not intimate pieces of me, as important as my relationship, career, family, etc. if you aren’t privy to those, why are you privy to my political opinions?

so when a creator inevitably “disappoints you” it’s bc you already have this concept of what that person is supposed to act like. but you never built trust with them in the first place....

you don’t trust me as a creator. i fit into your definition of what a politically just person is, and that comforts you. but you don’t “trust” me.

we are always saying we cannot separate the political from the personal, and yet strangers online expect you to fall into their categories of what it means to be a good, moral, politically just person. when those categories are inherently defined by white supremacy & capitalism.