Hello guys, people, beings, users of Scratch! I've been seeing some. . .concerning things on Scratch recently, and I find it necessary to address them, since they are so prevalent. Most of this is concerning political studios and projects, often full of people with very strong opinions that tend to discriminate against those without their opinions. I've seen both "Trump-hater" studios and MAGA studios repeatedly. Now, for your information, I do live in the United States and I do have a very strong political opinion, but more about that later. 1 reason I'm against this: I'm going to remind us all once more that Scratch is a program for children. I am technically a child. 99% of Scratch users are children. And now we're bringing politics into this? Think about it for a moment. Children have opinions, and I'm not saying anyone is blatantly in the wrong, just undereducated. But children cannot vote because we don't actually, scientifically, fully mature until around ages 22-24. This is a psychological thing and has been proven, so don't tell me that I'm lying. Search it up. Children's brains are typically unable to make fully educated decisions, and so we aren't involved in politics too frequently. Yes, government decisions impact us and those around us, like how ICE agents entered a preschool near my house and took a teacher in front of the kids, but it wasn't up to me who I wanted to be president. Make sense? Another reason I'm against this is discrimination. I've seen so many things like "DNI if you support MAGA" or "proud Republican" on SO many profiles. Just because someone has a strong opinion doesn't mean they're the same as every other person with that opinion. Once again, we're circling back to the ages-old idea of stereotypes and othering, in which many people from a certain social group believe others are all the same and inferior to them. That just sounds flat-out wrong, doesn't it? It may be unconscious, but we are technically stereotyping by forming a group of people connected by hatred for another group. The third reason is that Scratch is meant for education and supportive groups, not whatever in StarClan this is. While I have seen so many political studios full of comments of "I hate so and so" or "insert person/group here is/are a terrible person/group", I've also seen a lot of studios where this isn't the case. An example includes many LGBTQIAP+ studios, which are meant as safe spaces to share experiences and connect with others. I don't believe I've ever seen hate comments from those in the studio other than homophobes being homophobes and the occasional "homophobes aren't nice". Never once were people put down for being less than. Not. Once. What we're doing with political studios is basically demolishing our sense of community on Scratch by hating people. That's not fair, and it goes against so many civil values. As a quick note to wrap this up, I'm explaining why I don't share my personal beliefs. You can, however, probably guess who I support and who I'm against by this, but I don't openly go saying anything concerning that. I don't want to stereotype or other someone while I'm focusing on what I'm doing, and I don't want to demolish a community of people that are there for me. Same goes with religion, which is something you can, once again, probably guess, but I haven't stated it. Additionally, I don't want someone to hate me for what I personally think. Very rarely do we focus on the receiving end of our actions, which is something I think many people who start political studios fail to recognize. Come on. You're mad at someone for what they believe in, saying it's not valid, etc. Have you ever been told you're not valid? I have, and it really does hurt. That's all, and reminder, this is a safe space for things to be put in the comments. Except politics. I don't want to hear about that, I mean questions about information included in this project. Love and sparkles, cactusshade
