You’ve seen the posts. Not genuine PSAs about current events or fundraisers or missing persons or the latest government fuckery. I’m talking about the ones that are the digital equivalent of chain letters. The ones that threaten you or your loved ones or your pets or something if you don’t reblog. The ones that imply that if you DON’T reblog some trite generalised wish of goodwill to other people then you’re somehow a bad person and you’re actively willing the opposite.
This is magical thinking BULLSHIT.
It’s gross and it’s bullying and it’s wrong.
I have anxiety. I have self-esteem issues, I have self-worth issues, I already feel like I am letting people down every day, for no reason.
So when, out of habit, you reblog that thing, the thing that says ‘reblog this to help xyz’ as though it magically has the power to do anything, usually with a bunch of reblogs below judging anyone who doesn’t, know that you are making people like me feel that little bit worse.
My reblog won’t magically protect your pet from harm this year or protect your laptop or protect all the millions of people out there on this planet from flood, fire, famine or stubbed toe. Your judgement of those who don’t reblog these banalities CAN do harm.
The ones I like? ‘Have you taken your meds?’ ‘Get up and stretch.’ ‘Have you drunk enough water?’ ‘You’re a good person, I know you’re trying.’ The ones that actively help people keep themselves safe and healthy, and have NO EXPECTATION OR REQUIREMENT of those seeing them to reblog. And those who do? The comments aren’t a guilt trip, they’re often thanks. ‘Oh thank you, I had forgotten.’ ‘That feels so much better, thank you.’ and ‘I really needed to see this right now.’
If you’re reblogging something because of ingrained superstition or guilt, please just take a moment and think WHY. And then if you actually want to reblog, do it, but remember – you are spreading this out in the world, and your actions aren’t benign.
^^all of this.
I have anxiety, too, and those guilt-trip post used to set me off into a downward spiral that could last days. In my earliest days I might even reblog them, but it wouldn’t really assuage the guilt. It’s such emotionally manipulative bullshit that is helping nobody.
If you are like me and anxious about not reblogging it, maybe frame it like this: by not reblogging, you are protecting your followers and mutuals from facing the same situation.
It helps me – I have a protective streak a mile wide and have always over-identified with helping people. I am the guard to the content I reblog – I tag them for you to blacklist or to find again later. And I have sworn an oath not to reblog those chain-posts, any form of the ‘why is nobody talking about this’, ‘you just don’t care if you don’t reblog’. And because I have cast this role for myself, standing between you and these irrational guilt-trips, I can pass those posts by with only a minor twinge these days.
Don’t fall into the trap of reblogging. And if it’s a good post but has bs comments on it, go to the source and reblog from there.
Leave off the guilt, please
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knitting in the dark 