the reasons in which antis participate and encourage targeted harassment [a thread]

this always seemed to puzzle people, or at least i think it does because a see a lot of them just conclude that it's because antis are "mean." sometimes they can be, obviously, but i think it should be known that there's more to it than that

in my experience, targeted / mass harassment is encouraged for three reasons: social satisfaction, discouragement, and revenge fantasy. let me walk through each one to clarify and expand on what they mean and why they exist

social satisfaction is when there's a link thrown in the group chat and everyone engages in disgust together. then one person decides to gain more approval by stepping in and dropping a nasty comment on whatever fanart, fanfic, or thread that was posted for others to see

if people want to feel validated or to be seen as cool / morally good, they'll also join in. this doesn't necessarily mean they're doing it because they dislike whatever material that's been presented. they're doing it because others are doing it and it's a group activity

think of peer pressure, except it doesn't feel like pressure. when you're standing on the moral high ground, you're not doing anything wrong. this allows you to do whatever you want with no consequence.

next is discouragement. person A very much likes character B and feels attacked and upset when someone sexualizes them or puts them in a position where they are suffering (or if they're turned into a monster, like how people get upset over certain characterizations of dabi)

in this case, the mass harassment is done to either drive that creator off the site or make them stop what they're doing. depending on the offense, it's usually the first but can also be the second depending on how lenient antis are with this person.

discouragement is the most common reason for harassment, especially when it's combined with everyone bonding over hurting someone or being on the same blocklist (or being blocked by the same person). the first and second reason fused together can create a nuclear reaction.

but the final reason is revenge fantasy, something people don't think about very often. when someone is labeled as an abuser, a pedophile, a supporter of incest, etc they are then a scapegoat for people who really want their own abuser to burn in hell

when someone has unprocessed rage or negative feelings towards the person who abused them, this is then taken out on someone who writes or draws similar trauma. think of it like double vision (where they see their abuser in place of the person who they are harassing)

this is usually why (serious) death threats happen, not to push someone off a site, but specifically to make them hurt. this offers cathartic release when you have pent up emotions towards someone who hurt you but they never paid for what they did. it's faux closure.

but because it's not *real* closure, targeted harassment never ends and people are always searching for more obscure reasons as to why things are problematic. antis are not antis without things to be against, but the logic starts to spiral after a certain point