Not fanfiction or writing-related, but this is an issue that I think needs way more eyes on it -- all the so-called "animal rescue" videos on YouTube.

This is both depressing and vile. It's reached the point where if I see a video featuring animals in any kind of situation, especially ones that have titles written in bad English and are set in a foreign country (sorry, but I don't know how to make it not sound like what it is), I avoid them like the literal plague. Of course that's not to say there aren't videos featuring animal abuse in the States, because I see that on YouTube as well. 

It's appalling that so many people will see videos with titles like "This mother hawk is protecting the kitten from me because she thinks I'm a predator" (not an example, it's a real video on YouTube) and think "Aww, so cute! She is a good mama!" 

Um. Y'all know what birds of prey will do to small animals like kittens, right? Somebody in the comment section thankfully pointed out that the hawk's wings appeared to have been clipped and then the "rescuer" or whoever just shoved the kitten in there right next to it. Both animals did not look very happy. So that's nice. Cool.

The more videos made calling this exploitative animal cruelty out, the better. If you happen to stumble over them yourself, then report them to YouTube.

(Sorry, no major fic updates to report on this time. I'm still working on ND, NT though.)

About fan communities

 

(Head's up for some language as well as potential spoilers at the 4:58 mark if you haven't caught up on the entirety of My Hero Academia yet.) 

Really, you could take any show, book, game, whatever and apply what the creator of this video is saying to it. It's absolutely 100% true. 

Ultimately, fans can engage with a medium however they'd like. But I agree it's pretty out there how people will project themselves onto certain characters or whatever and base their enjoyment of the medium on that one thing, then get angry the story doesn't go the way they wanted. And other such craziness. 

One person in the comments believes the video creator is trying to push a mindframe of toxic positivity, but I don't think so. Toxic positivity, according to Psychology Today, is described as "the act of avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences. This may take the form of denying your own emotions or someone else denying your emotions, insisting on positive thinking instead." I didn't pick up that vibe from the creator or what he said.

I've personally had a few experiences with toxic positivity, including within fandom settings. Back when I was still part of the Elena Of Avalor subreddit over on... well, Reddit, there was an episode of that show that I found pretty subpar, and said so in a discussion thread. Not in any way that was insulting to fans who enjoyed it, just that I didn't think it was a good episode when they'd done better ones in the past. I explained why I thought this. Well, this new guy jumped on my case because I was very critical towards Elena's character and saying the episode was excessively corny to the point of cringe. You could tell he was already on the defense and just getting madder and madder that I wasn't agreeing with him that his cartoon girlfriend was the coolest. 

Afterwards, this guy would come after me not only whenever I had a negative opinion about EoA, but would also start baiting me by insulting stuff I like even when I wasn't being critical of EoA in an effort to get under my skin. And then the whole subreddit started turning into that. Now that's toxic positivity right there.

Nothing wrong with criticism. But if something I like starts turning into garbage and there's no signs of improvement, I jump ship. I'll fuss about it from time to time, but I don't keep watching/reading/etc because I feel like I'm having my time wasted (which is a massive pet peeve of mine's, especially these days), and I don't want to see something I originally enjoyed go down the drain. In the case of EoA, I just started writing fanfiction. 

About that talking space rock show

Earlier in the year, I was really glad to see a few people on YouTube reexamining Steven Universe as well as long-time fans standing up for it and correcting all the misinformation and outright lies that have dogged the series since it's arrival on the scene.

ETA: Decided to link to a different video: