The Mouthpiece Saga Day 2 - Conflict Recap

As per the standard protocol with the regularly-scheduled monthly shitstorm, things have once again gotten completely out of hand, as one group tries to argue on behalf of the freedom of speech the other tries to argue for...well basically on behalf of hate and the sake of argument.

We have entered Day 2 of, what we are calling the "Shut Your Mouthpiece" saga, and the landscape is now littered with the remains of laptop screens and keyboards that participants have punched in or smashed their heads on, in an effort to cope with the absurdities being spewed forth from the bowels of tumblr and twitter.

And it's far from over.
It began yesterday when a tumblr user volunteered themself to be the new PinkiePony, by attempting to censor others, while using an image of Pinkie Pie as the vehicle for the message that "Rape Jokes Are Never Funny", accompanied by a bold message telling users to not repost the image elsewhere.

The issue at hand (a connection that many debaters have either ignored or do not understand) was that nobody that began to edit the image was in support of rape (as yesterday's letter to the HN staff indicated) but rather that the likes of Plumsweet were censoring the freedom of speech of others, and were turning ponies into a political platform. Also the fact that humor is one method that many actual victims of sexual assault use for coping with the trauma associated with the act.

One victim pointed out that making jokes about it was one of the few things that keeps them from suicide, and that attempting to stifle his ability to do so was much more offensive to him than the jokes themselves. The tumblr users were not going to listen however, in that instance actually scolding the sexual assault victim who copes by using comedy, and telling them  "Don’t walk around laughing about rape" and "Don’t turn around and be upset".

Instead of acknowledging the issue of tumblr-imposed censorship on the rights of victims, the neo-feminists instantly took the position, that anyone who disagrees with them is a rapist, and, quite literally stereotyping and hating on an entire group of people, as this post from Plumsweet  shows.

If you cannot read it, due to the abrasive colorscheme, the post reads

"bronies are shit. there is no nice brony if you are nice and like mlp fucking awesome - just dont consider yourself as a brony!!!
bronies = scum if youre not causing harm or being a fucking twat just dont consider yourself a brony, dont defend them just stop ok? <333
im really liking this “ponies against bronies” thing
dont repost my art anywhere, and dont bother whining about whatever either i literally dont care
you could call their actions a bunch of………… HORSE SHIT HAHA"

This post is not unique. The assertions that speech alone causes sexual assault were sent to the HN inbox, with one message that read (after a long message regarding a previous post) "also it's been proven that rape jokes cause rape, please inform yourself before talking about the subject, coming from a fellow brony here man, thanks 4the time". 

It is assumed that this Anonymous poster, as well as many of those involved in the skirmish are asserting the existence of "rape culture", a concept which the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network recently denounced in its policy recommendations to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, as not being a real thing.

From the Press Release:

In the last few years, there has been an unfortunate trend towards blaming “rape culture” for the extensive problem of sexual violence on campuses. While it is helpful to point out the systemic barriers to addressing the problem, it is important to not lose sight of a simple fact: Rape is caused not by cultural factors but by the conscious decisions, of a small percentage of the community, to commit a violent crime.

As it stands, our staff is unsure where the "proof" that "rape jokes cause rape" is coming from, but it is clearly not from recognized national authorities on the topic.

Following that piece of insight, another proponent of first amendment rights laid the situation out as follows, later intentionally invoking Godwin's Law for effect:

"There is nobody in this argument who is "PRO Rape"
That's fucking absurd, and only serves to polarize their opponents and remove the middle ground. And they are doing a piss-poor job of it.
The sides of the argument ARENT EVEN ABOUT RAPE
They're about being either "Pro Freedom of Speech" or "Pro-Arbitrary-Censorship"
The arguement isnt about whether Rape is good or bad, it's about whether people should have the right to DEAL with such an atrocious concept in thier own way."

Eager to solidify the fact that this issue has to do with First Amendment Rights (and also the fact he has never read the First Amendment), was a brony-hater named "Wooflepup" who posted this gem:

"casual reminder that freedom of speech, as by the american constitution, was intended to apply only to opinions on the government
your “jokes and parodies” are still hate crimes"

While Wooflepup awaits his appointment to the United States Supreme Court, we will, for clarity's sake, link you to a copy of the United States Constitution, and assure our readers that, no, that is not how it works.

The "edited mouthpieces" began to pile up (Derpibooru has over 140 images tagged "mouthpiece" at the time of posting) and as such a new tumblr was created to showcase them dubbed "My Little Mouthpiece"

The original artists, who themselves create images based on copyrighted characters under fair use for parody couldn't allow that, and attempted to get "My Little Mouthpiece" taken down as a copyright violation, despite it too being a parody, for the purpose of criticism.
As of press time it has not been removed by tumblr.

It didn't take long at all for the SJW side of the argument devolve to directly calling entire groups of people obscenities, and in one instance, asking for the murder of a human as a birthday gift.

The wisest members of the fandom have saw fit to ignore the flames, or to at least watch silently, while the 2 juggernauts of opinion; 4chan and Tumblr, waged their conflict across several websites. Others however, were not so firm.

Fandom Artist "Leekfish" began to tweet her opinion on the matter, taking the position of the SJW's that humor should be censored and discounting the opinions of anyone who thinks otherwise.

Please refer to the RAINN press release above.

 The argument on twitter lasted several hours and ended with Leekfish threatening to block people.

The following morning, another Fandom artist, the widely-beloved Pixelkitties created her own image, parodying the nature of the Mouthpiece Movement, effectively acknowledging how ridiculous using ponies to promote a political agenda is.

She followed up by laying a reality check on those involved, that this is supposed to be a community that enjoys a cartoon and nothing more.

"I don’t deal in stereotypes or broad generalizations or beating people over the head with the cudgel of my own personal beliefs.  I have faced pain and suffering and discrimination and hurt and heartache in my life- just the same as anyone.  I’ve done good things and bad, brave and cowardly, honorable and self-serving. I have been there, just the same as you.  And because of that, more than anything else in this world, I believe in empathy and understanding, never condemnation.  My past mistakes- and they are multitude- is today’s lesson and tomorrow’s regret.  I dare not judge or begrudge others for their missteps along the way. 

Put simply-be nice, don’t hurt others and enjoy the cartoon.  That’s it.  That’s the Beer Horse manifesto."

The conflict rages on, with the same points being regurgitated again and again, all across tumblr, with the SJW's continuing to discriminate against entire groups of people, and in some cases telling rape victims personally that they are coping incorrectly.

Tenaflyviper chiming in

The hour is getting late, and Day 3 of the "Mouthpiece Saga" is poised to dawn soon. Will either side back down (or more realistically rage-quit) any time soon?
Will the SJWs continue to label the entire brony culture negatively and seek to censor and police the actions of the entire community?

In short, will the hypocrisy ever end?

Not likely.