I got bullied a lot. The only clique that didn’t bully me, was them. They were very ride or die people. They always made me laugh, my first ever crush was on one of them, but I never told him. Then, years after school, I’d get random people from that subculture helping me. A bunch of them talked me out of suicide. I didn’t even know them, but that’s what they did. And now that subculture’s just…gone. I know those people still exist, obviously, but every time I think about it, or watch old videos involving people of that subculture, I feel a wave of warmth followed by emptiness. I never got to thank some of them for making my teenage years my golden years. I felt safe opening up to them emotionally. Otherwise, I was a closed book. My family are very “get on with it” “stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about” people.
I forgot to put my age, but I’m a woman, and 30.
You can’t leave me hanging, what subculture?
i dunno if it’s the same one, but the feelings OP described are how I felt about bronies.
there was a time before the infestation of predators took hold when almost every person you’d meet among them was unflinchingly, unashamedly, relentlessly wholesome, sincere, and genuine. people who really took honesty, loyalty, kindness, and generosity to heart. but that kind of environment was not hostile enough to defend itself from exploitation. an object lesson in the paradox of tolerance: there are some things that no society will survive tolerating, and there truly are some behaviors that cannot be rehabilitated. there is hardly anyone around anymore from the height of the subculture around 2014…
I was one of the wholesome Bronies. Met a lot of great people that I still keep in touch with to this day.
The movement and the mindset really helped me in my darkest time.