This is my open letter to whoever's listening. I don't care if you are and I don't care if you aren't. I don't plan to read replies to this thread, or respond to people regarding it. But since this community - which swears it figured out my game years ago - thinks I would use an alt to post my own thoughts for others to read, I figured I'd say what I think under my own name, just to prove a little point.
This community is toxic, and it's your fault. Yes, you! You, the member who laughs when someone calls a trans user by a slur or uses "-blam!-" like punctuation in arguments. You, the ninja who turns a blind eye to discrimination and hatred because to stand up to it would be hypocritical, given how discriminatory and hateful you have been yourself, in public and where you thought others couldn't see you. You, the employee who reads feedback and laughs because your own users couldn't possibly have any idea about what they're talking about when they identify problems with their community, and then prides themselves on community interaction. This place is toxic because of all of you. You could fix it, but you don't want to, because it's easier to sit back and claim that real change can't happen on the internet than it is to get up and do something, even if it's just one person at a time.
And you know what? That's fine. People get the communities they deserve. If this is what you want out of a community, you're welcome to it. And I get that I'm not the person you want to hear criticisms from. Trust me, I know that by now, you've made it loud and clear. I could make a thread about Hitler being evil and this forum would be full of Holocaust deniers the next day. Whatever, I can handle it.
This isn't about me. (Weird, I know.) It's about you.
You choose to ignore obvious problems with the site's culture because you think they're too hard to fix, or because you don't care. You choose to be content with the crumbs of affection and consideration Bungie doles out to you once in a blue moon, like puppies who forget they've been kicked when a bone appears in their owner's hand. And that's fine. We forgive a lot from the people and institutions we love. But just because you choose to accept it, doesn't mean everyone has to - and just because some people [i]don't[/i] accept the status quo, doesn't make them butthurt or wrong just because.
I didn't post that thread of mine on the mains because I knew it was a message nobody wanted to listen to. I allowed someone else to post it because I knew it was a message that needed to be heard, even if it fell on deaf ears. In news that I'm sure will overjoy most of you, I'm done trying to change things here. But just because I'm tired of dealing with your bullshit (yes, yours!), doesn't mean you have to slam the people who still have a little fight left in them.
So many things about this community are broken. Be thankful that there are still people who care enough to want to fix them. Be even more thankful that I'm no longer one of them.
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Great post Jay. You are 100% correct.