also like... since 99.8% of the time this shit is a cudgel in interpersonal drama... i’m way more concerned about how you, hypothetical person who's just told me you saw Goody Proctor leave kudos on the devil’s fanfiction, expect me to treat the target of your ire in response to this information

whomst among us on this hellsite has not, in our deepest of hearts or cattiest of groupchats, looked at someone else’s engagement with fiction and gone “that’s fucked and I’m judging,” if only for the sin of Interrogating The Text From The Wrong Perspective... but an anon telling you some internet acquaintance is Problematique for that shit isn’t inviting you to join them in a private salt-fest. they’re passive-aggressively ordering you to shun and punish that person and rope everyone you know into doing the same.

i’m convinced at this point that the only two even potentially useful uses of the callout model are “please be wary of trusting this person because they’re [a con artist / a cult leader / a serial predator / infamous for lying about people they want to drag in the dirt / etc]” and “please be aware before you give Actually Famous Person money or prestige that they’re going to funnel it towards some deeply horrifying ideology.” not coincidentally, in both of these cases the intended action item is not “be mean to someone on the internet.”

“hey everybody should go judge that guy” is the most problematic kink of all