Today I turned off comments from strangers. I’m not cut out for that, and I’ll tell you why. It’s because more people than ever have become abusively sarcastic, relentlessly mean and tactically vicious. (Why people are so mad and mean is a story for a different post.)
I have been struggling with hate comments since I started posting as Chad Rising four months ago. Some days I can handle it, but most days I can’t. I am not putting out funny videos, video game clips, sports recaps or pop culture commentary. I am not hiding behind anything. I am not joking. I am not acting. I am putting my life and soul on public display. There is no separation from my art/work and my life. That is what makes my art/work real and magnetic. And over time, my nervous system has gotten in the habit of bracing for the onslaught of virtual, verbal abuse (terror) from strangers. I don’t want to and frankly cannot sustainably live that way.
The Final Straw
The final straw was yesterday. Someone posted this comment: “Good luck healing the world with pretentious anger.” and creatively added the “hands-up 🙌” emoji I often use to convey comradery and reverence of energy/God/universe, etc. I recognized the username when I saw it and was shocked. Turns out this person is what is called a lurker. They have been following me for months but they don’t engage. Turns out they were biding their time, watching me; listening to my philosophy and commentary week after week; lying in wait for the right moment to deal as much damage as possible. And deal they did.
Yesterday I posted my “I Am Judgmental” video and they pounced. (Ironically, the judgmental video was inspired by an ex-follower who was lying in wait!) My defending myself and explaining the difference between judgment, perception and ego pissed them off so much that they determined this was the right time to attack. And attack they did. And it hurt me. Mission accomplished, you jealous and conniving dickhead. (I am not your problem, our corporate and world leaders are.) That was it. I was a wreck. But no more. This was the incident that pushed me to accept that I have to sacrifice the aLgOrItHmIc sIgNaL of comments for the stability of my mental health. Even though I know this can happen again – because I want to (and do) allow comments from followers and those I follow – knowing that strangers can’t comment has already mitigated the straight-up fear I often have when opening the app.
Grow Some Thick Skin, Will Ya?
As a creator, you are constantly told that you must develop thick skin, but IMO one’s skin can only get so thick before it’s considered dissociation. (Not looking at the comments is one thing, but as a small creator, it’s literally impossible to avoid.) To those that can read direct hate mail and not be affected, I applaud you. But I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve tried, and I can’t. And I don’t want to try anymore.
For empaths and deeply sensitive people (the actual healthy and normal humans,) there is no skin thick enough to avoid or deny the feelings generated by daily harassment and bullying – from strangers non-the-less. Same may say them being strangers makes it easier to discount, but it doesn’t. Words have power. They are weapons. “Sticks and stones” may have worked when the worst insults were “you’re fat” or “you’re a geek,” but haters have gotten creative. They’ve gotten smart. And the words that used to “bounce off me and stick to you” are now razor sharp katanas with a direct line to your jugular.
Not Every Voice Should Be Heard.
I often talk about how social media comments are not a natural part of a media. Musicians in a venue don’t sing a song and then voluntarily allow the audience line up and deliver their individual comments after each and every song. We’ve lived without comments for millennia. IMO, comments have only helped technocrats. And they mostly only hurt everyone else, whether people want to believe it or not. (Why people are so desperate and spitfire quick to comment is also a story for another post.) This next statement is nuanced, so no running and saying “Chad Rising is a fascist for censorship!!”
Not every voice should be heard.
Not everyone should have a platform or place to spew malice and have it reach people that DID NOT ASK FOR AND DO NOT WANT TO SEE OR HEAR IT. Before the internet, this was the case. Certain content and thoughts were limited in their reach, and it was healthy for society. Facebook, YouTube and X all know this, otherwise they wouldn’t spend collective billions on moderating and removing dangerous content. But the platforms don’t care about the emotional and human side of things. They only care that actions are being taken and money is being made. They wouldn’t even have a moderation department if the public would allow it. We don’t allow visuals of suicide, war, rape, abuse, terror etc. on these platforms, but we allow comments that are the starting point for all of those things. How is that healthy? It’s not. It’s greedy.
No Trespassing
I am not going to leave myself open to bullies and relentless, thoughtless hate just to please an algorithm which has no heart, no feelings, and no capacity or capability to feel love (or hate for that matter.)
I am not here to get feedback from strangers. I am not here to be belittled and convinced that I am wrong by strangers. I am not here to be challenged by strangers. At the same time, I am not proactively pushing my views on strangers. I am not spewing hateful comments at strangers, and I am not complaining about my life or social issues to strangers and doing nothing about it. I am DOING and creating work that has the potential to organically and naturally change hearts and minds.
The craziest part of this is that I am just a blip right now. I have no real influence at under 1000 followers, but people come at me like I can do damage. Like I am already doing damage. I guess that’s a sign that… I am doing damage. But constructive damage to dismantle broken social systems and hold space for new ones.
I don’t want to be here waxing poetic to a phone camera in an empty room all alone. I don’t want to drive around my town (and further) to find free backdrops to make short form videos that get rejected by the algorithm unless they have a 3 second hook. No artist wants to do any of this.
When I started the Chad Rising account, I planned on making it just about the music; letting the music speak for itself. But that’s a crock. It’s impossible to make it just about the music and get heard (without major financial backing.) So until the tipping point happens where the music is carrying itself, I’ll continue to turn my thoughts and beliefs into art and messages. But I won’t be a punching bag for lower realm strangers to exhaust their anger, frustration and jealousy. They do not get to feed on my light and use my energy only to turn around and spit their venom in my face.
So, I’ve turned off comments. This is a fifth dimension mission. I don’t need third dimension mechanisms to make this work. If it’s gonna work, it’s gonna work from the higher realms down, not the other way around.
– Chad
Today I Turned Off Comments From Strangers
Today I turned off comments from strangers. I’m not cut out for that, and I’ll tell you why. It’s because more people than ever have become abusively sarcastic, relentlessly mean and tactically vicious. (Why people are so mad and mean is a story for a different post.)
I have been struggling with hate comments since I started posting as Chad Rising four months ago. Some days I can handle it, but most days I can’t. I am not putting out funny videos, video game clips, sports recaps or pop culture commentary. I am not hiding behind anything. I am not joking. I am not acting. I am putting my life and soul on public display. There is no separation from my art/work and my life. That is what makes my art/work real and magnetic. And over time, my nervous system has gotten in the habit of bracing for the onslaught of virtual, verbal abuse (terror) from strangers. I don’t want to and frankly cannot sustainably live that way.
The Final Straw
The final straw was yesterday. Someone posted this comment: “Good luck healing the world with pretentious anger.” and creatively added the “hands-up 🙌” emoji I often use to convey comradery and reverence of energy/God/universe, etc. I recognized the username when I saw it and was shocked. Turns out this person is what is called a lurker. They have been following me for months but they don’t engage. Turns out they were biding their time, watching me; listening to my philosophy and commentary week after week; lying in wait for the right moment to deal as much damage as possible. And deal they did.
Yesterday I posted my “I Am Judgmental” video and they pounced. (Ironically, the judgmental video was inspired by an ex-follower who was lying in wait!) My defending myself and explaining the difference between judgment, perception and ego pissed them off so much that they determined this was the right time to attack. And attack they did. And it hurt me. Mission accomplished, you jealous and conniving dickhead. (I am not your problem, our corporate and world leaders are.) That was it. I was a wreck. But no more. This was the incident that pushed me to accept that I have to sacrifice the aLgOrItHmIc sIgNaL of comments for the stability of my mental health. Even though I know this can happen again – because I want to (and do) allow comments from followers and those I follow – knowing that strangers can’t comment has already mitigated the straight-up fear I often have when opening the app.
Grow Some Thick Skin, Will Ya?
As a creator, you are constantly told that you must develop thick skin, but IMO one’s skin can only get so thick before it’s considered dissociation. (Not looking at the comments is one thing, but as a small creator, it’s literally impossible to avoid.) To those that can read direct hate mail and not be affected, I applaud you. But I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve tried, and I can’t. And I don’t want to try anymore.
For empaths and deeply sensitive people (the actual healthy and normal humans,) there is no skin thick enough to avoid or deny the feelings generated by daily harassment and bullying – from strangers non-the-less. Same may say them being strangers makes it easier to discount, but it doesn’t. Words have power. They are weapons. “Sticks and stones” may have worked when the worst insults were “you’re fat” or “you’re a geek,” but haters have gotten creative. They’ve gotten smart. And the words that used to “bounce off me and stick to you” are now razor sharp katanas with a direct line to your jugular.
Not Every Voice Should Be Heard.
I often talk about how social media comments are not a natural part of a media. Musicians in a venue don’t sing a song and then voluntarily allow the audience line up and deliver their individual comments after each and every song. We’ve lived without comments for millennia. IMO, comments have only helped technocrats. And they mostly only hurt everyone else, whether people want to believe it or not. (Why people are so desperate and spitfire quick to comment is also a story for another post.) This next statement is nuanced, so no running and saying “Chad Rising is a fascist for censorship!!”
Not every voice should be heard.
Not everyone should have a platform or place to spew malice and have it reach people that DID NOT ASK FOR AND DO NOT WANT TO SEE OR HEAR IT. Before the internet, this was the case. Certain content and thoughts were limited in their reach, and it was healthy for society. Facebook, YouTube and X all know this, otherwise they wouldn’t spend collective billions on moderating and removing dangerous content. But the platforms don’t care about the emotional and human side of things. They only care that actions are being taken and money is being made. They wouldn’t even have a moderation department if the public would allow it. We don’t allow visuals of suicide, war, rape, abuse, terror etc. on these platforms, but we allow comments that are the starting point for all of those things. How is that healthy? It’s not. It’s greedy.
No Trespassing
I am not going to leave myself open to bullies and relentless, thoughtless hate just to please an algorithm which has no heart, no feelings, and no capacity or capability to feel love (or hate for that matter.)
I am not here to get feedback from strangers. I am not here to be belittled and convinced that I am wrong by strangers. I am not here to be challenged by strangers. At the same time, I am not proactively pushing my views on strangers. I am not spewing hateful comments at strangers, and I am not complaining about my life or social issues to strangers and doing nothing about it. I am DOING and creating work that has the potential to organically and naturally change hearts and minds.
The craziest part of this is that I am just a blip right now. I have no real influence at under 1000 followers, but people come at me like I can do damage. Like I am already doing damage. I guess that’s a sign that… I am doing damage. But constructive damage to dismantle broken social systems and hold space for new ones.
I don’t want to be here waxing poetic to a phone camera in an empty room all alone. I don’t want to drive around my town (and further) to find free backdrops to make short form videos that get rejected by the algorithm unless they have a 3 second hook. No artist wants to do any of this.
When I started the Chad Rising account, I planned on making it just about the music; letting the music speak for itself. But that’s a crock. It’s impossible to make it just about the music and get heard (without major financial backing.) So until the tipping point happens where the music is carrying itself, I’ll continue to turn my thoughts and beliefs into art and messages. But I won’t be a punching bag for lower realm strangers to exhaust their anger, frustration and jealousy. They do not get to feed on my light and use my energy only to turn around and spit their venom in my face.
So, I’ve turned off comments. This is a fifth dimension mission. I don’t need third dimension mechanisms to make this work. If it’s gonna work, it’s gonna work from the higher realms down, not the other way around.
– Chad
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