Elf Harper

TLDR: People don't care about nuance. That's why they read TLDRs, and that's a problem. I don't think I understand what Christian means to people. My best attempt to define it is someone who learns of Christ and decides to leave behind what they were doing and follow Christ, learn more of him, and then do what he says. A significant part of this is the process of learning who He is. Understanding He is a literal God, in that He was more than just a man, a guru, a teacher, or a prophet, but the literal Incarnation of Divine Being that is beyond what mortal comprehension can truly grasp. And this cannot be understood through pure reason alone, but as He said biblically, is revealed through the testimony of the Holy Ghost via the revelation of Heavenly Father. He also was adamant about many things, teaching without exception, inviting all to come and follow. And He has specific ways of doing things, specific commandments, requirements, and expectations of those who follow Him. In the context that we as Christians aren't to debate Christ like we debate mortals, I'd like to consider one such teaching. That is that we are to seek Private Correction before public. This is a wise course of action, and it is not isolated in presentation. Christ explains it clearly, and it is echoed by principles such as not betraying the secrets of others and debate causes directly with your neighbors. Correct first privately, if that is rejected then with one or two more witnesses, and then publicly after. Is there room to argue that is strictly for the church and only applies to people in it? Sure there is, but I think it is foolish to restrict the wisdom of Christ to the bounds of only the internal club, only those who are baptized or declared into your denomination of Christianity, especially when the message of Christ is so continually applied to cover all, to reach out to your neighbor as described in the parable of the Good Samaritan, or that inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. That, to me, is why I am so concerned with how Strawb approached this situation. Because she is powerful. She has a voice that many immediately trust. She has friends in higher places than her. And when she chooses to use that power, it has consequences. And I don't see that being respected. And worse, when it comes to her claims that her faith in Christ and her testimony matters more to her than anything, it seems to not be true when it becomes inconvenient. And I say that because Strawb has said herself she just didn't see a reason to confront Ember privately. She didn't want to. That's not how commands from Christ work. But criticism is being turned into a false dichotomy. If I criticize Strawb, then I am clearly on Ember's side. No. I neither think Ember is in the right nor that this is not a big deal. People have legitimate hurt feelings, and it is caused by a lie. We may call it innocuous or malicious, but a form of social deception and personal deception remains. People are genuinely hurt by it. Far less than the rhetoric would imply, as I don't see evidence of some type of mental deficiency leading to fetishistic violation of women. And I do mean that. I do not like how Ember is being painted in all of this, whether through his books or through his comments. I find it inappropriate, but I do not get the impression that Ember was sexually gratified from these interactions. I get the impression that Ember has terrible self image issues, to the point of hating his body, his appearance, his voice, and most of all, hating the loss of happiness and opportunities due to those things. And man this world is cruel to any who aren't beautiful, powerful, or desirable. Is it so strange that someone who received validation, support, even adoration under a persona of beauty and desire, would seek to hold onto that with both hands? Is this a sexual fetish? Maybe it is. Maybe I don't get how fetishes work either. But from my perspective, I don't really see it. Harmless? No. I think it's dangerous. Self acceptance and actualization are real. We DON'T have the tools to alter the body that way. While people are free to pursue their desires, I do think some should be restrained. We do need to overcome desires and pursuits that are unhealthy for us, and we have a social obligation to restrict our own desires that harm others. But I still don't think this deserves to be framed as fetish gratification, nor do I think what Ember wrote as NL Paradox is so disgustingly vile it justifies this campaign. Maybe I'm desensitized due to how so much of media has become. On AO3 alone, there are over 8 MILLION M/M Fics written, smattered continually with incest and omegaverse, half of the total fics in the archive, with about 580000 being explicitly tagged as Rape/Non-Con, another 400000 with the euphamistic tag Underage Sex, and about 6 MILLION tagged with "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" masking the numbers which are really much higher, bringing both up into the millions. I simply do not care about the mid nature of NL Paradox writing that barely scratches the surface of the transfiction rabbit hole. Anyone can absolutely choose to never associate with Ember again for writing something that makes their stomachs turn. I see much greater issues to be dealing with. Worse, I have to wonder, in any interactions I have with Strawb and supporters of Strawb, what exactly do I have to do in order to be destroyed by that side? Is this criticism enough? My enjoyment of anime? My willingness to compromise? Is my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sufficient for cancellation today? Maybe tomorrow, when the winds change? Is it wrong of me to wonder that? Perhaps. Staunch anti-trans insanity stances have been a backbone of this community I've joined. But so has free speech and expression, even into controversial things such as lolis. As the movement continues to grow and shift, are we going to destroy Chibi Reviews? Maybe Leaflit has to go for wrongthink. Banajuju too? Who goes on the pyre next? Is trans the hard line here, or is it art and free speech? Do we bring up the pasts of every single creator for the Online Inquisition to judge now? Everyone has their right on who to follow, but is this really the game we want to play? And I don't mean we refuse to hold people accountable. That is a responsibility. Ember did wrong and deserves to be punished. And he is being punished. Friendships are lost forever. Collabs and connections are severed. This online campaign has altered the history and capacity of Ember's future. He just went full time as a content creator. These are real consequences. It affects followers, income, influence. But this COULD and SHOULD have been handled better, starting in a private chat or group chat. And this is one of the matters that is seriously annoying me. For some reason, whether because of stupidity or maliciousness, this claim, this call for private rather than public confrontation is being treated like Ember should not have had to come out honestly as a man using a female voice changer and avatar. That is not what handling this privately means. The only possible way to handle this ends with that information being made public. Handling it privately means that instead of turning this into a public blasting session where the information is released in a disorganized drawn out way, it is instead organized so we don't have to play this game of who's right, where's the evidence, is this cancellation, bullying, etc. It's not about protecting Ember. It's about protecting everyone. And maybe that attempt was earnestly made. But the way this has unraveled is so haphazard, information shared piecemeal from multiple angles with contradictions, that I honestly can't confirm it. I keep hearing claims. Did Maria direct message Ember, ask if Ember was a woman, and be told yes, Ember is a woman? Apparently, according to Strawb, but that DM was not released, only the ones Maria chose to release. This is the only thing that matters. Why, of all the DMs to release, was THIS ONE NOT RELEASED? Celestium knew a month ago? Or at least received the information? Did anyone follow up? Was Celestium going to ask but has been inundated with her own medical problems and her mother's medical emergencies, so that was delayed? Why of all times did Strawb decide to act now? Was it just a thing she had been meaning to do and thought well, might as well now that I see it in the feed? Was it a bullet with Ember's name on it that she had been waiting to fire? Because this was not handled better, and instead has been put through the drama farming formula, there is now division that did not need to be. Factions had to form to justify stances, past collabs, and friendships. People made decisions based on the first evidence or narrative they heard. This is not surprising. We all know that is what happens. So if we know that, why do it this way? Really, think about that. If we KNOW this is how things work, why did it happen this way? That is why this reeks of a purity spiral, of deliberate organized cancellation. Because nobody is willing to say I was wrong or I jumped the gun. No, instead it's, why are you attacking me? Why aren't you clearly on the right side? Why are you such a hypocrite? This is a very simple situation. Ember is clearly in the wrong. But, is Ember so in the wrong that he deserves to be utterly destroyed, totally excised from the internet for being a trans grooming fetishistic rape fantasizer who has been sexually gratified from infiltrating women's spaces and fooling the women who let him get close? Or is Ember in the wrong because he loved living the Ember identity more than he respected the feelings of discomfort and betrayal that the women who let him get close would feel? Does Ember really deserve to be equated to Nyara? There's really no difference at all, Ember and Nyara are exactly the same? It really makes no difference that Ember stood staunchly against principles that Nyara openly supports? These are rather extreme and dangerous stances to take. This reeks openly of group guilt. Once a troon, always a molester. Once a hentai watcher, always a pervert I guess. There is no nuance, no thinking. All of this is fake and gay. All of it, from the Ember lies to the mishandling of this accusation and justification campaign on Strawbs side. THIS is why there is wisdom in handling the start of it in a group chat confrontation. Because at least then, you can just show it, the group chat itself, and clearly show whether Ember accepted to reveal who he is, that he is a man, or if he tried to keep hiding it. Then, we don't have to worry about all this nonsense and fallout. We don't have to worry about the dms or the contradictions. Then we know what happened all at once. We do things in order for a reason.