please avoid myrddin-wylt/comradevo
myrddin-wylt/comradevo has been repeatedly racist, antisemitic, and sinophobic. When challenged by people from the affected communities regarding their harmful rhetoric, they have repeatedly dismissed these people as 1) poor representations of the community and/or 2) manipulative trolls/false flag operations before attempting to reframe the narrative on their blog to their control. Their overconfidence in their own ability to educate others on subjects with which they have no firsthand experience has caused them to make inappropriate and ignorant comments about the politics of other countries, to the point of unintentionally championing authoritarian regimes.
We would like to draw attention to this behaviour to warn other Hetalia fans so that they can be avoided, and ask everyone to reflect on why such a pattern of racist, antisemitic behaviour has been tolerated, unprobed and unnoticed for such a long time in the fandom.
While it is true that everyone should curate their own fandom experiences, such a principle only holds as long as people do not act in ways that replicate real life oppression. Minorities do not have to curate away people who are replicating hurt/abuse against them in fandom spaces, and have every right to confront people who do so.
Additionally, given that myrddin has made all of these posts publicly, we are holding them accountable in public, and not in private.
Racism
response to “Wasian South Korea” apology
In December 2022, a blogger, who will be unnamed here as it is irrelevant to the purpose of the document, received an ask about a fanfiction which made the modern day nation of South Korea the offspring of North Korea and the United States. The blogger in question received the ask positively and came up with her own list of headcanons expanding upon this idea.It wasn’t until around May that some of the document writers came across this post and found it, alongside some of the ideas espoused in the post and the original fanfiction, to be extremely problematic. One of the writers of the document, luyous, reached out to the blogger via a series of private asks, proof of which can be found here, though the OP argues that they never received the asks. These went unanswered until June 14, when another one of the doc writers, kimetsunozushi69, directly reblogged the post with her thoughts and calling the headcanons problematic, which can be found here. The blogger’s first response was to block kimetsunozushi69; this fact is disputed by the blogger and Myrddin, but the doc writers had sufficient evidence to suspect that kimetsunozushi69 was blocked. Because of this suspicion, peonycats, a notably bigger blog than kimetsunozushi69, reblogged their reblog with additional commentary. It was only after this point that the original blogger apologised and took down the post in question.
Because of all of these reasons, and the general impression that the post was only taken down and an apology was given because a bigger blog got involved, the blogger’s apology was not accepted by the relevant parties, who were all ESEA. It was then that comradevo, otherwise known as Myrddin-Wylt, jumped in to start defending the blogger.
Testimony from Peonycats: “Frankly, in this situation, it shouldn’t matter what reasons we had to not accept (blogger)‘s apology. Myrddin-wylt, who is White American, is the last person who gets to have any say on whether or not ESEA individuals should accept an apology for perpetuating false narratives and bigotry about them.”
Frustrated by Myrddin’s dismissal of ESEA concerns, irithnova, a Southeast Asian,vented on her blog about Myrddin’s dismissiveness and lack of understanding for all the publicly available reasons why not all parties affected accepted the OP’s apology. An exchange followed in which Myrddin used anti-SEAsian stereotypes of poverty, underdevelopment, and backwardness/savagery/primitiveness against irithnova, attacking irithnova’s literacy level and reading comprehension.
Tumblr: Link
It can be seen that Myrddin used aggressive rhetoric against both irithnova and kimetsunozushi69/thepianistblogsbasedonhumanities, who are both POC, but when serica-e, a white person, defended them and made many of their points, they were notably more civil to him. When questioned on this, Myrddin argued that serica-e “directly and plainly and sincerely explained” the issue “without self-justification”, implicitly contrasting him against kimetsunozushi69/ thepianistblogsbasedonhumanities and irithnova.
Serica-e is someone whose country was not affected by American imperialist violence, or the racism and orientalism the original headcanons perpetuated against ESEA; expecting irithnova and kimetsunozueshi69 to speak with the same measured tone as serica-e when speaking with an aggressive white person berating them for not accepting an apology directed towards ESEA is little more than tone-policing. By this point, the parties involved in this were extremely frustrated at how Myrddin was involving themselves in a conflict to defend (however unintentional) racism and imperialism, and when contacted by other victims of Myrddin’s racism, collaborated to create this document.
The writers of this document would like to acknowledge though the use of “lolcow” can be seen as offensive due to its origins on 4chan and derogatory meaning, they would also like to make the following points:
- The word was used by an ESL speaker who had only heard it to mean an individual who is “milked for laughs,” and was not aware of its bodyshaming connotations, thus it was never intended to insult the blogger’s appearance.
- Using a problematic term once does not make POC’s anger at someone misrepresenting them through pernicious false narratives any less valid, nor does it make it then okay to lob racist and bigoted abuse at them for refusing to accept an apology for the harm caused.
Myrddin’s focus on tone-policing is reflected in how, while making a few token acknowledgements that OP’s post was wrong and that their apology was not unwarranted, they spend the majority of their posts and activity policing how POC involved reacted to said apology and attacking them viciously for their responses. They reframed POC expressing their anger and hurt at an inadequate apology that did not address their concerns as ‘trolls sensing “blood in the water,”’ portraying the victims as aggressors.
Testimony from irithnova: “This demonstrates how racially privileged people are so quick to turn upon minorities when they express their anger and hurt aggressively, rather than focusing on why they’re angry.”
Following these exchanges, Myrddin took it upon themself to make some posts about the incident on their blog. Here, they described multiple people coming to kimetsunozushi69’s side against the blogger as a “Zerg rush” and implied their actions were “trolling.” Myrddin also claimed that even if “(they) agree with your argument” but continues to fight, their “goal is now to just piss you off because (they) personally don’t like you.” They are, again, much more concerned about the responses of people who have been hurt by the OP’s post and initial suspected lack of response, instead of the fact that OP had made a racist, imperialist post.
Once again, as someone not ESEA or ever affected by American Imperialism, Myrddin doesn’t have any right to decide how POC should react to their oppression and bigotry directed towards them. Myrddin is openly admitting to trying to punish and make the lives of POC harder because they don’t like how they went about it and didn’t forgive the original blogger for justified reasons.
In the comments of the first link, Myrddin admits to behaving “mean-spirited” and acting as a “troll” and “asshole” themself, an admission of engaging in the discussion in bad faith.
Additionally, they also dismiss (and frankly whitewash) this group of POC as “Puritan Evangelicals” and refer to their actions as “dog-piling” and “manipulation tactics.”
Afterwards, myrddin began making posts demonstrating interest in Korean-US relations, as well as reblogging posts from a Korean Uzbek blogger criticising OP’s post and praising it. This is part of a well-established pattern, where Myrddin will attack people who disagree with them on an issue directly related to their communities, then afterwards, demonstrated effort to learn about said issue to signal how ‘nuanced and open’ they are and how they are demonstrating the right way to teach and talk about a situation… an insincere, performative effort, after silencing the people who have to live that situation and its consequences, dismissing victims and members as ‘bad representatives of their communities who reacted inappropriately.’
By doing this, they control the narrative of marginalised peoples’ histories, rather than allowing marginalised people to speak for themselves.
Testimony from tianshiisdead: “To POC, arguing about racism and commenting on the spreading of harmful stereotypes and rhetoric, it’s because it’s the same rhetoric that plagues us irl and makes society dangerous for us, because it’s bigoted and cruel and makes it difficult to exist in online spaces when it follows us here too. But for many white people it’s literally just a way to prove intellectual superiority. It’s just ‘matching wits’ or ‘power play’ or 'winning drama’, our original concerns are lost, if we don’t immediately forgive and forget then we’re unfair and whiny, if we argue with them then we’re pushing too far, if we have slightly less than pleasing language then we’re a mob. For us this is a serious issue based on how behaviour like this normalises racism and creates an atmosphere we’re we are afraid to speak up if things are deeply offensive for fear of being accused of being whiny/pushy/'accusing people of racism’ (which is often framed as being worse than racism), for them it’s laughing at us from afar as they treat us like lab rats to play with. Like somehow name calling is worse than making insanely racist posts that no one calls out because the general fandom is not in the blast range and therefore not affected, and the ones who are affected can’t speak up without being accused of causing drama? ‘I never insulted someone’s body/appearance so there’s that’ is craaazy when you spent an evening mockingly talking down to and insulting the English/intellect abilities of a Southeast Asian, and then turning around and being polite to a white person making the same point backing them up. Also, the tone policing is crazy haha especially considering the tone wrt criticising the original post has always been polite from the beginning, when it was brought up privately, and the only thing ‘under fire’ is the lying and shifting of blame.”
defence of other creator’s islamophobia and transphobia
After another creator was revealed to have transphobic and Islamophobic sentiments (who will be referred to as Ukrainian creator for this section, for reasons later elaborated), Myrddin once again took to framing POC’s rightful public concern as “shit stirring fan behavior” and “harassment and smear campaigns” by fandom puritans. (Link1) (Link2) (Link3)
Testimony from Peonycats: “I’m not going to be educated by someone who has repeatedly harassed minorities and marginalised groups on ‘what does and does not help marginalised groups.’”
In a now deleted post, Myrddin attempted to completely retell what happened with the unspecified creator, who happens to be Ukrainian, talking about how their “first language isn’t English” and “hasn’t had the privilege to learn the years of social activism.”
It should be noted that the writers of this document are pro-Ukraine and condemn Russia’s illegal invasion and wholesale slaughter of Ukrainian civilians. However, this is part of a much larger pattern of Myrddin disregarding voices from minority communities in favour of Ukrainian voices/the “Ukraine cause.” Myrddin has repeatedly utilised the Ukraine conflict in topics where it is completely irrelevant (to be elaborated upon later in this post). The creator’s background as a war refugee fleeing invasion is irrelevant to their repeated statements of sinophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, none of which they have disavowed at the writing of this document. When members of communities who are affected by such sentiments dare to speak up against a voice who happens to be Ukrainian, Myrddin puts their voices under much harsher scrutiny, while the Ukrainian voice expressing such prejudices is given tremendous benefit of the doubt, such as English not being their first language, not understanding social justice rhetoric, etc.
The writers of this document were also some of the members to call out the Ukrainian creator, and would like to make it clear that at no point did they encourage the harassment or sending of violent/similar threats towards the Ukrainian creator in question, even going so far to explicitly warn against doing so multiple times.
When the unspecified creator involved was called out for sinophobia, they promptly accused one of the writers of being a Chinese nationalist, and assumed that said writer would be enraged by a Uyghur OC (which they then drew) due to said nationalism, despite them never having expressed pro-CCP sentiments. After Myrddin reblogged their art of Uyghur, an anon sent Myrddin an ask mentioning the creator’s Islamophobia and transphobia. Myrddin reacted harshly to this ask, assuming that the anon was accusing the Ukrainian creator in bad faith, being a “troll” and “toxic pissant”.
Becoming publicly interested in the Uyghurs because of a spite OC against someone assumed to be a Chinese nationalist because they are Chinese endorses the creator’s sinophobic behaviour. It is also offensive to the Uyghurs and their genocide and incredibly performative to only speak up for them when you have issues with someone you think would be offended by any defense of or interest in them.
Aside from their racism against East and Southeast Asians, Myrddin has also made inappropriate and racist comments against Argentinians, as well as drawing false equivalence between the United Kingdom and Argentina as colonial states. Their behaviour of hijacking the conversation after a confrontation on the topic will also be repeated here.
The writers of the document do not intend to weigh in on the Falklands territorial dispute between Argentina and Britain. Our focus is on the racism that Myrddin exhibited when Argentinians disagreed with their views, and racism against the other side is always a disproportionate and inappropriate response in political debates.
In May 2023, Myrddin received an anonymous ask complaining about a creator who implied the Falklands was part of Argentina, and made a few posts on the topic siding with the UK on the Falklands territorial dispute.
In response to an ask they got challenging them on the Falklands, Myrddin made a post claiming that everyone living south of the equator had “brainrot” and stated that the only country south of the equator that wasn’t “insane” was Australia. Considering the southern hemisphere is primarily dominated by people of colour and non-western countries, and that the only exception that Myrddin, a white American, makes for this assertion is Australia, a primarily white, Western country, this statement comes off as intensely racist and denigrating of the mental faculties of POC and non-Western individuals.
An anonymous individual sent in an ask to Myrddin calling out this language. Myrddin again, puts them down, and even goes on to state that they knew this anonymous ask came from, presumably, the same person who challenged them on the Falklands (referred to as the “Latam Anon”) because of their poor and inaccurate grammar. Once again, Myrddin is otherizing ESL speakers, and it should not be difficult to see how singling out the anonymous individuals that use poor grammar and assuming from that grammar that they are 1) the same person 2) that the second anonymous person is from Latin America, is racist and bigoted, especially when it’s coming from a White Texan. Here, Myrddin denigrates the intelligence of non-Western individuals based off English proficiency, under the guise of “putting down Argentina nationalists.”
An Argentine individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, received an ask about Myrddin’s denigration of Southern Hemisphere countries, and called out Myrddin’s statement for being (intentionally or not) racist and bigoted. Myrddin responds to this by arguing that not all non-Western countries were below the Southern Hemisphere, therefore making their statement somehow acceptable. Again - when Myrddin states explicitly that there’s “one (1) country south of the equator that isn’t insane”, and that country is Australia, one of the only white dominated states in the Southern Hemisphere, it comes off, at best, as insensitive and ignorant of how the vast majority of countries in the Southern Hemisphere are non-Western, and racism at worst.
Furthermore, Myrddin goes on to equivocate Argentina, a former Spanish colony, with Great Britain, which remains a globe-spanning imperial power to this day. Argentina may be a white dominated society, but it is still not considered part of the West and has also been affected by Western intervention and invasion, thus it is facetious to compare it to the UK in terms of damage. This is not meant to put down the historical and continuing harm Argentina continues to perpetuate against its indigenous and African population, but there’s a drastic difference in scale between these two countries (Britain having repressed colonial populations and sown the conditions for future ethnic conflict and oppression worldwide in multiple countries today), and trying to argue the colonial, imperialist legacies of these two countries are anywhere close to each other is in bad faith and patently false.
Following this exchange, Myrddin began learning about the brutalisation of indigenous and Afro-Argentines, presenting themselves as an authority on some parts of the topic by answering questions about it and compiling several reading lists on the treatment of Argentine minorities. This was done via the educational, almost condescending tone they speak with to the anonymous individual who sent them an ask on Argentina, them Myrddin noting how their reading list got the seal of approval from an Argentinean (virtue signalling again), and how they assume they have enough authority to vet and assess which readings on the genocide of Afro-Argentines and Indigenous people are accurate enough to form a reading list on.
[Screenshots of the reading lists have been truncated for brevity].
Again, we do not intend to weigh in on the Falklands territorial dispute. However, regardless of opinion on the Falklands Islands, it doesn’t justify the act of ridiculing (at least) an entire nation as “brain-rotted” and dismissing all Argentine voices disagreeing with you, before immediately presenting yourself as the unbiased expert on all things Argentina and historical.
Testimony from a LatAm mutual: it NEEDS to be acknowledged that Argentina’s history is bloody, and that colorism is a major problem in virtually all LatAm countries, just as it is in the US. But the way Myrddin was so eager to use Argentina’s history as an opportunity to insult the entire Global South, somehow giving Australia a free pass, then declaring themselves some kind of spokesperson on LatAm history, is a perfect example of White Leftism at its worst. Myrddin even flaunted the fact that they could dig up Spanish-language sources as if this is some great feat in the age of the internet. It is all too often that White USAmericans seem very eager to be vitriolic towards White LatAm folks in a way that they are not vitriolic towards their White US peers. It reeks of unexamined bias against Spanish-speaking communities, and against the Global South as a whole. This is absolutely not about Argentina being somehow immune to crit, it is about the double standard that Myrddin has shown. They’ve been repeatedly far more permissive regarding missteps from folks who are not from the Global South (see the excuses made for the racism and islamophobia from an Eastern European user) than they have been of communities that don’t align with their pet cause.
Testimony from Kimetsunozushi69: As someone born and raised in Spain who interacted and talk daily share with Hispanic speakers from Spain and Latin America, we tend to agree that we are fairly worried when people tend to ignore and brush off the clear history of violence and discrimination that hispanos suffer, it is especially hard because I do agree that, as someone who suffered racism in Spain as a EAsian, there is no denying that many Hispanic speaking countries have a big problem with racism and colourism, but to use our oppression, the oppression of POCs by White Latinos and Spaniards, as a way to look down on the later and also to look down on Spanish speaking countries is problematic, especially because Myrddin is from the US, and the US is infamous for its anti-hispanic policies in society and law, many latinos feel uncomfortable with the US talking down about the conditions of their countries because the US has massive power and influence over Latin America, and also the clear racialisation of the US society against white hispanics and spaniards compared to white people with germanic and british ancestry.
Antisemitism
Myrddin has also been antisemitic. In response to a Jewish person’s criticism of said antisemitism, they have employed antisemitic canards, accusing them of being a 4chan false flag antisemitic operation.
In February 2022, a Jewish individual, who will be referred to as “anonymous Jewish Individual” for the rest of the document, expressed discomfort with Myrddin calling Scholz a “Nazi,” as it’s throwing around a very loaded term and reducing its weight, thus contributing to Jews speaking about their oppression not being taken seriously.
Myrddin reacted aggressively to this correction, and immediately accused the anonymous Jewish individual of having internalised anti-semitism for simply criticising how they used the term Nazi, as well as not caring about Eastern European Jews, despite the fact that the anonymous Jewish individual is a Russo-German Jew. As a non Jew, Myrddin has no right to be policing how a Jew feels about how non-Jews use the term “Nazi.”
Myrddin would go on to theorise that this anonymous Jewish individual was in fact, faking being Jewish and was only trying to stir up trouble (for being uncomfortable with the way a non-Jewish person is throwing around the term ‘Nazi’), pointing to their spelling of antisemitism versus anti-semitism.
Additionally, they would go on to analyse the original ask, calling it “top-tier manipulation,” and speculate that they are a “Kremlin contractor.” As we have established, this is part of a much larger pattern of Myrddin dismissing the complaints of minorities who don’t agree with them as simply “manipulation.”
The following are testimony from the anonymous Jewish individual and a Jewish mutual of the writers.
Testimony from anonymous Jewish person: 1 2
Testimony from another Jewish mutual: “I also had a bad experience with Myrddin’s antisemitism - I had originally followed them because their takes appeared nuanced at first glance but if I had known this was their response to a Jewish anon, I never would have engaged. I had gently informed Myrddin that their wording was a common unintentional form of soft Holocaust denial, and I kept it in the comments section of their post because I did not want it to be a public dragging, just a heads-up. Myrddin screencapped me to mock me, accused me of manipulating them and playing the victim, linked me the wikipedia article for “reductio ad Hitlerum” and called me a cunt.
As for these accusations of the above anon faking being Jewish: the hyphen debate is not the shibboleth myrddin thinks it is. Plenty of Jews still use the hyphen, it’s largely regional and generational. I don’t use the hyphen myself, but it’s nowhere near being an example of the false-flagging activity they’re documenting in their “info post” about it. False-flagging accusations are a heavy thing to accuse someone of, and when it’s coming from someone who isn’t Jewish, it’s a textbook example of the antisemitic trope of “fabricating or exaggerating antisemitism” and in my personal experience, actual falseflaggers can usually be identified by other things that you really have to be actively involved in Jewish spaces to recognize. These things include misuse/misunderstanding of Yiddish (such as grammar and syntax errors), discussion of Jewish topics in terms that no Jewish person would actually use (but many Christians would), and they largely go undetected because comprising 0.2% of the global population means 99.8% of the world has had little or zero exposure to us.
Myrddin even admitted in a past post that their exposure to Jewish people is minimal and they therefore have limited ability to identify antisemitism unless it’s overt. Honestly this post of theirs about how antisemitism manifests itself in leftist circles is overall correct. So if they are aware of this, why do they think they are incapable of unwittingly perpetuating it themself? This is exactly what Myrddin did when they accused someone of faking being Jewish, and when they accused me of playing the victim because I didn’t appreciate that they joked about receiving reparations from Germany. If they knew even the basic minimum on the subject they would realize they were playing into classic tropes. Myrddin has no real exposure to Jewish spaces and dialogue and therefore no place to speak with any authority on whether or not they can accurately identify a falseflagger. Furthermore, to address the “it’s not just about youuuuu” edit they added - while it is absolutely true that there were other victims, no group was targeted, tracked, registered, and exterminated to the extent, or even in the same manner, that Jews and Romani and Sinti were. I encourage anyone reading this to seek out and listen to Jewish and Romani queer and disabled voices, who will say the same. Queer identity was feared because it was seen as a Jewish threat. For someone who claims to know so much about how antisemitism manifests itself on the Left, they are incredibly ignorant about one of the most common forms this takes: the “all lives matter” treatment of the Holocaust in Leftist circles.”
Alongside Myrddin’s anti-semitism, this is part of a much larger pattern of behavior of Myrddin employing the plight of Ukrainians as a tool to silence minorities. Whenever someone speaks from a relevant minority perspective on ukraine-related topics or simply against a Ukrainian voice, Myrddin proceeds to attack and speak over that minority. In the latter case, even when the topic is completely unrelated to their nationality or the war in Ukraine, myrddin drags in the Ukraine to invalidate those minorities and even implies that these minorities are somehow privileged.
Testimony from luyous: “Coming from a non-Ukrainian, this is completely inappropriate behavior, and to be completely honest, it’s depressingly similar to how the western mainstream has covered the Ukraine conflict compared to other conflicts and voices, such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, etc.”
Sinophobia
In the first incident two anonymous individuals both write to Myrddin about feeling ashamed in their countries, Brazil and China. In isolation, these posts could be shrugged off, but these drastically different responses to very similar questions about feeling shame about one’s country, placed within the larger pattern of myrddin’s behaviour and rhetoric about China, indicate prejudices at play.
Testimony from Luyous: “Why does Myrddin express empathy for how the Brazil anon is ashamed of their country and talk about how they (Myrddin) is also ashamed of the United States, but the China Anon gets none of that? Myrddin doesn’t attempt to draw the same connections of country misdeeds and crimes between the United States and China like they do for the United States and Brazil, implies in the tags such attempts to do so would be “whataboutism.” While every country has its crimes, and China is a hegemonic power with more than its share of crimes, the fact that Myrddin can express “oh same” @ Brazil anon but refuses to do so for China anon and implies that:
1) Yes, you should be ashamed of your country.
2) Any attempts to “oh same” between China and the United States are an attempt to detract from China’s misdeeds versus Brazil.
These are all reflective of a double standard between the crimes of Brazil and China, indicative of a larger pattern of Myrddin’s inability to criticise China on the same terms as other nations.”
“Year Hare Affair” is a far-right Chinese nationalist cartoon which Myrddin has posted about. Myrddin has repeatedly referenced this cartoon primarily popular amongst Chinese nationalists and not the general Chinese population to determine how Chinese people in general act and feel about geopolitics.
The doc’s writers, many of whom are Chinese, find Myrddin’s behaviour distasteful at best and to have nationalist undertones at worst. It’s galling to see Americans like Myrddin smugly make memes about the US-China tensions while it’s primarily the Chinese American and Chinese Western diaspora who suffer the consequences of such rising tensions. Chinese people are extremely racialized and treated poorly by both North American society and government. White Americans, however, are not oppressed and are not uniquely mistreated by their government, and even have privileges in China as white expatriates. It’s just flatly false for Americans to act like they’re the underdog oppressed by China and throw their lot in with countries like Vietnam which have been mistreated by China. Additionally, this rhetoric ignores how Chinese people are brutalised in the west because such rhetoric has been normalised in the mainstream; is making a few memes that don’t change anything politically really worth contributing to grandmas getting bludgeoned on the streets?
Testimony from Peonycats: “In the words of another ESEA individual I spoke to about this topic, it’s very easy for White Westerners who will never be hurt by the escalating tensions between the West and China to go ‘C’mon Xi’ and goad said tensions on.”
Testimony from Tianshiisdead: “From the perspective of a muslim Chinese ethnic minority who’s lived in China and in the west (North America), Myrddin’s takes are honestly really harmful and the sort of subtle politically worded sinophobia that flies under the radar because it’s also championed by news media in the west and any opposition will be met with accusations of either being a wumao/genocide denier/totalitarian apologist (for left wing) or anti-american/traitor (for right wing), but these sorts of sentiments directly contribute to getting Chinese people (and Chinese adjacent/passing people) beaten and killed, as seen by the spike in hate crimes in recent years. I think there’s a sort of smugness and aloofness that permeates her posts on China, this idea that she’s not punching down but rather spectating a sports game or even punching up, a 'spunky’ feeling to her wording that honestly feels very gross, these are serious issues both being addressed in her posts and caused by her wording, and her distance from the violence as a white American is very clear imo. Like when she says 'cmon Xi!’ or whatever like it’s not people’s lives and the wellbeing of entire countries at stake… also a lot of the rhetoric leans dangerously close into absolving America for me, because she literally keeps posting about how China aggression wah wah China is being rude to America again wahhhh like America is Not The Victim of whatever China’s doing, and has its own history of oppression/exploitation of Chinese people and is currently the main force shit stirring in the region for its own purposes tbh. The sort of 'spunkiness’ vibe comes out when she mocks China, which I don’t think is appropriate given she’s a white American in a country where Chinese people are brutalized for both racial and political reasons, and also again, given the fact that America is Not the Victim and therefore her shit slinging at China can not in any way be construed as 'punching up’. The way she talks about Hetalia China rubs me the wrong way as well because like… okay Hetalia nation-tans do often reflect their gov but they are not ONLY their gov and given how Chinese people and culture are often conflated with their gov irl even in situations when they are the ones being hurt/oppressed most and treated accordingly, it’s just bad vibes all around when she often fluidly moves in between talking about Hetalia China and China’s gov actions irl.
Also, like, can I say as someone from an ethnic minority group that is on and off the target of suppression and has had family hurt by that suppression, Myrddin’s posting justifies in many ways its treatment of China due to Chinese government policy, but it just reeks of a white westerner cheering for blood while watching us get brutalized like a spectator sport, it’s pretty sickening lol not necessarily related to sinophobia but. like your (random white westerner’s) sinophobic ranting about china’s gov not only doesn’t help us minorities but also gets us racialized and killed when we move to the west for our own safety…”
spreading false narratives
Though not as egregious as harassing and demeaning minorities for speaking about their own oppression, Myrddin has also made some statements that end up white-washing less than savoury government regimes. During the dispute about the Falklands, Myrddin brought up Hong Kong as an example of another land dispute involving the British but was resolved without military intervention. However, this is ignoring the complexity of Hong Kong’s handover and also ironically repeats pro-CCP talking points:
1) A region being inhabited by majority ethnic Chinese does not justify PRC control of a territory; this is literally rhetoric used by the CCP to justify control over Hong Kong.
2) Poor taste for Myrddin, someone who is not Hong Konger, to be justifying Hong Kong’s handover and to be characterising it as ‘well-done’ in contrast to the Falklands dispute in the wake of international coverage of the Hong Kong protests.
Myrddin also called the far right-wing government of Poland “sexy,” something which given their history of interactions with Jewish individuals, was found to be in poor taste, at best.
The following is what the anonymous Jewish individual has to say about the Poland praising post: 1
conclusion
The authors would like to remind everyone not to harass Myrddin. Precipitating violent/death threats and anon hate against Myrddin or other racists in fandom is not the intent of this callout, and the writers would strongly condemn any attempts to do so. Rather, we would like everyone to become more aware of these racist behaviours and ask you to take a stand against it whenever you see it happening, both in fandom and outside of it.
We would also ask the Hetalia fandom to reflect: what does it say about the fandom that Myrddin has been allowed to continue participating and actively make content in the fandom for so long, even as they come into so many conflicts with minority fans over a period of several months? Why is it that a racist has an established circle of friends and followers in the fandom? Why does Myrddin feel entitled to defend multiple instances of racism from other Hetalia fans?
Are we fostering an atmosphere of tolerance for racists in fandom, such that they feel empowered to continue participating, while minorities in fandom are forced out?
And ultimately, what can we do to create environments that ethnic and religious minorities feel comfortable existing in?
