Things I Consider to be True

ivyblossom:

Shipping is the act of enjoying the idea of two characters being in a romantic relationship with each other.

The vast majority of the time, you can’t be wrong about shipping. Because shipping is enjoying the idea of two characters being in a romantic relationship with each other, and the vast majority of people know whether they enjoy a ship. So no one’s wrong to ship a ship.*

Shipping is not the same as predicting things. Shipping is, as I say, the act of enjoying the idea of two characters being in a romantic relationship with each other. You can say YOU ARE AN IDIOT FOR LIKING SOMETHING I DON’T LIKE, AND YOU ARE VERY WRONG TO DO SO, but that kind of make you a jerk and unpleasant to be around.**

Some people enjoy making predictions. That is fair and reasonable fannish work.

Fans who enjoy making predictions are welcome to make them, publish them, and convince other people with them.

You might agree with the predictions of other fans.

You might disagree with the predictions of other fans.

If you feel moved to define your fannish presence as anti-whatever-it-is-someone-else-really-loves-or-believes, you should probably ask yourself why. Do you not love anything enough to be defined by that instead?***

Love is better than hate, on the whole.

You can be thoughtful, interesting, and challenging without being mean and disrespectful to other fans.

You don’t need to live in a tumblr tag and police everything that happens there. You can find the people who post the kinds of things you enjoy and follow them. Then you can create the dashboard of your dreams. It’s pretty great. Seriously.

* I say the vast majority of the time, because there is probably someone out there who is, as we speak, trying really hard to ship something that they don’t yet realize that they don’t ship, and must be, at this very moment, very confused about why shipping what they ship doesn’t bring them the pleasure shipping that ship brings other people. Self-knowledge is complicated sometimes.

** I was being kind. It doesn’t kind of make you a jerk and unpleasant to be around. It makes you a jerk and unpleasant to be around. Try not to be a jerk. Everyone’s unpleasant to be around from time to time, don’t beat yourself up.

*** Just asking.