This retraction has been amended as requested.
Some of you may be aware of the dialogue surrounding an essay by Summer Brennan. In an essay I wrote, I wrote this about Summer’s essay: "In this essay, words, concepts, title excerpts and sentences are pulled from other writers, without naming them.” I misspoke. Summer Brennan did not take anyone's words or sentences without naming them. What I meant to say was that I felt she was referencing several different essays recently written on this platform as well as engagements from Notes. I thought she should have named Elizabeth Tai, and it seemed to me like her essay was a response to mine.
The essay I wrote has been unpublished of my own accord.
I appreciate your generosity of spirit here. Being reminded to hold ourselves accountable for how we affect others, even unintentionally, is never a bad thing, though I feel you bear less responsibility in this than you’re taking on.
I hope you’re able to find time to be gentle with yourself this week. I went through a similar dynamic in a large Discord channel a few weeks ago and it really wrecked my head. A long walk with someone who understood what was going on, and also understood how my own massive triggers would play out physically, helped a lot.
It takes a real stretch to read implied plagiarism in what you wrote.