The truth is that I was a little faded last night, so I rambled off in here, but I still meant what I typed. I'm also completely sober now and about to do the same thing again, so... I don't really have an excuse, anyway. For me, it's the rationale being used to hold onto these threads that I find bothersome, because it just seems incredibly ill thought out and entirely bogus. It's also troubling to me for different reasons. I find that holding onto what I believe are false concepts is creating more problems and that what people believe is creating division is actually the exact opposite of what is actually at the root of it.
Also, really quickly: thanks for this town hall. I will be playing the "crazy widow" who has seen some "suspicious activity" around her farm and warns the town that something is afoot, and it relates to the government and, most likely, extra-terrestrials.
I have a number of thoughts on this that could unfold in pieces during back-and-forths throughout a lengthy discussion in this thread. Instead I'll just dump them all here right now and, those who want to read them, can. Others can choose not to. Just like anything/where else on this forum. Then I'll move out of the way while everyone else continues to make their own cases.
I'll present 2 things that largely control my perspective, not just on this topic, but on life and how I live it, in general. The first is that I know a bit about abuse and the dynamics involved with it. The 2nd is how I interpret positivity and negativity. Both ideas can, and often do, also intersect.
So... the glass is half full vs the glass is half empty. I'm a "the glass looks half empty, but I think I know of an easy way to just fill it up" perspective. That view can often be interpreted as negative by the "just don't mention it. It's good enough. Look, we have half a glass" crowd. The second example is something they believe is positive, but it's definitely not optimism. It's defeatist. Defeatism is the opposite of optimism. You see no hope beyond what's in front of you, so the implication of hope is negative. Meanwhile, you're shutting down those who would look to pursue a better way. I should also point out that, a large majority of the time, the "don't worry about it, half a glass is enough" crowd are still going to get some of that water. So, in reality, they don't really care to hear about or, from those, that don't/won't. It only brings them down. The VMP glass could have easily been filled, but they continuously choose not to. Part of that was because people were letting it slide. Instead, they're focusing on those who are fine with half a glass and ignoring that select others aren't getting any sips at all. What's water for the people, when you're drinking cold pressed juice with the big wigs, anyway?
There was a member praising VMP in the midst of some turmoil in the old forum and I told him that, since he was new, he should get back to me in 6 months. He said he was sorry to disappoint me, but his outlook doesn't change. Maybe, 2 weeks later -- if that -- we get the 48hrs notice thread and, by the time I get there, he's already unloaded on VMP -- and hard, and justifiably so -- a good 5 times in the first couple of pages. I quoted his old post and he vanished for good. Not my intention. I wasn't trying to do an "I told you so" for the sake of it, but to welcome him over and point out that everyone else wasn't just being an asshole for asking about the status of their orders. Because, when we got into it a little the first time, I told him that I didn't see the point of coming in to a situation where people are discussing legitimate concerns/feelings and trying to counteract them with how happy you are and how YOU don't have problems. Sorry if the problems of others sound negative to you. Those people deserved validation for their feelings and, if you can't handle it, then ignore them. You don't have the right to twist that into an attack on you and your sensitivities. Most of the time, that's all that anybody needs; they just need to feel heard. To me, it's both negative, -- and, often, unconscionable -- to try and suffocate the voices and concerns of others, to paint them out to be negative or poisonous for being brave enough to speak up or ask a question. "Their problems make me uncomfortable." How do you think they feel? I think and hope that more people feel validated here and I think that's a good thing. If it seems like it's taking a while to get over, give it time. It's a process. If the people fighting so hard for multiple VMP threads don't understand that it's a process that people are working through.... they should. Especially, when they are expecting the same understanding.
This concept extends to situations like politics where people are expected to always vote for the lesser of 2 evils and anyone who discusses problems that don't directly effect them is "idealistic" or asking "too much." People have different lives, situations, and concerns. During the civil rights era, a good portion of white America hated MLK. They hated Muhammad Ali. People sided on the idea that Jim Crow or segregation was fine and that "those people" should be happy, simply because they weren't slaves anymore. "Why are they complaining? What more do they want?" The stats on that are pretty clear and the percentages high. You can believe you wouldn't have fallen into that camp, but most people did. That mentality persists today and continues to persist until your own kids are drinking lead water. Or, in a much less significant example, until YOUR box shows up mangled, or your ROTM is oversold and YOU are shut out. Basically, until something happens to YOU. So, I always just kind of tried to support those with issues, not because I necessarily had the same issues every time, but because I could and because, even if I don't, folks were being made to feel like they were toxic for asking a question about a situation where they were clearly being screwed over. That entire forum has been labeled as toxic in the past and the people being labeled as toxic were US. Not the precious company that bred a mob to eat each other. Outsider assholes are still screaming about how the forum
deserved to be shut down, because we are terrible people. ALL OF US.
And to play off the whole "outsider" concept, we're basically the greasers, like it or not. Personally, I like it just fine. I've always been comfortable with that position, because I've always been forced to live it. Take some pride in that. For others, it's a shocker, because they've always been socs. I feel like some of those people are quarantining themselves and blaming the rest of us, because, in their mind, it's their association with us that has created this thing where, if we just hadn't complained so much, maybe Dad would have never left us!!! How about just blaming your shitty dad, who decided he didn't need a family and wanted to chase his dream of drinking and becoming a big singer/songwriter traveling and playing dive bars? We haven't sent you to the VMP threads. If you don't leave there, that's by choice. When I check someone on reddit for besmirching the VMP forum and accusing us of toxicity, I'm trying to defend every single one of us.
In fact, those of us who are against multiple VMP threads, are actually the ones that defended the right to post VMP exclusives in the pre-order thread, because there was talk by well-meaning admins who thought the mention of VMP in there might upset us, somehow. I don't believe that
@Woob_woob is in this thread, but he definitely defended the right to post VMP exclusives in there. We don't want to tell people that space isn't for them to discuss what whey want, too. Plus, what if FIona, or something, finally gets released? We don't get to know about it over there? It's all or nothing for us, where we either have to sit through every other VMP discussion and go all in over in the VMP exclusives thread, or we're left out? We welcome the bleed over. We've come from a place that shut down dissent. Nobody is quarantining anyone to the VMP threads. They're quarantining themselves and -- although it was meant to be respectful to us -- have almost quarantined us out. Nobody will be shamed for staying on with a subscription over there. Some might even want to buy something from time to time. Some have just reduced what they choose to buy from them. Some will never give them another dime. Some find alternate ways to get things on the secondary market or buy different pressings. Some will continue to buy everything. Everybody has different reasons or needs and no one needs to explain themselves. A lot of us are evaluating our own stances and questioning our own choices. I'm not going to judge what you choose to do. The biggest travesty is if you don't step out into the other threads on N&G to get a more realistic view of what this place is. We lose value and dimensionality when you aren't part of it.