Jonathan Vair Duncan  🗡️ 🦁 🌞

I agree artists should be -aware- of our potential effects, and we should all work to cultivate that culture of awareness in our followers and fans. We have some power to affect how the community thinks about things, and that could prevent problems in real spaces.

But it's extremely important that I add that this doesn't translate to culpability. We are not and cannot be -responsible- for others' actions. To acknowledge we have an effect is not tantamount to guilt by association.

This reminds me of the fashion industry, and how difficult it is to make a conscientious choice to an support ethical industry. Those evils are way bigger than any one consumer. No person buying Fast Fashion is _responsible_ for sweatshops, but they certainly aren't helping.

No ethical consumption under capitalism unfortunately! You can't be a conscientious consumer no matter what you buy because somebody was exploited in making some part of it down the line. That's a system problem rather than a cultural one.

The line for me is fantasy vs reality. That’s it. I would never draw cub or feral porn, but I accept it as fantasy and do not wish to censor it. I can’t control what people do behind closed doors, but if people are or want to abuse animals or kids, I’m calling the cops.

Like, it’s pretty simple I guess in my view. Not a lot of grey for me. The moment you infringe on the rights of another being I’m done being accepting. I hope people who abuse others get the justice they deserve.

I understand your point is “what if someone who is an abuser of people or animals consumes the porn you make” but it’s irrelevant. They’d find it elsewhere if they didn’t find it from a certain artist especially since they do it in real life.

It’s like saying the anarchist’s cookbook is at fault for Columbine, those kids were so messed up they’d have been destructive whether or not they had the book. These people are messed up enough that with or without the art, they’d still cause harm.

Fwiw I’m not being argumentative I’m agreeing with you to a degree, where I disagree is that you can stop an evil seed from growing by questioning a harmful fetish. You can’t, that person is already ok enough with the idea to talk about it with another person.

They need help, but a good deal of them won’t admit it and typically prefer to just indulge their harmful thought processes instead of challenge them because it feels good no matter the consequence,

I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what to add to your idea! The purpose of this thread isn't simply to preemptively treat negatives. It's to promote a culture where discussion and accountability happens.

And you're missing the other end of this, it seems, which is that this directly related to my questioning my own tastes first, esp. in the context of my troubled past. This is just as much about being accountable to myself as it is being accountable to others.

So, what you're saying is, artists should at all times be paranoid that someone, somewhere who did something bad at some point in their life to someone or something in some non-specific instance will have some yank over their art. And that'll support some bad thing.

Consider: MLP is a good show for kids that does good things for little children. So no one should draw any MLP art because of the endless list of things bronies have done? Because it doesn't have to be porn for them. It doesn't have to be porn for many people to have a jerk.

If you feel like you're tormented about the idea of someone playing the meat flute to the art you create, I have bad news. There will always be someone, sick or normal, who will chuck his Barry Whites to it, no matter how hard you try. Every piece is an anchor for their fantasy.