Get along, little gothies!

(Cheers to Raverson at Gothy Discord for this)

We don’t all have to get along

People have conflicts. It is not a goth thing for drama to happen, it is a people thing. Think back to high school and all the drama there. Drama in workplaces, drama in the streets, drama in music subcultures. People are not going to agree on everything and that is good. Well, it is good if it is handled well. Unfortunately it is not handled well, especially in the online goth community.

Conflict and drama can be good. It can lead to communication of ideas, discussion, learning and resolution. The problem is people often get too emotionally invested so it turns into a screaming match or dismissing the other side as some extreme stereotype. If we all got along then nothing would change, we would not evolve - as a music subculture and as people within it. And as I have said before, evolution from within does happen.

There are cases where outsiders try to push their views onto people in the goth subculture or even demand we just accept them. If we took the “let’s just all get along” approach and let it happen, what would happen to the goth subculture? It would disappear because it wouldn’t mean anything any more. This is why people have opposed outside change since the beginning. It is not new to defend goth from external forces trying to change it.

We should not all just get along because that will be the death of goth. I don’t have to like every single person I meet just because they like the same bands I do or we both happen to dress in black. And neither do you. You don’t even have to like me or get along with me.