TL; DR at the bottom

Hey all you DramaWatchers out there,

I am a lurker, occasional commenter (aside: I have lost a family member to Drama but he's been lost for many years thanks to autism) who has not (and never will) go spelunking through the r*tard guano that is Drama like some of you brave souls. I come on here every few days to see how the platform has responded to whatever news transpired on the given day, much like many of you who might be reading this.

While the purpose of this group, predominantly to observe/document/ridicule posts on social media, seems harmless enough, you must consider something extremely important:

YOU ARE VIEWING DRAMA PROPAGANDA. YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO DRAMAGANDA.

No matter how distasteful, vile, or horrifying the content of the screenshots is you are viewing and how much it disgusts you, this material was designed to influence the opinions of other, normal people and convert them to be members of the Drama sub. The process of being drama-pilled is initially slow and very different for everyone but even exposing yourself for the sake of shock, dismay, and concern is one of the ways they can pull you in.

By viewing these posts on a semi-daily or daily basis, you can begin to normalize some of the things they say and rationalize that, "a lot of people are saying these things so this must be somewhat mainstream." This sounds like a huge jump but it's a slow process, like developing a habit. The drama-pill is designed (well, more evolved since it was kind of a, 'throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks' situation) to hijack the algorithms of online forums (including Reddit) and the psycho-social inner workings of the human mind.

Heck the whole reason this subreddit exists is that there is a large enough audience on this website that heard about Drama and, whether by morbid curiosity or genuine intrigue, thought, "huh I wonder what those rslurred autists have to say." If the Drama sub and their messaging is being thought about by new people (who don't specialize in stopping cults and terrorist cells- like you), their propaganda machine is working as intended, especially if the people under it's influence don't think it's working on them.

Many, many people (relatively speaking, the drama sub is a very small group- larger than they should be but still small, that's important to remember) start joining autistic groups and taking drama pills by 'merely lurking' around on sites where this material is found. While we might feel like we have a degree of separation because we're just viewing screenshots with comments full of shock, anger, and links to the FBI tip page, We are doing the same thing that they want potential recruits to be doing by simply viewing and interacting with the content.

With my point being stated, I want to posit some things to this community (and to it's moderators):

1) THIS IS NOT NORMAL. That phrase needs to be constantly in your head while viewing Drama content. This is inspired by Last Week Tonight's use of the phrase as a reminder for the last 4 years to not normalize the actions of the current administration- it genuinely works. To this point, the tag "THIS IS NOT NORMAL" should come automatically with any screenshots of Drama material. This material is a real-world memetic hazard (yes I stole this from SCP terminology but it's surprisingly fitting) and it needs to be treated as such.

2) If people are gonna be subscribed to this subreddit, encountering drama propaganda in their feed, even if it's for the sake of shock/entertainment/documentation, is actively detrimental to the mental status of the subscriber and genuinely beneficial to the dramanauts. All Drama posts need to be marked NSFW or spoilers so they can only be viewed by those actively seeking to view it, as opposed to just another post on your main feed. Let's be frank- whether it's anti-semetic, laden with racial slurs, or just borderline sedition, getting caught viewing it at work (if most of us were actually currently in an office) would get you in huge trouble (and no, snapchat scribbling out the slurs and accounts doesn't make it safe-anyone who had an edgy friend in high school can read between the lines and be just as exposed to the propaganda).

3) The Bystander Effect is very real here and, if this community is to exist (at all), it needs to be one for providing support and consistently reporting this stuff to Drama's webhost and the correct government agencies (we should probably figure out who that is as well; I'm not 100% confident the FBI is the right choice). In a perfect world, that would mean everyone who views Drama posts here are only doing it to either monitor a loved one from afar or (preferably and) report the content- frankly Drama content should only be allowed to be posted here if it's been reported by the poster. I understand that that is a drastic change so perhaps it could be as simple as a comment bot that includes the link to all the report pages and encourages mass reporting, or reports these things automatically if we can manage that.

4) I know many of you are here on Drama to try and help people realize what they're being pulled into and help them out, mostly by showing them that they're wrong through argument. Unless you are interacting with someone you know personally, it is very unlikely that you will be able to help anyone and you're liable to pull them deeper down the rabbit hole. Many of the people tempted by the dramanauts are some degree of mentally ill (not all of them) and need genuine counseling or therapy (all of them); that is not something the average Joe can provide on the internet. Plus you're liable to be pulling yourself in at the same time. That brings be to

5) If you find yourself feeling confused or disoriented or genuinely thinking about the things you see on these posts, particularly if they're starting to make sense, you need to leave this community immediately. I'd go so far as to say there needs to be a system to ban yourself from here so you aren't tempted to come back- again, these images are dramatic opioids- they're addictive, actively harmful, and numb you to the idea of extremism. Please keep yourself safe from this- seek counseling if you're encountering these feelings.

(TL;DR) In summary, the Dramatic screenshots posted in this community need to be treated like the hazardous material they are to the people of this subreddit: they need to be labelled more carefully by being denormalized to lower their dramagandistic effect, posted in a way designed to minimize people's exposure with a method of permanently removing yourself, and consistently reported to the proper authorities.

Remember- the only good autist is one without a platform. Let's not give them another for free, eh?