Once upon a time, I used to believe that Indie Communities were about finding a space where you belong despite industries saying you don’t and finding new paths to forge that aim to combat pervasive problems developed by a patriarchal and capitalist system. Now, 10 years later and with a great deal of time to reflect on what I’ve seen and experienced, it’s becoming clear that it’s a space whose integrity is at risk due to the lack of oversight and how easy it is for predatory individuals and businesses to take root.

Besides, why would we want to be associated a space where it’s clear that it doesn’t prioritize uplifting it’s members but instead, only seems to be hyper-powered by those who only seek to feed their own vanity. Within the last handful years alone (This is being written in 2026 so hopefully this will change down the line), the Indie Community has allowed individuals to:

• Raise millions of dollars with barely anything to show for it, leading them to follow the same trends from the 2008 financial crisis where they’ve been bailed out by a studio as if we’ve learned nothing. Now the business is back running crowdfunds – with 5 slated for this year alone – and still we have no idea what happened to the millions of dollars previously raised as they’re now covered and protected from consequences from their shady business practices;
• Run a crowdfund to raise money for an animation pilot that offers no transparency around how those funds will help the 50 or so creators whose time, skills and energy have been used to make the project possible. It’s even worse as it’s clear that stretch goals aren’t even set up to prioritize finding a way to make indie production more accessible. In fact, the only person who seems to have the possibility of getting a livable wage out of it is the Studio Head and many of the stretch goals are pointed towards helping them have an extended sabbatical where they’ll likely leave the hard work to the 50 and likely more creators they’ll hire to make their dreams a reality. Also? Feels weird to see a campaign be essentially used as a therapy session to air out grievances against their parents instead of focusing on actually finding constructive and effective ways to make sure their artists get paid;
• Start a co-op Non-Profit Labor Rights Organization that seems to only be driven to find ways to pilfer from the ideas and labor of decade(s) old advocates and community builders. Despite being active for 3 years, the organization has also failed to provide actionable steps and plans on how they plan to actually help improve the livelihood of the creators that are dependent on them to show them the way – likely because they’re waiting for another idea to be let go of to use to solve a problem that other people have actively been working on. To make it worse, the only thing they seem to be prioritizing at this time is providing pay for their members in the form of Exposure instead of helping them find ways to get paid in actual stone cold hard cash that makes sure that their members can pay bills, have a roof over their head and don’t starve to death or die from likely preventable diseases;
• Use things like censorship as a not-so-subtle guise to hide their deeper motives of convincing people that things like lolisho and other deeply disturbing and horrifyingly problematic (for lack of a better term) “artwork” should be deemed 100% acceptable without question under threat of being labeled an enemy of the arts and a fascist … and somehow it’s fucking working?! ;
• Drag a now defunct indie publisher a year after they’ve openly and publicly gone under, only to then stoke the fears and anxieties of indie creators who are looking for a way to move forward in order to encourage them to get closer to the community in a way that reads similar to a death spiral instead of offering them real world solutions to real world problems that are plaguing their existence and realities;
• Encourage using their platforms as a means of being outright defamatory and belligerent while demanding that people be understanding and empathetic towards their plights. To make things worse, their personal platforms are often used as a means of building resentment towards those who believe they’d be someone who are actually interested in solving the age old problem of “how do you make money from Indie?” because at the end of the day – whether or not they want to openly admit it – they’re genuinely comfortable with accepting the fact that their toxic habits are part of why indie is worth absolutely nothing other than collecting debt and begging for money;

As a whole, the space is functions off of pure anarchy where their primary export is noise pollution because they’ve convinced themselves that they’re actually winning in some bizarre game of 5D chess that absolutely no one is playing but them. Any attempts that individuals make to creating infrastructure are usually sabotaged by those with higher visibility – and in turn – higher influence to ensure that whatever comfort and security they’re getting from the lack of oversight is not interrupted by any means necessary. In 10 years since being active, nothing has changed and at this point, people need to accept that they don’t want it to.

… Oh. Also my stalker and sexual harasser loves Indie Spaces across all creative corners for these aforementioned reasons and since I’m allergic to being associated with anything that allows that level of sociopathy to thrive. So when we say Underground, we say it with a punk mindset and attitude as we have zero interest in engaging in spaces that mirror the kind of problematic, toxic and dangerous systems that are clearly calling the shots all across the world and we’re more than happy to stay on this side of the line.

collecting cash/awards/followers/likes/reblogs are just trophies to these people. and the more you engage,the more You’re just keeping the machine going.