Tumblr breeds dens of hatred

Despite the popularity of Tumblr as a haven of acceptance for all members of society, the social media blogging platform, like many websites, has its pitfalls. One of the most troubling is that users often use Tumblr as an outlet to vent their emotions, without knowing when to stop.

In particular, Tumblr bloggers have established passionate communities for feminism, racial equality and LGBTQ minorities. However, the site’s mission of spreading awareness about injustices against these minorities has, quite frankly, degenerated into mindless hate for those they perceive to float comfortably on top of society — namely, straight white cissexual (when the gender they identify with is the same as the body they are born with) men.

What makes this situation so bad is the Tumblr community’s endorsement of such hate, which is measured by the hundreds of notes on certain posts.

For instance, from the posts we’ve seen, we have learned that misogyny is absolutely unacceptable but misandry is an “understandable cause,” and that real men don’t beat women but real women beat men.

One text post by Tumblr user high-on-horses titled “men are like dogs,” read that “[men] should be kept on leashes so they cant run off and kill somebody” and that “it should be mandatory for them to be neutered so they dont rape ppl anymore.” The post, which garnered 371 notes, left us with a loss for words.

Several posts regarding racial inequality, for another example, became passionate outbursts of “kill all white people.” If the situation were reversed and the cry was instead towards people of color, the Tumblr community would and has used tactics such as doxxing, which is the publishing of personal information, including addresses, emails and phone numbers.

Another blog called f—yeahdeadcrackers stated in its description that “I simply wish to make a blog about something that makes me happy and that is when white people die.” On this same blog, a different user asked, “I am white. Give me your reasons as of why I should kill myself,” to which the blogger responded, “22 million Jews. 99 million Africans. That’s just a start. So I’ve [got] about 120 million reasons why you deserve to die. So can you tell me why you deserve to live?” This logical fallacy has received 71 notes since it was posted on July 22 of this year.

In contrast, a blog like thisiswhiteprivilege, which deals with the same subject of racial injustice, seeks to educate the public with good intentions. For example, thisiswhiteprivilege posts links to news articles about the controversial case in Ferguson, which demonstrates these inequalities.

Social networks serve as unbridled forums of discussion, but with Tumblr, its “free forums” are restricted. They’re restricted in the sense that only one extreme standpoint is accepted — the side that passionately attacks men, white people and the like — even though no end of the spectrum is better than the other. There’s an awful lot of hypocrisy, which is actually quite dangerous in the sense that Tumblr users may begin to think that only this extremist side is acceptable, when in truth neither sides are.

Tumblr has been commonly viewed as a non-judgmental home where people of all identities are able to freely express themselves, but a deeper look into the social media site reveals a growing community of hatred and intolerance.