You know how when you read a history textbook and there’s a timeline of events as humanity changes for the worse in one way or another, and you think “Okay but surely when this happened people would’ve realised where this was going? Even if not then what about this next major point? Did they not think to fight back then? Why did they let it happen?”

It’s weird how people are going to look at how we are today and think the same. 

Imagine if we decided to spring clean the internet. Like, we designated a week to deleting really awful blog posts and unused accounts. That’d be cool.

The power of purposely calling someone by the wrong name is immense. Personally, it makes me feel uncomfortable that it should matter at all; a name is just a string of letters put together to make a sound we use to identify someone when we speak or write about them. To call someone by what you have decided is their ‘real name’ when they request a different one is used seems rude in a way that’s unnecessary if there’s any real reason to be angry at the things they do, because if they are really a bit of a dick then it’s probably a better mode of attack to point out why. If you’re just going to be dismissive of them, then don’t give a non-issue any weight because they’ll cling onto it to prove they’re the victim. Obviously there’s a line somewhere, but in a large majority of cases, someone else’s name isn’t yours to mess about with.

The problem with evil people is that they’re not actually evil. They’re someone’s son or daughter who cried when they grazed their knee as a toddler, or sought a hug when they were stuck in bed with chicken pox. They were perhaps someone’s first crush or a best friend at an early age. 

The problem with evil people is that they really believe what they say and do is right, or at least that it doesn’t matter. They just want what they think is best, and they really do believe that what they do is the best course of action. They are as passionate for justice as you are, but they don’t think it’s them that’s in the wrong. They don’t know they’re evil, and if they do, they don’t understand what evil is.

I don’t think it’s okay for newspapers to be reporting someone’s last tweet as a front page headline. You’ve had your turn, now leave the poor girl to rest in peace and stop making money off a stabbing.

It’s not fair to expect a certain amount of followers or likes before an announcement on a social network. Your fans, who most likely have already done a considerable amount to increase your public awareness, owe you nothing. If your followers are doing this work for you, then they deserve the information you are keeping from them. And if your cause is important enough for you to use these tactics, then chances are your followers are already doing as much as they can.

I used to go on great anger-fuelled campaigns when I hated someone. Don’t get me wrong - I didn’t pick on someone because they were vulnerable. I found that I ended up attacking people who’d attacked me when I was vulnerable. Or I’d go after someone who seemed to be getting away with a lot more than they should.

Well, I was only a child. I say child; it was around the ages of between 12 and 16 that I directed my fury at people who were a similar age to myself and who would probably realise their errors later down the line without my help. When you’re 15 and someone’s twisting something someone else said to make you look like a sex-crazed pervert, you don’t respond too kindly.  When you’re suffering with about a million mental health issues that have defined your personality to the point that you’re not even too sure you’re there anymore, you don’t stop to think that releasing your frustration whenever possible is not the best idea. When you’re stuck in a school which appears to still be in the 1950s and you’re surrounded by manipulative shits who cannot even comprehend that they don’t live in a soap opera, doing nothing isn’t even an option.

I never really bothered fully explaining my actions whenever I did anything. I didn’t care that my teachers, or even other students, thought I was a pathetic lunatic because I knew that everything the school stood for was more ridiculous than I could ever be.  I probably did try and get some of them to understand at some point, but there’s only so much trust you can give people when you’ve been let down so often before. Besides, I knew nothing I could say would change anything that mattered.

Anyway I got to about 16 and there was the change of school and some sort of improvement in my health… or maybe I just grew up. As I said, I can’t tell what’s me and what’s a disorder.  I no longer had a habit of trying to make people I disliked more emotionally unstable than myself, probably because of that change of environment. I became more analytical and I focused my energies on making myself a better person and making the world a slightly nicer place. There wasn’t anyone I actually hated who I was forced to spend time with. There were people I disliked, but none that I hated.

And then things happened and there’s someone I really hate. It scares me that I can hate someone so much; I’d forgotten what it felt like. I recognise that people can be good in some ways and bad in others and I recognise that I’m not exactly a decent person myself.  I’m not forced to spend time with this person but we do anyway.  And so I’ve been reduced to acknowledging the hatred at appropriate points in the conversation and moving back to the topic in hand.

I wish I had the energy for one last manic tirade.

You did something for someone you care about. This something was amazing and took all of your strength and courage and it made them really happy, or maybe just made their life worth living for a little bit longer. But you use it against them or you let them know that you did it because you felt like you had no other option and you tell them that it ruined your life and by doing that, you took that good memory away from them and you made every action you took completely worthless.