I had always assumed this was some extremist Christian book for kids. Turns out this is actually by a gay comic artist named Howard Cruse who passed away in 2019. This is from a 1980 short story called “Billy Goes Out” which tells the story of a man named Billy who is trying to move on with life after his partner’s untimely passing. It highlights a lot of the struggles of the LGBT community at the time. This particular frame is him remembering how he blamed himself being gay when bad things happened to him as a child.
it’s very funny to grow up and become the age you used to think adults were so old and wise at and realize that their inner monologue was ABSOLUTELY “shit shit shit shit shit shit” the whole time
This was a nice progression of character development
“I don’t talk like that in real life” stood out to me in this. Because I think a LOT of the people who get attacked for mean posts on the internet and are suddenly confused and defensive are probably pretty nice people irl. (Not everyone obviously, some people do truely suck but that’s not the point I’m making)
The internet has fostered and developed a culture of “being needlessly mean is funny”. No one is immune to it, even genuinely nice people. Unfortunately, the internet has also bred a culture of the “I was just trying to be funny!!!” defense instead of doing what this guy did and going “huh, maybe I was wrong if so many people are pissed”.
Be like this guy, own up if/when you fall for the easy internet trap of “being mean for laughs” and try to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
