We agree; whether this person types like that as an autistic coping mechanism or just because they goddamn well feel like it shouldn't matter to anyone. So many of us are here because Teddy's thoughts about hot and sour soup--about cringe culture--spoke to us so deeply. We all have our peanut butter and carrots. We all have our Sonic dolls. We have a sentence that we like to use as the official slogan for our Twitch stream (with a screenshot of the game it came from and everything in our stream overlay) and that we've broadened to more or less encapsulate our belief about life in general. That sentence is "Act with love and sincerity." Teddy did that when she poured her heart into this game and her soul into the Soups of the Day, the poems that Will has been sharing, any time we get to hear her thoughts and feelings. Will does it by sharing this journey with us, especially the times it's caused him to open up about himself as well. The vast majority of the Diminish community does it just by being themselves, by being the loving and supportive tight-knit family that most of us are. We just... we have to wonder about the small few who apparently missed what Teddy's thesis was all about.
3 years ago | 28
Youre a good friend for standing up for your buddy! Most of the people Ive seen here with Diminish have been wonderfully weird and amazingly supportive so Im happy we all can experience Diminish together! Im sorry your friend got treated that way, and I hope this space will continue to foster compassion and understanding. Lots of hugs! ^u^
3 years ago | 16
Tbh I don't have much context on how people were bashing your friend so I want to refrain from judgment of the individual(s) that did so, though I think you handled it very well. I'd even say it's good on you that you 1) stood up for your friend, 2) made it clear that you're willing to let people speak 3) was honest about your dispositions towards the other party currently and in future events of the same nature and 4) explained how you would handle things. Personally I have aspergers myself, and of course I can only speak for myself though I would feel very glad to have a friend that defended me if they felt I did nothing wrong (trying to place myself in their shoes here).
3 years ago | 8
If you find a person in a social situation who seems to be acting pretty strange, perhaps outside of normal societal standards, but the people around them don't seem to be acting strangely, or reacting to what they're doing at all. Maybe consider that the person can't help acting strange. A dialogue with the person about how what they're doing is not acceptable socially isn't suddenly going to cause all the portions to fall correctly into place for the person, especially if they happen to have autism. It's an incredibly complex condition that results in you just experiencing the world differently. TLDR: please be nice to people with mental illnesses, they probably can't help it.
3 years ago | 11
Unsurprising that there's still people willing to bash other peoples way of doing things on the internet, even in a chill community. We're still lucky to have you, Will. Don't let the negative minority get you or your friend down.
3 years ago | 40
Thanks Wacky Will! I'm autistic as well and I hope your friend is ok. Overstimulaion suuuucks
3 years ago | 21
That's a horrible thing that happened to your friend, and I didn't know it even happened, but I'm glad you're sticking up for them. I'm autistic as well, and although puns are not my preferred method of humor, I've never gone out of my way to berate someone because of it. I'm fully aware that that's not a nice thing to do, and I know that what you put on the internet is permanent, so I wouldn't want to consciously do something to someone that would genuinely upset them. I know that there's a lot of people who say what they want, just because it's the internet and they don't think it matters, but that isn't true. Not only is it painting them in a negative light, but they're also hurting the person that they're directing this kind of speech at. And sure, they try to act all tough and stoic and emotionless, under the false assumption that they're more intimidating or "cool", but I bet that some of them don't feel like that behind their screens. I'd bet that some of them do feel some sort of remorse for what they said after seeing the outcome of it, but they're just too proud to admit it, and they'd rather keep up the facade of arrogance than admit that they're wrong. And that's honestly a very tragic thing. Again, I'm glad you stuck up for your friend, and I hope they're doing well. There's too many people on the internet who're mean to others, and something does need to be done about that.
3 years ago | 6
As someone who is on the spectrum myself you could not have handled this more maturely, thank you so much. Shame on that person, what absolutely disgusting behavior.
3 years ago | 1
Be good to each other, even on the internets, basic common sense. Diminish is a safe space for those that fall outside of society's bs "normal" line, and that's part of what makes it amazing. Every person who is in that realm deserves just as much respect as everybody else.
3 years ago (edited) | 15
I find it strange how some people can be so rude to each other, or some random dude on the internet, but as soon as they learn that said person has some type of mental illness, or that they might’ve been feeling a certain way, they either go into full on apology mode, (at least in my experience) completely ignoring what they said before, or start defending themselves like “oH yoU sHouLdVe pUt a DISClAimer”. My mind when seeing this type of scheiße always thinks “Dude, they might not like talking about it or something.” Although I know that’s how like 68% of the internet’s brain works I still hate it. The main reason I actually stick around here with it’s 1’s and 0’s is because of people like Will who do show me that “hey that other 32% actually exists and I’m not going insane again”, (those who actually want to be nice to those they may or may not even know). on a lighter note, phonetic? Will has become a new kind of vocabulary book for me, never even heard of it until now
3 years ago | 4
im autistic and this made me tear up. it's not common that we have people stand up for us and actually accommodate to us. thank you.
2 years ago | 2
That's just how it is, when something gets large. Even in a community explicitly built around celebrating otherness. Just know that this person is just one person, and by no way is representative of the community as a whole, which I feel is extremely accepting of people's "quirks" and uniqueness.
3 years ago | 6
Im very sorry to hear that. Its sad that the internet is like this, (almost) complete anonymity makes people think they can say anything they want without reprecautions... For some its easier to harass someone who they cant see, so internet tricks their mind into thinking that they arent really doing anything bad if they arent talking to a "real person" I would advice to ignore such people as much as possible but I myself know someone who is autistic, and its quite hard for them to ignore mean things said about them, even if their autism (in their own words) is rather light/mild. I havent yet managed to find a good way of helping them to deal with mean people yet, other than just comforting them. I really hope that what happened never happens again. What Ive seen from this community is overwhelmingly positive, but I know and knew that there are always exceptions, hopefully that these "exceptions" will become even more rare than they are right now.
3 years ago | 2
Another autistic viewer here. I hope your friend is doing okay. I assume they'll see this community post if they're already following your channel, but if not I hope you'll share the other positive comments here with them. I would never have thought that phonetic puns would be a useful coping mechanism, that's delightful in a way? I love puns, but they're not a critical part of my communication or anything. Idk exactly how to communicate what I AM feeling about it though... I guess just that they sound like a delightful person to talk to, and I'm glad they've made your life better. I hope they can come out the other side of this event quickly.
3 years ago | 12
Warms me to see you once again approach a hard situation with grace. You give me hope that there might still be good people out there.
2 years ago | 0
The ableism in the world is astounding. The way people type shouldn’t make anyone angry or hurtful (unless it’s typed using symbols and numbers mixed together, like “h3ll0” or “|-|3||0”, because people with screen readers who are blind can’t read them)
3 years ago | 4
im sorry that happened what the fuck its awful that assholes will crawl out of the woodwork to bully anyone they can :/ i didnt see this happening, but i hope your friends okay. im also autistic and have strange coping mechanisms, theres never any reason to mock something so harmless
3 years ago | 1
Diminish
Hi everyone.
By virtue of still going out of my way to read every single comment, including replies to others’ comments (which is not a part of my notifications), I was starkly aware when a friend of mine received some negative attention to their comment on one of my recent uploads. This happened to them because of the way they type/write, in which they chiefly construct their sentences from phonetic puns.
This friend happens to be autistic, very affected to where — among the boundless list of what occurs, which I really should not have to unload for MANY reasons — overstimulation strikes hard and fast, and they’ve had to discover and develop mechanisms for engaging with life comfortably enough to function. They have resoundingly discovered that this method of writing helps them function.
Now, of course, hopefully you know that I really shouldn’t have needed to go into that much detail, in the effort to “explain” it. Because I think a great deal of you, amazingly, understand why Diminish was made the way it was, and why it’s been played the way it has. It seems most of you are here because you’ve long accepted the fact that this channel, and the game it centers on, were made by people who are very, very, VERY different, in ways that OTHER people have always gone out of their way to attempt to bend into the shape they’d prefer. Or, of course, to pound into the ground so they don’t have to look at what they don’t like.
It has taken me several days to attempt this post, because I needed this much time to cool off, me being very biased and compromised because of my friendship with this user. And I could go on for hundreds of pages about all my assumptions and projections about every little thing that made this case occur, and others. But I’ll try my best to make this response simple.
I’m not making this post to tell everyone that they can’t say anything about anyone ever. In fact, my mods can act upon their discretion, but I’ve myself never deleted a YouTube comment in my life, on any account. So genuinely, as everyone knows, you’re allowed to like things, and to have disgust for things. You even have the right to voice those things directly to people. We all know the drill. This is the Internet, and that’s the way of things, right?
Just know that if I see you being a piece of shit, especially in this space, it will cause me to dislike you. That really does NOT have to matter to you on the grounds of me being some pantheon of respect. It’s just constantly clear that people think “I’m lawfully allowed to say what’s on my mind; you should be prepared” means that it’s everyone else’s fault when there are consequences, or that the consequences aren’t actually consequences. And if you've ever found any understanding of the sentiments that Teddy poured into this final scream, and you’re still here, then you should understand why the event that prompted this post is perplexing.
If you find a person who structures their writing in word puns - or my defense of them - to be a sticking point, then that is 3000% your prerogative. It is also my right to defend my friend when you directly discourage them from their personality, which has brought my life so much color and joy. It is up to you whether or not this eventuality is a consequence for either of us.
On a lighter note.
The grand majority of you really, really stun me in the best way. I never believed a group of people this large could somehow be so collectively compassionate and empathetic. God, if only Teddy could’ve seen you.
All the best, and please be good to each other.
(This was supposed to be a SCHEDULED post so I could ruminate and modify, but as it turns out, “Schedule A Post” on the mobile app means “Post It Now, Dickhead”. So here it is I guess)
(If you do happen to find a thread which looks like The One, it seems that the replies that I saw have been removed...even if that weren’t the case, PLEASE do not harass anyone involved.)
3 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 406