Fuck I was offline for a few days but THIS HAS TO STOP.

We desperately need to talk about certain fringe factions of ARMY who have become more and more extreme, more delusional, who spread misinformation, and who are consistently crossing boundaries that should never be crossed. https://twitter.com/MonospIaylist/status/1274196479427653632

There have always been solo antis and manager antis and plain-old regular antis floating around since this fandom began, but in the last few years those factions have become seriously organised and grown exponentially.

It's getting to the point where there are almost cult-like groups who organise harassment campaigns and pile-ons through private group chats and sic their followers on anyone they decide to 'cancel'. They actively recruit naive and young newer ARMYs and feed them misinformation.

This has gone beyond wanting a dialogue around controversial issues, being free to express opinions. It's become a system where these groups feel like they can and should ruin the lives of people who step 'out of line' with their often extremist and delusional ways of thinking.

Snap decisions are made on the basis of a few tweets misunderstood or taken out of context.

Threads are compiled full of outright lies and total manipulation of the narrative, which are then believed wholesale by followers, and shared endlessly even after they've been debunked.

We need to have a proper conversation, starting now. We need to talk about how we can function as a fandom full of diverse people with diverse views and attitudes without resorting to virtual violence. We need to talk about how to walk back the culture which has already formed.

We need to educate each other – and keep educating each other – about fact-checking, boundaries of behaviour, how to reflect on internal bias and keep delusional thinking in check, how to think for ourselves as individuals and not be drawn into 'group think' or mob mentality.

We need to talk about a culture which uses 'meme' language and in-jokes to desensitize people to the reality of what they're doing, encouraging each other to push further and further away from any sense of right and wrong, any sense of personal responsibility.

And it should be so clear where we start – look at the group we're fans of for god's sake!! We united around a shared love of their music, lyrics and personalities – and the message they give is very, very clear. We need to come back to the basic principles of empathy & kindness.

We should be able to make space for differences of opinion, for ongoing dialogues – that's how we learn and grow, keep ourselves in check.

The system we have right now makes those conversations impossible, and makes daily life in the fandom toxic and stressful.

I've probably said enough now. This thread isn't very organised, just a stream of consciousness after reading the news. I welcome conversation & ideas about where we go from here!! There are so many of us who've had enough of this, and it's never too late to start working on it.