masturbatress asked: Hey Clay! I'm sorry there's another tumblr fan with shit hitting it. I'd wish this site wasn't so full of monomaniacal people thinking they're in the right, but then again I suppose that was part of the charm earlier. Oh, well. I love your work and I love you, tho' not in that way. You have heart.

Thank you for your kind words, I needed them :) 

norman-masturbates asked: i used a picture from here for a project for my class i hope thats okay. i sourced you on it too so they know you made it and where its from

No problem. I’m glad I could help in some small way. I wish you the best possible grade in your project!

wondersaremany asked: :( please don't let yourself fall into this quagmire. they have you arguing semantics now. this isn't the conversation that your comics are supposed to engender, i think :( and i'm NOT knocking you or anything--i love your work both then and now.. but these last few 'asks' i've read have been excruciating (the questions, not your replies).

No, you’re right, and I’d rather be working on new comics than defending myself. This is not something I want to be doing, and lately I seem to find myself in the middle of debates rather than trying to make my points through the medium I love. Sometimes it helps — #123 was a direct response to criticisms brought up in #120. So who knows — perhaps there’s something in all this that can help me make a better strip :)

icecoldnukacola said: saying that “social justice warriors” are “offended by everything” is a pretty outright inflammatory statement that’s usually used to try and silence people speaking out about oppression.

if I read right, the term “social justice warrior” is given to a person who posts with a very specific type of inflammatory argumentative style, and is not given to those who generally speak out against oppression. I may be wrong, but that is what I take out of it.

However, one has to admit that if the inflammatory remarks of “social justice warriors” are not helping, then it must be said that inflammatory remarks towards “social justice warriors” are equally unhelpful. an environment where both sides are throwing insults at each other is not an environment that promotes respect, and I need a respectful environment in order to make comic which is about respecting depression.

truuuth said: is that last line a quote? it’s so well -put… i’d love to quote you, or whoever said it :)

that’s me. there’s a story how I came to that understanding… I once got heavily scolded by a coworker here in Japan. her language was very fast and I could not understand her, so I stood there confused while she berated me. when she finished, she noticed that I looked completely unaffected when she expected me to look more repentant. I explained to her that I didn’t understand a word she said. if the meaning is lost on the person, it simply won’t have the effect one wants on that person.

while inflammatory arguments against bad systems may not be actively helping they at least aren’t part of the system of oppression~ that is, they are probably not equally unhelpful but much worse - not to mention “justice warrior” should be a good

Actually, inflammatory arguments can be used in the system of oppression… they are kind of like reinforcing the barriers. We all know that when an argument degrades to the point of being inflammatory, the argument becomes beyond resolving as it just strengthens the resolve of the various sides. And how often has a politician used the inflammatory remarks of their opponent to strengthen their own political standing? If I’m making inflammatory remarks, no matter whose side I’m on, I’m just giving fuel to my opponent. They will mark me as hysterical, unreasonable, and hateful. They will twist my words to their effect. And they will goad me on to make more remarks to justify their labels.

I don’t know if this is what you’re getting at — replies are only so long, but it’s important not to underestimate the power of an inflammatory remark for anyone who disagrees.

Except oppressive actions often warrant inflammatory responses. It’s cruel of you to tell people how they should react to things that hurt them. Just apologise and be done with it. You screwed up, say sorry and close the discussion.

There is no verbal “oppressive action” that warrants an inflammatory response, ever. And no, it’s not cruel of me to suggest that perhaps inflammatory responses are not the best way to conduct themselves, especially when the inflammatory response happens on my blog. I am allowed to respond to asks on my blog in whatever fashion I wish (as you are allowed to respond to asks on your blog in whatever fashion YOU wish). In fact, I apologized several times, and yet here you are, saying that I should “apologize and be done with it” after I already have. The only person keeping this alive is YOU. If this isn’t good enough for you, well, what can I say, except, that I hope you can find a better webcomic to suit your needs.

princelypaws replied to your post: im fucking howling with laughter at all these people going “hah fuck social justice” as if social justice is a bad thing

I don’t know if this is a willful misinterpretation of what is being said here because I don’t think anyone here is saying that social justice by itself is wrong. This comic is a type of social justice blog, except what I’m trying to do is raise awareness of depression through illustrating the feelings surrounding depression. I think this is a more positive way to raise awareness than to lash out at those who don’t understand. while I’ll leave the effectiveness of what I do here up for debate, I can only say that there are effective messages and ineffective messages and that is all. I think that is what the debate here is about. I have made my share of ineffective messages so there is much for me to learn here too.

Edit: Oops, repeat post.

princelypaws replied to your post: Don’t be sorry. Tumblr social justice warriors are offended by everything, it’s useless even trying to listen to them.im fucking howling with laughter at all these people going “hah fuck social justice” as if social justice is a bad thing

I don’t know if this is a willful misinterpretation of what is being said here because I don’t think anyone here is saying that social justice by itself is wrong. This comic is a type of social justice blog, except what I’m trying to do is raise awareness of depression through illustrating the feelings surrounding depression. I think this is a more positive way to raise awareness than to lash out at those who don’t understand. while I’ll leave the effectiveness of what I do here up for debate, I can only say that there are effective messages and ineffective messages and that is all. I think that is what the debate here is about. I have made my share of ineffective messages so there is much for me to learn here too.

usagitoxic asked: Don't be sorry. Tumblr social justice warriors are offended by everything, it's useless even trying to listen to them.

in honesty, there was nothing in that message to listen to, it was just “I’m offended, and you’re a bad person” kind of deal. that’s a message of pure offense, not intended to educate or make someone think about their actions. I’ve been doing webcomics since 1997, and I’ve offended a lot of people. It’s something that happens, because you’re a single human and not everybody and it’s difficult to predict how every single person will react to your work. the best thing is to learn from your mistakes and make sure you’re surrounded by people who will explain your mistakes to you, and not just throw offense at you and leave you more confused than hurt (a big hint: a lashing one doesn’t understand will not hurt the target, it will just confuse them, which isn’t a very effective lashing at all).

myheartislikeatomb asked: you should leave or put the comic back up. you shouldn't be afraid to express your opinion or write about stuff you may not necessarily know about. people on tumblr have lost the ability to discern whether or not a comic or strip is expressively "anti-" something which happens usually with the tone of the entire comic, and something that is like... supporting. even trans people fumble around in the dark with these issues. life is messy and stuff. etc. etc.you should put it back up though honest!

HI, thanks for the kind words. The comic is still up, I just deleted the reblog that appears here. I did that comic a year ago as a kind of joke to the people who follow my personal blog, and put it under its own blog. There is another Lovetalk comic there that is not related to depression comix, and probably funnier.

paradoxesforeveryone asked: Hi. I just wanted to say, I didn't think that comic was anti-trans. I am trans, and while I don't feel like I'm becoming a woman, people describing it as such is often a difference of experience, not any problem with trans people. It was also dialogue for a character you feel is judgemental/problematic. I would say keep in mind that it's not the best way to describe being trans, but I don't think you're anti-trans, and I really love your work! <3

Having read the explanation, it makes perfect sense to me, and I appreciate the correction and will use it to guide how I speak in the future. I wouldn’t change the comic, because it fits perfectly with her character as she appeared in earlier comics. I will say thatposting that comic here was an error in judgement, because the audience is not the same, and it requires knowing a character established in a comic way back in 1999. But thank you for the kind words and for teaching an old fogey like me.

I deleted the repost, because it wasn’t intended to offend anyone, it was just a comic done a year ago to poke fun at myself and the work I did long ago, and recently the topic of my earlier work came up and how it compares to recent work. It was really meant for people who were familiar with that comic as an in-joke.

As for the trans question, absolutely, people are who they want to be. This is something I believe that every individual has the right to. This is my opinion, but I may draw characters who either don’t express themselves well or just don’t have the same opinion. The character in question hung up on a person who needed help, so I don’t think anyone could confuse her for being a positive character. I’d like to maintain that right as an artist to create characters that are prejudiced and thoughtless, especially to point out how prejudiced and thoughtless people can be.

On the other hand, being taught how to use language more appropriately is a Good Thing. I don’t mind it at all, and a little explanation goes a long way and I appreciate those who took the time to do so.