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LazyPix3l
i like making cartoons :)

Age 19, Male (He/Him)

school is dumb

getting milk

Joined on 9/12/20

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Farewell to the legion.

Posted by LazyPix3l - June 2nd, 2024

This is a post I really wish I didn't have to make.

I want to start things off by saying that I don't have any ill intentions for the Lock Legion, and I wish nobody to go attack the Legion for what I am going to say. I believe that the Lock Legion is able to change, but in it's current state, I cannot accept it.

Over the past few days, there has been a resurgence of activity in the Lock Legion, which is something that I was quite excited to see. The Legion has been in a state of dormancy this year, and I love it when we can all come together to create awesome stuff together. Unfortunately though, there have been some bad actors in our community. I'm not going to name names, but it is something that bugs me quite a bit.

Because the Lock Legion is such an old group, it's bound to happen that most people will join to reminisce about the old web, or just talk about the old days of the Lock Legion in general, and that is great... unfortunately, there is also the people who bring the old elements of the web that aren't as welcomed anymore, such as homophobia/transphobia, racism, sexism, and other such things.

I think the thing that annoys me the most about this is that they veil it under the disguise of "edginess", so it's completely okay somehow. It's the kind of "edginess" where it's just being a nuisance and saying slurs and shit like that. It's not okay, it never was okay, and it never will be.

And the thing that is irritating about it is that this kind of behavior... I wouldn't say is welcomed, but is tolerated. Because "Hey, that's what the old internet was like, right? This kind of thing is okay."

It has escalated to a point where people are just causally flaunting racist symbols and throwing around slurs like it's nothing, completely denying the history that these things hold all in the sake of "edginess". I have to stress that this is something that does NOT have to be grouped with the old web, it's just not necessary.

And that's what I feel is the biggest problem with the Lock Legion is right now, and that is this misunderstanding of what makes the Lock Legion special. I joined the Lock Legion because of how it was just brewing with creativity from all sorts of awesome people, and I just loved the community it brought. Yes, the Lock Legion is also a relic of the old web, but that's not all it is, and denying that it hasn't become something else entirely is just so ignorant.

Again, this is not everyone who is doing this, there are some awesome people in the Lock Legion who I really respect, and I wish nothing but the best for them... but the behavior that is being tolerated is absolutely not okay.

So that is why I am leaving.

I am leaving the Lock Legion, and I do not know whether or not I will be returning. I really want to return, don't get me wrong. My hope is that the Lock Legion learns from this, and betters itself for it. The Lock Legion means a lot to me, and is one of the things that got me into making cartoons in the first place. The community has taught me so much about how to use Flash, and has inspired me so much and influenced my animation style and my comedic timing. The Lock Legion actually got me my first frontpage and trophy, and I will forever be grateful for those things, and the things that the Legion has gave me over the years.

But I hope you all can understand why I don't want to be here anymore. It's just becoming something it's not, and it makes me so sad. I have seen many of my friends get scared off by the Lock Legion, and even attacked because of the behavior that some of these "edgelords" will use. I was afraid to come out for the longest time because of some of the people who were there. Many of my friends have stated to me that they feel discriminated most of the time in the Lock Legion, and don't feel safe there. And now people are defending symbols of a mass murderer, and I just cannot happily stand by. I don't want to be associated with this kind of behavior in the Lock Legion.

I will be leaving up my LL cartoons on my Newgrounds page, as I am still really proud of most of them, and it reminds me of the positive elements of the Lock Legion. Not to mention that they just have a lot of sentimental value to me.

I want to remind everyone to not attack anybody in the Lock Legion. They have their flaws, yes, but I really want to see them clean up their act. And if you do attack them, then you are worse than they could ever be.

I would love to come back in the future and make cartoons again alongside my buddies, but I just cannot accept this behavior.

-Jonah G.

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Comments

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Czyszy

The old web was much better than today's centralized garbage, but I agree with you that some things of the past should be left in the past.

Jooce

Sad to see you go, but I can see why. The behavior in the LL in the past couple days cannot be tolerated with all of it's "edgy" unfiltered jokes being praised. People need to get out of the past and realize that times have changed, and that words can hurt. The fact that the conversation in the LL server wasn't stopped early on says something. None of what was said, should have ever been thought, nor typed out.

BecomeTheFridge

As an outsider, I can't comment on this specific situation. I've never interacted with the LL community, and don't have the right to pass judgement on them.

But I commend your statement for how it lays out your boundaries (what you're willing to accept and what crosses those boundaries), and also leaves the door open for reconciliation.

Speaking generally-- and kind of adding to Czyszy's comment-- while the current web has issues with being an overly polished, corporate hellscape on a lot of major sites (hence why I love Newgrounds insistence on creative freedom)-- we shouldn't forget that other people are human.
It's fine to joke about "edgy" things, but it's not fine to be an asshole to others just because of their identity (for their gender, race, sexuality, pronouns--etc.).

Czyszy

Come to think of it, if I was to choose between the old web including all its discrimination, ✱✱✱ism and ✱✱✱phobia and current web, I would pick the former option. I'd rather be openly hurt by ordinary people like you and me, than to be secretly hurt, equally as deeply, by big greedy corporations, and have everything I do be given away to feed their AI. :(

chris-the-stick

well, i see where you are coming from, and i understand what you are saying,
but i personally dont think things are so bad in the lock legion (at least not as bad as you claim it to be...).

i've been in the LL for years, and despite some cases of ''edgy humour'', there has not been any racist/sexist remarks or any downright insults towards others based on their sex/colour/appearance.

in the LL, we respect all people and we are just old/new friends who make funny movies, collabs, art and some people throw in some edgy humour too.

i can certainly agree with mr Czyszy, that the old internet was much better than the sterilized, polished, soulless internet that we have today, where most of humour is banned, people can be cancelled for a single joke/post (even if its not actually offensive), and everything being censored and scrutinized by any person who feels offended by everything, sometimes being offended on behalf of other people, who never got offended by it in the first place.

so yeah, i think that we need to return back to the common sense era of 1980-2000, or back to the 2000-2009 internet, where people had a good sense of humour, and noone was getting offended from the slightest thing.

thank you.

LazyPix3l

I wrote this around the time that an unspecified individual was normalizing some pretty bad stuff around the server. And this letter I've written a while ago should be taken with a grain of salt. For one, this was mainly directed towards said individual who was making things difficult, and I feel like I should've specified that a bit more. And two, it's been a while since I left, so the Legion now could be completely different from the Legion then, and even then it was the occasional bad actor here and there, not nearly as bad as the picture I painted.

I also feel quite a bit of regret from this post, as well as my general behavior in the Lock Legion. I was a very sensitive dude and had some issues that I never quite worked out until later on when I left the Lock Legion, and I feel like I took out a lot of my anger and immaturity on many people, especially those undeserving and even those who wanted to help me. A lot of people in the Lock Legion I feel I might have scared away because of my childish behavior, and I feel bad about that all the time.

But I think my general point still stands; there are, and continue to be bad actors in the Lock Legion, and if we don't do anything about it, then those voices will outshine the good that the Legion is doing. We live in a incredibly radicalized time, and peoples voices matter more than ever. There has been a resurgence of this really shitty behavior, and simply not calling these people out is a non-option. Otherwise, they are going to get more comfortable in their ignorance and encourage others to do the same. It's an issue, and I'm not going to pretend like it's not.

So I'm mixed about my original post. On the one hand, I think it's riddled with inaccuracies and over-exaggeration, mainly spurred by my emotional and irrational outbursts. But on the other hand, I believe it comes from a place of sincerity. I want the Legion to succeed, it still means so much to me. I just cannot support it with good faith right now. Who knows, I might make an addendum to this, or rewrite it entirely, I'll have to see how I feel.

Czyszy

Besides, today there's much less distinction between the internet and real life, in society, so all the discriminating, homophobic, racist etc things people say to each other online are often taken as if it was said to them directly face to face.

Back in the old days, you could get away with much more edgy and offensive shit on the internet, because people would separate that from their real life more clearly. People didn't take that as seriously as they do now. Being offended by a stranger online wasn't a big deal. After all, that was before sharing real personal info, photos, your real name became the de facto norm. We all used pseudonyms, nicknames, avatars, we were much more anonymous.

There was this unwritten "fourth wall" between the online world and real life, which had immensely diminished as years went by.

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