There has been an ongoing trend in the fandom where people get jealous of one's platform (or life in general as displayed on social media) and dishing out hatred towards that person.

One example I think of is a few weeks ago when Shepgoesblep made some admittedly misguided "UwU no pawlitics" meme art, and people rightfully called him out for it.

But it went deeper, one person went as far as criticizing him on a personal level, calling him "a rich white boy from Connecticut"

I really don't feel this is entirely justified, like it's one thing to criticize the actual take, it's another to make it personal like this person did.

Yes you can argue that he does have privilege in the regard that his identity is not politicized, but this was not the time nor the place, also the kid literally just turned 18.

The comment went on about how his art is annoying and the jokes are stale.

This kind of told the whole thing, this wasn't criticism, it was envy.

The person was clearly mad that this person had a platform on social media and was ending up on this person's timeline so often, or otherwise celebrated when this person didn't understand why. This wasn't about the political take, this was deeper.

But you know what? I felt the exact same way towards Fantastic Mr Fox. I still, to this day, stand by the fact that I hate the movie, but I've accepted that it's just not my taste rather than something wrong with the movie, you know?

End of the day, alot furries are very immature and don't know how to handle social media properly. You need to keep your emotions in check when handling things, you can't make a call out personal unless the crime warrants it. All shep did was make a misguided post as an 18 year old. That is NOT justification to throw actual hatred at him. This should hold true for any person with a platform, don't attack them just because they have a platform and you don't like it.

Instead of comparing your life to others, live your life to the fullest, this is a very hard lesson to learn in the age of social media but an invaluable one.

@iBolt07 I dont necessarily agree completely but I do think you make some good points.

@ZiaMacPine It could have been poor verbiage on my part. I just don't think it's right to shit on an 18 year old's personal life and hobbies for a single take that straddles the line of ignorance.

@iBolt07 I do agree with that, and I do think people piled on a bit too hard and some of that was clearly due to their high profile.

I do think pointing out they might have unaknowledged privilege isnt unreasonable though I do agree that can quickly become a personal attack

@ZiaMacPine I don't disagree at all! Privilege is privelage. I have it because I don't have to worry about getting pulled over and arrested for my skin color, but I don't have the ability to just buy my way out of financial crises, by my own means or by asking family.

But in this particular situation, the meme art with an iffy take didn't warrant the personal digging into an 18 year old's life. His money privelage was never addressed or assumed, the insult came outta nowhere.

@ZiaMacPine the only things I can really assume led to the correlation of financial privelage is the few pics he has of his airsoft equipment, the depiction of his house in the comics being in a quiet suburbia, and the key fob comic which leads one to assume his parents MAY have bought him an acceptably modern car, but only if you stretch it real thin and look with a damn magnifying glass - and let's be real, if you hate it so much why are you looking so hard?