If you don' t like it, don't read it.

[bethbethbeth]

Over the past few days in the LJ-verse, there seem to have been a higher-than-average number of fraught discussions on a variety of subjects. The topics have ranged from disputes over the worth of an individual story to the morality of a particular genre of fanfic to debates over completely non-fannish political issues, and somewhere in each of

Comments

second try w/o horrifying typo

[raveninthewind]

in what circumstances would "If you don't like it, don't read it" actually be a useful piece of advice?

If you really don't want to get sucked into the unpleasantness of reading something you know you are going to hate.

I realize sometimes the unpleasant topic is a surprise, and sometimes people might really feel neutral or curious as to the particulars of a debate. But I have to be prepared for the blood pressure raising when it's a touchy topic, and we all know after we've been online a while what they are likely to be (politics, religion, abortion, race, kinks, trying to convert het only fans to slash and vice versa, and so forth).

But it's better to learn not to think, "hey, maybe I don't really hate Lucius )or Snape) raping Draco as a prepubescent child," because then you read it and go "gah!" and click away. I avoid those stories with "Warning: Rape, noncon, slavery, character death" and then I don't have to complain about why people insist on wallowing in those themes. Because you know, I think that even when I just see the warnings.

Re: second try w/o horrifying typo

[bethbethbeth]

Except...how is the sentence itself going to keep you from reading it? The warnings would have done that already, wouldn't they? And if the story doesn't have warnings, then in what way does "If you don't like it" make any sense?

I mean, yes, there are certainly subjects I stay away from on days when I don't feel like upsetting myself, but in those cases, the sentence isn't going to add anything to my decision, if you know what I mean.

Re: reconsideration

[raveninthewind]

Ah! The light dawns. I guess in my head I was thinking about the meaning behind saying that to someone/posting it. Not as a Warning! meant to prevent people from reading it.

In that light it does seem particularly useless. If other, more specific, warnings haven't done the job of scaring one away, then that line alone won't.