I hate the internet

I just lost an entire day catching up on the JoCat drama.(Alt link if you are also having problems with Reddit like I am.)

First, JoCat is literally the most wholesome person ever and I've been basically dealing with stress by listening to his Heart of Elynthi D&D campaign. (It is awesome and the most fluffy, lovable, and wholesome thing on the internet and you should all go coo at the adorable little puzzles and monsters he sets up for his players to fight and everything is just immensely positivity all the time and nothing hateful and it's just a lovely slice of escape from the horrible things happening in the world.) So the fact that he's been bullied off of the internet by a bunch of self-important twats is pretty sad.

Second, if there's any proof that being part of a marginalized group does not in fact make you any more of a sympathetic or kind or accepting person, it's this incident where too many people who ostensibly identify as part of a victimized minority are gleefully ripping into someone for being non-conforming. Like...way to go guys, way to fucking eat your own.

Third, the amount of people trying to deflect by pointing out that there are also genuine crazy conservative right-wingers who are doing this is not helping because...uh, aren't you supposed to be differentiating yourselves from said crazy conservative right-wingers?

Fourth, I feel like it needs to be said that misgendering a cis person is just as bad as misgendering a trans person. Like, this is a given, yes? We can agree it's bad regardless of who is being misgendered because misgendering is a bad thing to do, right? Having transitioned or identifying as transgendered does not make you an expert on other people's gender. I thought this was basic shit?

Fifth, I fucking swear if I hear one more person try to explain how "gender" and "genitalia" are not the same thing and therefore if you are not sexually turned on by whichever genitalia you are a transphobe, I'm going to start actually turning into that horrible internet gnome that I rag on. Sometimes people get turned off by specific genitalia through no fault of their own nor the fault of their partner and you need to stop psychoanalyzing that shit and just accept sex ain't happening AND THAT'S FINE. Like, fuck's sake, grow up and realize you are not owed sexual attraction just because you checked the appropriate "boy/girl" box! The sheer amount of self-proclaimed pro-trans people (I'm hedging because astroturfing is also a thing) who jump down anyone's throat for stating "I don't like dick/vagina" and start throwing accusation of transphobia around without any context (or accept the possibility that maybe some people's sexual libido is inseparable from genitalia and this is actually not stemming from some kind of internalized bigotry) just kind of...like, holy fuck, you cannot be sitting here demanding acceptance when you can't even accept the possibility that physical libido might be tied to physical stimulus. What the actual fuck?

(Again, if your libido is not linked to genitalia, great. More power to you. That doesn't mean everyone's libido isn't hugely affected by genitalia and physical stimulus. HOLY FUCK GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE.)

(Also, also, it sounds like none of these internet gremlins have heard of medication that affects libido — shock, physical chemicals in your body can change what turns you on?! Yes, it's true, our biology is in fact a slave to the physical reality of the world and not actually under the control of our "free will" as we once thought.)

Finally, this internet drama is so FUCKING POINTLESS because the real problem is not some dude who likes cat ears and singing about liking a wide variety of physical characteristics of female characters on the internet. JoCat is not the reason transgendered people can't go to the bathroom or are excluded from amateur athletics programs or have a higher mortality than their cis-gendered counterparts. Go touch grass.