alittledizzy wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:28 pm
This is more commenting on the side of people in phandom policing phandom than that guy's video, but I think what I'm seeing right now is a lot of people seeing Dan talk about what the formation of a fandom around him in 2011 felt like and then reacting with guilt over an era they (mostly) weren't a part of and out of defensiveness for a version of Dan that doesn't exist anymore.
Dan said it right in his video. Communities of people formed to talk about him. It’s okay that he thought it was weird. To be the person at the center of that surely would be. It’s been eight years and he understands it a whole lot better himself right now I’m pretty damn sure. Look at Bryony; even if he didn’t understand it from the POV of being on a wavelength with his fans, their literal irl best friend is also in a fandom for real people.
I understand it was really impactful for people to hear what fandom did to him in 2011, but we can’t fix crimes of the past. Also remember what those crimes were: pictures from his facebook circulated of him and his former friends/girlfriend, people tried to stalk out his brother, people were screenshotting his old (pre-youtube) social media. None of those are fixable right now. Being guilty over something you (probably) weren’t a part of won’t help Dan of 2019. And fanfiction wasn't even really a thing in 2011 in terms of phan? Not that I feel like it really needs to be said here, but it wasn't fanworks he was talking about.
Today, in 2019, fandom already self-polices things that go too far. Look at this forum, even - our rules are formed around keeping the discussion open and free but within the boundaries of what Dan and Phil shared themselves and things that will not invade their privacy. Outside of actual trolls, I'm very content with the level of self-restraint this fandom has with privacy invasion.
And I'll stand firm on the point that discussing things Dan or Phil openly and purposefully shared is not across the line. In 2011, Dan - in his own words - was coming out of a period of self-acceptance. The things he said within that period of self-acceptance were less than two years old but also... public. They were posted publicly. Formsprings were answers to fans and people that liked his videos. Daily booth was a public social media account in which he was so actively advertising that he was celebrating follower milestones. I'm not mad at fans from 2011 reading posts less than two years old and being curious. It fucked Dan up, and that's awful, but those fans didn't know. Because Dan - as was the point in his video - wasn't ready to share why it was so hard for him when he stopped feeling accepting of himself. Regretting what you publicly shared is a really shitty place to be in but regret can't make people un-know things.
Human nature is conversation and speculation and curiosity. Fandom, in particular, draws obsessive personalities. That’s not actually a bad thing, imo. People with the sort of personality like that tend to be sharp, have fantastic memories, problem solvers who want to approach situations actively and not passively, good at managing a lot of information, and perceptive. In a lot of facets of life those are highly sought after qualities. But being unable to passively consume things isn’t something you turn on and off. So people who approach fandom as a hobby but prefer immersive hobbies will, by and large, be the sort of people who find a lot of appeal in speculating and analyzing and discussing. I'm so proud of Dan for putting this video out and drawing his lines about what he will and won't share, but to me that doesn't preclude speculation about his life now in 2019 - he said he takes it as a compliment. He gets it. He's not naive. He understands why they're special. It just means that he's making sure we understand we're not getting answers from him, and I respect that totally.
Basically, and I'm paraphrasing this from someone's post and I can't remember who right now because so many fantastic posts have crossed my dash: nothing that's wrong today wasn't wrong before the video, and nothing that was okay before the video isn't okay now.
(also just slipping back into to add:
drawing lines about what you personally feel comfortable with is fine! it's just projecting those onto dan and then pretending what you projected onto dan is an accurate moral judgement of other people is the nope for me)
and found out that Dan unfollowed PewDiePie on both Twitter and Instagram. PewDiePie unfollowed him as well. Now I'm proud of Dan for two reasons 
I'm broke af but I can't wait to see the designs if it is merch!!
