There are so many people online who post things that basically boil down to this trite garbage:
You Matter
I absolutely loathe it.
Yeah, I know, I can just scroll past and move on but for starters, I see it everywhere, no matter how hard I train the algorithm against it, but also, it just reflects a certain kind of stupidity and mis-directed or even exploitative pseudo-empathy that I reckon does more damage than good.
For example, I joined the Facebook Dull Men's Club and it's great. There are women there too and it's fine, so I thought I'd join the Dull Women's club too. It sucks but that's another topic. Needless to say I'll be leaving after this rant XD
The women here all lean right into this brainless, vapid, You Matter-ism,
I mean, look at this... 'man's' (A They/him despite clearly being a woman) post which she publishes every week on the group:
Each week it's almost, but not quite the same. And that immediately rings several alarm bells.
For starters, AI generated slop? Likely.
22,000 followers. Dead Internet Theory suggests these are all bots, but what do I know?
But the worst thing about it is, countless individuals (or bots?) Absolutely eat this up like it's the most powerful, meaningful, selfless act mankind has ever bestowed upon its species.
HOW??
The comments speak volumes.
How did you KNOW about the laundary?!
It's Sunday night...
So, basically, they made a generalised assumption that people need to do laundry before work the next day. How artisan. Such a bespoke experience.
I neither have or use a dryer and medication. So clearly, this message, and its apparently unconditional love, is not directed at me at all. But what if I buy a dryer??
Do I then suddenly feel included and loved by this individual who copy-pasted an AI-generated message on a group I ALSO HAPPEN TO BE IN by magical coincidence??
The glowing comments are at least replied by this individual but... it's just slop. Whatever pain they unleash from their heart onto this public space, it gets met with something so vapid it's hard to believe nobody gets pissed. Something like 'I gotchu' as a response to 'My entire family died and I'm suffering so bad, I really needed this right now, I forgot to put my clothes in the dryer, thanks for the reminder'.
I gotchu? I gotchu?? wtf, you don't gotch anything, you have no idea who I am and you couldn't care less if I died in a police shootout. Fack off with your 'love', you gotta be on drugs or something.
It's so infuriating watching everybody actually find some false sense of purpose here. It completely trivialises the concept of love, boiling it down to just a thing you say at the end of any given sentence.
BUT, even so, if it genuinely does help their mood, then, you know, who am I to do anything about it? Like finding comfort in God, this is probably just an imperfect human way of surviving.
But then, I'm sitting here thinking to myself... they do this every week... why? What does this man get to gain from this?
Naturally, my mind turns to
Of course. I'm confident about this. It's a fucking grift at the expense of desperate people.
So, a quick look on their page and there it is. Stevie Safe Spaces Dot Com. (I don't want to make it convenient to get a click).
The VERY FIRST thing you see upon visiting is a T-shirt for sale.
Further down, a little blurb about being pro-trans activist or some such
Immediately below that, like a sandwich of tat, we see more products, 'Top Items for Allies'. Lol.
Various pins and stickers. As you keep scrolling it's just more stickers, pins, t-shirts and a hoody or two.
I'm really not sure what this has to do with safe spaces. Are you meant to buy bulk t-shirts to create a soft, padded room of safety away from all the bigots and Nazis?
But there's more!
Even further down you get to a new section: Bookings.
You can book her/it to come do a 'Trans 101' talk, or get the privilege of having it as a guest on your podcast. Or a 'Business inclusivity audit':
Are you looking to audit your business for diversity, equity and inclusion? I go through your forms, booking process, website, printed materials, and services and audit for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Somebody needs to learn about redundancies in their writing.
So there it is. It's a frickin' grift. And whether bot or human, all of them seem blissfully unaware. They are just tearing up at the screen looking at this random woman pretend she gives a shit for profit. Statistically, in a group of 1.3 million, some of them are going to click into her page or follow up on its website recommendations in the name of finding a safe space to be in away from the terrifying world around us, and they'll end up coming out with a new pin to put on their little backpack.
Fantastic.
