Hello everyone, it's Megan.
Welcome back to my channel.
Welcome to my channel if you've never been
here before.
Today's video is a little different.
I want to discuss something that recently
happened in the tarot community.
Now I'm not trying to place blame on anyone
in particular.
I want to talk about the idea behind what
happened and the responses from the community
at large.
And it's not just the tarot community.
It includes the witchcraft and the pagan community
because it's an issue that I see a lot.
And I don't even know what I'm going to title
this video.
I've got some points that I want to make,
and we'll just go from there.
First, I need to mention that I'm not going
to detail everything that happened with The
Fated Star tarot deck.
I will leave a link in the description below
to Katey's video.
They did a great job covering problematic
themes within this tarot deck and they are
actually the person who pointed out the issues
and attempted to have a conversation with
the creator of the Fated Star tarot deck.
I'm not going to detail everything that happened
with that because Katey does a great job on
their own.
I want to talk about the responses that happened
here and why some of these responses are problematic.
Briefly, I guess we can talk about what happened
with Fated Star if you're not familiar, but
I do recommend watching Katey's video.
I will leave a link to that in the description
below.
What happened is a creator started a Kickstarter
for a tarot deck that they were trying to
create.
Some of the images were problematic for their
representation of the Black community as well
as those who struggle with mental health.
Again, Katie details all of this.
I'm not going to go into all of the problematic
issues with this deck because that is a different
discussion.
That's not what I want to talk about today,
but according to Katey, when Katey tried to
reach out to the creator and explain some
of the problematic issues in regards to the
mental health stigma and the representation
of mental illness in this deck, the creator
didn't listen.
They blocked Katey and basically shut down
any attempt to have a decent civilized conversation
on why certain things are problematic and
why maybe things needed to be changed a little
bit and different images needed to be used
so that we weren't furthering the stigma around
mental illness based on the images in a tarot
deck.
Now I can't speak to the problematic images
in regards to the Black community.
I haven't seen these cards and I'm not Black
person, so I have no business speaking on
what is or isn't problematic in that sense.
Again, Katie does cover some of that so watch
Katey's video.
In turn, this ruffled some feathers, I want
to say - Katey's attempt to have a conversation.
Now, I first learned about this issue from
a group that I'm in on Facebook for those
of us who are pagan or Wiccan or witchcraft
content creators.
Someone posted and said that they had heard
someone's channel was canceled.
And me being the curious person I am, I was
like oh, well...who is it?
What happened?
What did they do?
What did they say, you know?
And so, they said that nobody knew who it
was because the person who made the post saying
that a content creator was canceled didn't
say who.
They wrote a really vague post.
Now the person who wrote the original post
is Owlvine Green, and their original post
says, "Congratulations witches, we've done
it again...
By mob rule we've cancelled yet another creator
and run them out of town.
Come one, come all...
Our doors are open to you.
Not a scrap of dogma to be found here!
No, we don't get down with that sort of closed
door 'religious' thinking.
Here you will find acceptance.
A place that encourages creativity and where
individuality is celebrated.
Unless what you share steps beyond the bounds
of what we deem acceptable.
Unless you state a different opinion to us.
Unless you make us feel uncomfortable.
Then you'll be next."
And the hashtags that this creator used is
#WitchCommunity, #TarotTrouble, and #SupportYourLocalArtist.
So, according to this post, someone got canceled,
right?
My issue with this is that no one was canceling
the artist.
No one was being rude to the artist, as far
as I'm aware.
You know, I can't speak for what type of messages
they received, but the comments that I have
seen in regard to this situation have all
been other people trying to have a conversation
- either with the creator or with Katey or
with Owl or among other people that are commenting
about what was happening and why the issue
is an issue; why the deck was problematic.
Now, a couple of days later, Owl shared another
post and said that..."The other day I made
a post which stood up against bullying.
Naming and shaming is not okay.
What I spoke about in the post, happened right
in the comments.
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their opinion,
whether you or I agree with it or not.
But when a whole group of people come at one
person, it becomes something different to
that.
It's a public shaming.
The energy of that, I now know from experience
not just theory, is quite frankly fucking
horrendous.
So while an opinion is simply being stated...
The one you're speaking to is standing alone
in the playground, while all your mates loom
over them and then take their turn too.
That's the energy.
That's not okay with me.
And I stand firm on that.
I'm not okay with bullying behaviour.
I'm not okay with anyone being shamed into
silence.
We can have the conversations without directing
our righteous anger towards a specific person
and eviscerating them."
Now, this is a problem because the original
issue was that the creator of the deck was
blocking people and refusing to have the conversations.
Now, I don't - let's go through the comments
really quick on the other one because I read
through these comments trying to figure out
what was going on, what the problem was, who
was being "canceled", and why.
Going through these comments - let's start
at the beginning.
I'm not going to go through all of them because
there's like 100+ at this point.
The people who are commenting here are, you
know, saying that nobody was calling for the
artist to be canceled.
People were calling for the artist to realize
that they kind of messed up.
And, you know, there's nobody here that is
bullying anyone.
There's nobody here that is calling for everyone
to unfollow the artist or to be mean to them
or anything like that.
Everyone - the comments on this post are people
saying well, if you're talking about the Fated
Star deck, yeah it was kind of problematic
and here's why and we wanted to have a conversation
but the creator refused to have a conversation.
And then you have the other people who are
saying we're really confused about what you're
talking about.
Can you give us some more information because
this kind of vague post is just a little messed
up.
If you're going to call something out like
this, I think that it's a good idea to say
what you're talking about because otherwise
you get a bunch of people who are really confused
and who have no idea what you're talking about
and therefore cannot form their own opinion.
They simply will take your word for it and
say, oh...you know, we canceled somebody again.
We don't know who.
We don't know why.
We don't know what happened, but someone is
canceled in the witchcraft community, alright?
It's a problem because, as a community, we
need to be able to point out when someone
makes a mistake or when someone doesn't learn
from their mistakes or when someone doesn't
know any better.
There's a lot of ignorance in this community
because there are a lot of new people in this
community.
There are a lot of people in the community
who are neurotypical and who are white and
have no idea the stigmas that neurodiverse
people face and have no idea of the stigmas
and the issues that the Black community face
or the People of Color community face.
So there needs to be the option for us as
a community to go to a creator and have a
conversation with them about something that
they did that was problematic or something
that they did that maybe they could have done
a different way.
In this case, Katey tried to have a conversation
with the creator to speak about some issues
for the neurodiverse community and the creator
basically shut down all forms of communication.
Katey said that the creator blocked them and
then privated their account so they left no
room or a conversation to be had.
And this isn't a bullying situation.
Bullying is...bullying would be me, you know,
going to this creator and just going on and
on about how they're a terrible person and
they suck or whatever.
That's bullying.
Nobody is bullying the creator, as far as
I know.
No one is calling, you know, I'm not calling
for the creator to be canceled.
I want the creator to learn from their mistakes,
and you can't learn from your mistakes if
you aren't open to having a conversation.
And this is an issue that the community has
as a whole.
And I as a creator myself see it all the time
with other creators or even in the comments
of my videos or other people's videos, because
what I'm here to do is educate on topics that
I know about, give my opinion on things that
I am passionate about, and be a part of the
community in general, okay?
But as someone who points out problematic
things or misinformation, what I often get
is people telling me that I'm gatekeeping
or people telling me that I'm wrong and I
have no idea what I'm talking about.
And as content creators, it can be difficult
to sit here and give our opinions and give
information when we know that there is also
a huge part of the community out there who
doesn't care that the information is correct
or who doesn't care if the information perpetuates
a stigma that is just not true.
As a community, if we don't allow ourselves
to have these more difficult conversations,
there's no room for growth personally and
community-wise.
If I can't admit when I make a mistake or
if I can't listen to the voices of others
who are telling me that something that I'm
doing it's problematic for their community,
then I'm the problem and that's what I see
so much.
And we need to normalize the idea of admitting
when you're wrong.
We need to normalize that, because a lot of
people are afraid to admit when they're wrong.
And that's a really dangerous idea to have
in your head that you can't admit when you're
wrong.
Why?
What are you afraid of?
We need to be able, as a community and as
individuals, we need to be able to admit when
we're wrong and we need to listen to the voices
of the communities who are telling us that
something we're doing is problematic or harmful
to their community.
It's as simple as that.
What is the point in not listening?
What is the point in shutting down any mode
of conversation?
To protect your ego?
Because that's not right.
Your ego is not more important than the harmful
stigmas and the harmful behaviors that other
communities may face as a result of your actions,
and conversation is important.
Calling for a conversation about a problematic
issue is not bullying.
It's not cancel culture.
It is a way to help the community grow and
to help the individuals in the community grow
as spiritual beings - as human beings.
I will always be here to call out problematic
ideas, problematic behavior, people that perpetuate
stigmas.
But there's a difference between calling someone
out to have a conversation and calling someone
out to bully them or "cancel" them.
There's a difference.
As a community, we can have these conversations.
It might be difficult.
It might suck for some people and you might
have to come face-to-face with your own shadow
to figure out why you're getting so defensive
over someone telling you that you're wrong,
or why you're getting so defensive over problematic
behavior.
You're probably going to have to confront
your shadow, but that's on you.
And we don't need the community to perpetuate
any stigma against any group of people.
That's not okay.
I really felt like I needed to say something
as someone that has mental health issues,
as someone who struggles regularly with their
mental health and as someone who is passionate
about joining together mental health, spirituality,
and faith and witchcraft - I am not afraid
to call out crappy behavior and I think the
rest of the community needs to be able to
stand up and do the same thing because if
we as a community cannot stand up to the people
who will be bringing our community down and
who cannot raise your hand and raise your
voice to these ideas just to have a simple
conversation, then we're going nowhere as
a community.
We will just go right on into spiritual bypass
and avoid the community collective shadow
work that needs to be done, because there's
a lot of it.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is there
a difference between calling for conversation,
bullying, and canceling someone.
And in general, we just need to realize that
as a community.
I don't wish ill on the creator of the tarot
deck.
The last I heard the creator actually canceled
the creation of their deck.
They said that it's been an eye-opening journey
for them they appreciate our patience as they
continue to grow as a creator and an individual.
They said that they want to say sorry if they've
offended anyone in the process of the Kickstarter.
Their intention was to create something different
and reflect on what's happening.
They said "I understand that some of the cards
did not have the best representation.
My heart is no longer in a project and I wish
to cancel it myself as an apology."
now I don't know if this creator has had a
conversation with Katey.
I don't know if this creator has had a conversation
with anyone else who has called out the problematic
images and tried to have a conversation.
That's not my business at this point and I
do hope that the creator of this deck comes
out with a new idea and listens to the voices
of the people who brought up the problematic
themes in the deck to begin with.
I know this is a difficult subject for a lot
of people and I know coming face-to-face with
your shadow and realizing that conversation
without bullying and canceling is possible
and it's a necessary thing that needs to happen
in most communities.
So, I hope you can learn from this situation.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns
- feel free to leave them in the comments
below and let me know what you think about
the situation, and I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.
This video was kind of difficult for me to
make because of my anxiety and the mental
health things that I struggle with, but I
feel like it's important and I just ask that
if you're going to comment, if you're going
to share your experiences, keep the content
of the video in mind.
We can have a conversation without resorting
to bullying, shaming, and canceling people.
