ESAM (Panda) · @imESAM
2nd Jan 2016 from TwitLonger
Postscript to Why Top Smash Players are Quitting
For those of you saying "Oh just get thicker skin," things don't exactly work that way. When has "Oh get over it" actually worked? You people hate the bullies you see in public and when a kid is getting picked on you feel disgusted. Why is the internet any different? Again, you obviously can't stop anyone from saying anything rude cuz blah blah freedom of speech blah blah, but that doesn't mean you have to exercise that right at every given moment, especially when it would be better to just not.
You don't get to control how someone feels.
I'll repeat that again. You don't get to control how someone feels. If you are an asshole and didn't mean to upset them and they get upset, you don't get to just go "Oh well stop being a pussy, I didn't mean it that way." You don't get to determine what offends someone. If you don't care that they are getting offended, that's on you, and them getting offended is on them. However, if you know someone is sensitive over specific topics and you make fun of those topics knowingly, you are being an asshole. If you make fun of Vinnie's birthmark, you are an asshole. Make fun of some of the bad situations he's been in? Asshole. Not saying you can't question WHY someone gets offended, but you also don't do it AS THEY ARE CLEARLY NOT IN A GOOD EMOTIONAL STATE.
Were ALL the choices Vinnie made necessarily good? No of course not. He knows that better than anyone. And that's the thing. Anything the internet can make fun of we already beat ourselves up for. How could I be so stupid for doing X and Y? Why did I even do that? I'm such an idiot, god damn it. You beat yourself up harder than anyone on the internet ever could, but adding their negativity on you after you already sunk yourself low is REALLY hard for a large number of people to deal with.
Just put yourself in their shoes for a second and think how you would react. It's not so easy to make 0 mistakes.
And there is a difference between being an asshole for no reason and calling someone out on their stupid crap. What Arath did when Vinnie slandered all of Mexico was necessary. He wasn't wrong and Vinnie needed to be told the story from a more objective stand-point. However, people calling him an idiot for making a life-decision he had to mull about in his mind for months isn't doing that. Yelling at him for having his baggage lost isn't doing that. Making fun of NAKAT for his mother having health issues isn't doing that. Making fun of MVD for scrubbing out at MLG isn't doing that.
Learn to have a heart, everyone. It really takes you a long way and I am SO glad to have gained empathy within the past year or so. Please try to gain some yourself.
I'ma link 2 T1J video I feel is relevant to this situation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xbqn_S7DQg
followed up by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taA5491NxUU