dark-magician-girl-meets-world:
80% of my opinions on Tumblr discourse are driven by one principle. I call it the Hateful Shitbag test. Imagine a hateful shitbag, the kind of person who has a Blue Lives Matter flag and thinks Fox News is mostly good but not as insightful as Breitbart. The Hateful Shitbag test is to ask yourself whether that person, qua hateful shitbag, would like your opinions on a group in question. If they wouldn’t, it passes. If they would, it doesn’t mean you’re a hateful shitbag yourself, but it might mean you’ve internalized some of the narratives they spread, and it certainly means you’re giving them comfort.
For instance, take TERFs. They claim to be radical, but would a hateful shitbag approve of the way they talk about trans women? Hell yeah, they’d love it. In fact, a lot of them do love it and try to make friends. It fails the Hateful Shitbag test.
Would a hateful shitbag agree with how transmeds talk about non-binary people? How about how exclusionists talk about ace people? Or whoever the heck it is who goes on about MOGAI people? I really like the hateful shitbag test; it’s a good way to catch yourself when you start internalizing things.
tldr don’t act like hateful shitbags even if you want to


