Also got confirmation that cancer ist kaput!
Congratulations!!!
I’m in a similar situation. I want to do art stuff but I don’t want to make a trail of internet breadcrumbs that leads to my demise or something. Idk what I’m afraid about really, but I know there’s some vengeful mfs online.
They can be nasty, and the online art community has become very toxic. I am full of regret that I have wasted the 2010s. I could have made it.
Kinda struggling to spend my free time well. I've always had trouble figuring out what I want to be doing at any given moment. Trying to hang out with my friends as much as possible at least but their schedules are a lot busier than mine. I live in a large city so the world is my oyster but what the hell do I do with an oyster?
I end up spending a lot of time at home just browsing but I feel like it's literally killing me.
Jesus christ this is some "Literally Me" shit right here. At least I know I'm not alone at being a complete failure of a human who should just invite the sweet release of dea-
I mean... I'm happy to be around such like-minded individuals.
As for spending your free time... I completely get that. That said however, I think we're different though in that I have limited mobility and live in a town right now. Dude honestly just go around the city and do whatever sounds fun to you. If I was in a city, I would literally just drive around at night listening to music just because. Go see if there's any rereleases or indie theaters there. I know the first thing I do when I move is going to see classic rereleases every week. Go to a record shop. Try go-carting. Hot air-ballooning. Just do shit you've always wanted to do. There's so much to do if you have the transportation.
I'm scared of having an online presence too. Not only because of the possible ramifications but I often think if I'd even have the chance to become controversial or cancelled. The Youtube algorithm is such dogshit that it's insanely difficult to get your shit even seen. Not to mention if you say any dirty words it might flag you or just bury your videos. I wouldn't mind some backlash but I'd at least want my stuff to have a chance to get it.
I get the idea of wasting a significant portion of your life. It's my greatest regret. But also try to look towards the future. I've been giving this some serious thought lately. Everyone is thinking how hopeless everything is and how much of a stranglehold the authoritarians have. But really think about it.
Do you really think this is going to last forever? Look at every single other time something like this happened in history. It sucked yeah, and sometimes it lasted a long while. But eventually shit just becomes too lame and gay and a bunch of interesting people come along and change shit up. It's been every single wave in comics, every single film movement, every art or literature style. It all came from people looking at what was around them and thinking it wasn't speaking to enough people, or just not to them and they went out and did something kick ass that became the new "normal".
Xwitter is dying a slow death, streaming services are crumbling, people are reading self-publishing more than ever, Hollywood is raping itself, even normiefags are starting to watch/read nip shit because it's got better balue. Most people are not into this shit that they're selling. People want something new.
Maybe I'm just coping. It does seem extremely bleak. I think about the falling economy and the dirth of entertainment out there and the corporations literally cannibalizing eachother in some weird technocratic Highlander. But I think about even six/seven years ago how much cool shit there actually was out there. And how shit never stays the same. It's idealistic thinking to some but I really doubt people actually are going to want to deal with all this gay shit ten years from now if they're getting tired of it now.
Because things are so ass right now is precisely why you should be trying to make things less ass. Because the communities are so toxic, that's why you should be trying to be the one people actually see as a sign of hope. Don't feed these faggots with your despair. If they try to dox you or tattle on you, tell them to kill themselves. Show them how fucking little they are. If anything, your martrydom might help you in a long run. There's plenty of artists and/or journalists right now who have large fanbases just because they've pissed the right people off. Don't bend the knee. Don't give up. If everyone does that than of course everythings' going to stay lame and gay.
There will always be censorship and pearlclutchers. That's why there should always be people around to fuck with them and make things that spit in their face. Even if you have to tone some of it down, do it in ways to show how many holes you can poke in their logic (kind of like what filmmakers did in the years of the Hays Code). Hell by the time you get established, you might just have people screeching at you about how you didn't have enough Aryans in your story or how that sexy drawing you made is problematic because it doesn't represent the tradcon ideals it's supposed to have in the newest current year.
I know I'm being overly optimistic but really, we don't know how the future will turn out. But you'll never know how bad things will get for you unless you try. But if you want to do cool shit, especially in art, you're going to have to deal with the fact that faggots are going to hate you for having more balls than them. That has never not been the case and it will never not be the case. But if you're pissing the right people off, consider yourself having progressed as a real artist.
Sorry for the long rant but it's something I'm passionate about.
TL;DR
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better, so kill yourself."