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rachelmanija asked me for an explanation of the pseuicide situation. I've seen a lot of people on Tumblr who are also confused, so I'm posting an edited version of my response to her.
(Note that I wrote this around midnight on New Years - a good way to celebrate! - and some of the credulity has died down since then.)
So. A bunch of Tumblr users recently pretended to attempt suicide due to "anonymous hate." They then either "miraculously recovered" or revealed that their "account was hacked."
People affected by this plague of undeath:
These are all members of the Supernatural fandom. What we're seeing here is basically a case of mass hysteria caused by a cascade of people
1) faking anonymous hate mail against themselves, generally mentioning personal vulnerabilities and urging them to commit suicide in very specific ways,
2) after responding to their enemies for a while to build up the tension, faking suicide due to their intense distress over the anonymous hate,
3) successfully acquiring the attention and followers they wanted during this period and the necessary hospital drama narrated by a nonexistent person,
4) miraculously being resuscitated and/or claiming to have been "hacked" by bad guys, and
5) thus inspiring others to imitate the project.
Because people actually are buying the hacker story. It's a Christmas miracle.
Most of the "anonymous hate" is very, very obviously from the people to whom it was addressed. Or, it should be obvious! But a lot of the SPN fandom on Tumblr doesn't recognize these tactics! They're too young and are disengaged with the fandom lore, or else they're getting it from Andy fucking Blake of all people. (He's trying to "reach out" to the kids who committed pseuecide right now.)
( Read more... )
(Here is a blog where I'm saving my "favorite" posts from the tags, and here is the first post I made about the situation.)
(Note that I wrote this around midnight on New Years - a good way to celebrate! - and some of the credulity has died down since then.)
So. A bunch of Tumblr users recently pretended to attempt suicide due to "anonymous hate." They then either "miraculously recovered" or revealed that their "account was hacked."
People affected by this plague of undeath:
* cwinchster2000
* kingfrerin/Anthea/brvnner
* d—e—s—t—i—e—l
* randomawkwardawesome
* queen-of-the-rising-demons
* paintedcastiel/insecurecharlie
* simormonroe + wearejustalike
* whiskeyjensen
* chesnutmisha
* spnpie1967/anonxdlol (1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Other sources: 6, 7)
* mopeters1954
* rainbowcas (didn't go through with the “death,” but has the funniest implausible narrative and was clearly the inspiration for some of the others)
* someone who plagiarized Leelah Alcorn's suicide note in an apparent attempt to equate the "harassment of fandom" to transmisogyny, which I'm not linking because it crosses a line for me.
These are all members of the Supernatural fandom. What we're seeing here is basically a case of mass hysteria caused by a cascade of people
1) faking anonymous hate mail against themselves, generally mentioning personal vulnerabilities and urging them to commit suicide in very specific ways,
2) after responding to their enemies for a while to build up the tension, faking suicide due to their intense distress over the anonymous hate,
3) successfully acquiring the attention and followers they wanted during this period and the necessary hospital drama narrated by a nonexistent person,
4) miraculously being resuscitated and/or claiming to have been "hacked" by bad guys, and
5) thus inspiring others to imitate the project.
Because people actually are buying the hacker story. It's a Christmas miracle.
Most of the "anonymous hate" is very, very obviously from the people to whom it was addressed. Or, it should be obvious! But a lot of the SPN fandom on Tumblr doesn't recognize these tactics! They're too young and are disengaged with the fandom lore, or else they're getting it from Andy fucking Blake of all people. (He's trying to "reach out" to the kids who committed pseuecide right now.)
( Read more... )
(Here is a blog where I'm saving my "favorite" posts from the tags, and here is the first post I made about the situation.)
