Another BDSM fairy tale

Once upon a time a man decided to become a king. So he created a kingdom which he opened to all sorts of minority groups and assorted fringe dwellers. And it was a fair land for those minorities to frolic and play and share experiences and pictures in. He looked out from his tower window and saw that the people were happy and he was happy too. His people loved him and were most grateful for what he had done.

Then of course the trolls across the river spied this land and thought oh we can frolic there and across the river they came. The king looked out of his widow and spied the trolls running amok and upsetting his frolicking citizens and was displeased. Arming his ferocious care bear army with crude weapons he sent them against the trolls. They were unilaterally dispatched... along with a few citizens. But hey... there are always a few civilian casualties in any war... collateral damage and all that...

And so the land was peaceful once more. Oh a few people mourned those who had been lost, but the rest of the citizens went back to frolicking once more and sharing and clicking links and... well... to put it crudely, generating income for the king. That is what citizens are supposed to do after all. And they grew complacent as they frolicked for they had a great king.

Then the king realised to make the next expansion of his kingdom possible he was going to need a more direct method of making money. So he did what any modern king might do... he got into bed with the banks. Of course the banks had stipulations... nothing for nothing after all. Some of those minorities who had been so welcome in the beginning would have to go. They were distasteful and no one wanted them... really.

So before the dolcett diners, the incest indulgers... all make believe of course... the animal lovers and the scat brigade could say WTF they were silenced and banned... along with any mention, however innocent, of children. Now some of the citizens remembered their history...

First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist

Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews.

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic

(Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)) 

And wondered how long before they too were going to be in the firing line. But the rest of the citizens shouted for joy at this moral victory over their corrupt cousins... conveniently forgetting that most of them were breaking some law somewhere too. And besides some of that extra funding had given them more ways to frolic and find like minded folk.

As time went on the citizens grew complacent once more, as you do in a land of plenty. They started to forget about things like being careful with their information and hiding behind their nice safe profiles and they started to frequent other sites using the same pics and form off line relationships... with flesh and blood people.  Of course as things went sour, as they so often do when dealing with people, others used the king's land to out people using all that surplus information... sometimes with good intent and sometimes with malice.

Of course some citizens started to protest upon realising it could happen to any of them. After all they had thought that the rules applied to everyone... and would be upheld. When they realised that was not necessarily the case, particularly if it was done in the name of entertainment, the protests became howls of outrage. The king looked out of his tower window and was displeased. Not only were the cries for justice and fairness disturbing his frolicking, but they were upsetting the other citizens... the ones still busy frolicking and clicking and uploading content that was pleasing to his eyes.

So he shut down the protests in any way he could. He banned people from groups, he used their personal information against them to publicly out them once more in an effort to silence their support. He took away their voice by removing loves on journal entries to reduce their ranking... in favour of often vapid, stolen and plagiarised pictures and writing... oh and things supporting him of course... on the platform of popularity. He dispatched his care bear army, bearing bright and shiny new weapons, to route out the trouble makers and silence them. Protest pictures were removed, writings were removed, take down writs were issued and profiles disappeared in the dead of night...

See it is a sad fact that not all fairy tales end happily ever after

And not all kings stay pure and clean... though to many of their sycophantic followers that doesn't matter as long as there is frolicking and nudity and a place full of people just like them.

Are we tilting at windmills? Oh yes indeed. We will drown under the sheer weight of numbers.

That doesn't make what was done right nor does it make what will come justified

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

(Attributed to Edmund Burke)

Looks over the shoulder wondering how long it will be...