^It’s an old adage in the fanfiction community that still holds true to this day. Honestly, maybe it’s never been more relevant than it is now, in our current climate of PC-ness and snowflake-ism.

It’s pretty simple and straightforward, really – if you don’t like a particular ship or subject matter, then JUST DON’T FUCKING READ ANY FURTHER. Stay the fuck away. Leave it the fuck alone. GTFO – however you wanna phrase it. The bottom line is: Take some goddamn personal accountability for your motherfucking actions, and realize that your individual preferences aren’t any better than anyone else’s.

Furthermore, quit pissing and moaning every time something “offends” you. Awww, whassat?? – poor baby’s delicate widdle sensibilities got a teensy-weensy paper-cut?

Put a bandaid on it, and shut the fuck up.

Geez.

This rant isn’t about anyone or anything in particular – in today’s cancel culture, there’s a depressing abundance of these types of attitudes out there, in the IY fandom and outside of it. But they all have one thing in common: an absurdly fucked-up preoccupation with the imaginary and a grotesque sense of self-entitlement. So although this is a fiction blog, let me pivot back to reality for just a moment…

*Pulls out 30-year-old soapbox and hops right up onto it*

In the real world, people aren’t going to coddle to your crybaby bitch behavior. (Or if they do seem to cater to it in the moment, know that they’re doing it begrudgingly, or purely for the sake of their own virtue-signaling, and that sooner or later there’s a bitch-slap coming your way. Boss passes you over for a promotion? Friends and family start to ghost you? Partner up and leaves you? You get the idea.) You wanna know what really impresses people? What really makes them like and respect you? A good sense of humor, humility, and genuine conscientiousness for others.

Being whiny and petty, especially about shit that doesn’t matter, just isn’t very attractive, and it’s not going to get you very far.

Now, that said, if you’re not interested in ever leaving your little bubble, if you’d rather sit there and play the victim and nurse your exaggerated injuries, then keep on doing what you’re doing. Stay in your little circle-jerk of an e-echo chamber and keep being a mean, nasty little person who the world at large will point and laugh at, openly or otherwise.

Because if I come across you, I’m gonna laugh at you. If you go around spouting your ridiculous, poisonous stupidity, I’m gonna call you out on it. Freedom of speech cuts both ways, motherfucker.

If you dish it out, you’d better be prepared to take it. If you ignore the caution signs that common-sense and others’ discretion have set out for you, and run headlong into something you can’t handle, then that’s not my fucking problem, or anyone else’s.

It’s yours.