#oneaday Day 1100: Shut Up, Get Happy

I wrote an article over on Rice Digital today about DEMONDICE's new EP Shut Up, Get Happy. I've probably said most things that need to be said or that I want to say about that set of four tracks already — but I think some of those messages are worth reiterating.

For the unfamiliar, Shut Up, Get Happy is DEMONDICE's first work for quite some time; while she's been working her "other job" she put this personal project on hold. But now is absolutely the right time for her to bring back DEMONDICE as an outlet for the things she needs and wants to say.

Although her connections to said "other job" are pretty obvious if you know what to pay attention to (and, moreover, she has no problem with people knowing said connections, as she said in a livestream yesterday), there are no direct, obvious links between the two of them, and thus there will be things she feels able to say as "DEMONDICE Karen" that she can't say in her other capacity.

But her other capacity has had a pretty tough time recently — through no fault of her own. Okay, that's not entirely true; she did lash out at some of the people who had been starting shit with her, but this really is the point of the whole situation. She had been taking unwarranted abuse from people without provocation, and she should be able to speak her mind in such situations. She should be able to point to those people, tell them to well and truly fuck off out of her life, and for them to respect that.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today does not work that way, and thus for a short period it looked like there was going to be some troublesome drama. Thankfully, it didn't last for long and seemed to blow over pretty quickly — but our Karen was clearly still left with a fair amount of bitterness about the fact it had happened in the first place.

Hence, Shut Up, Get Happy: four tracks in which she explores the anger, frustration and depression she felt at her powerlessness in that situation — and in which she looks forward with renewed hope for the future. This is no angsty cry for help and call for attention: it's an honest, raw expression of emotion, followed by an acknowledgement that she can do something about this situation if no-one else is.

I have to hella respect her for that. As I've mentioned quite a few times before, there's an unpleasantly "adversarial" feel to the Internet a lot of the time these days, with people far too keen to start fights over things that don't matter. The only real solution is to rise above such petty squabbles and do the things that you find helpful, productive and healthy. It's a struggle, but sometimes it's a challenge worth following through on if it helps to establish you in a position of strength; to make it clear that you're not going to be beaten down by people with nothing better to do than to hurl abuse at strangers online.

It's all very well to give the traditional teacher-to-student advice of "just ignore it!" or "say no!" to bullying — but these days those things don't work. A lot of people seem to have lost the ability to empathise with others — particularly when they're not communicating face-to-face with them — and sometimes they need a sharp shock, for it to be made absolutely clear that their behaviour is not acceptable, and that people aren't going to stand for it.

I dealt with something similar last year with that pesky commenter on Rice Digital. He was an absolute shit to pretty much everyone else in the comments section, to such a degree that it actively discouraged others from commenting. When we banned him he, of course, kicked up a shitfit — but when we put our respective feet down and told him that he was being a cunt and wouldn't be welcome around here any more, he eventually departed, and to my knowledge he hasn't been back since.

It was the idea of "just ignore him" that had allowed him to run rampant for so long — and he had done a lot of damage in the process. But thankfully he's a thing of the past — and proof positive that an assertive, strong and consistent approach can work against the most annoying people online.

Anyway, that got a bit off the point, but go read my article, listen to Shut Up, Get Happy and pay particular attention to the lyrics. Girl's got a lot to say — and it's all very worthwhile.