While I understand that elitism is a very big problem in the alt community, there is one opinion that I have that may or may not be controversial. I think that we need to make DIY a fundamental to being alt again. I just find it so frustrating to see how some people depend so heavily on fast fashion sites like Shein, Aliexpress, and Romwe. Do I admit that I'm guilty for buying something from Romwe? Yes. I fully admit it, I bought two dresses from Romwe. It was because I had a friend that kept recommending it to me, so I checked it out and was like "oh hey some of this is pretty cute". I bought the dresses and they not only fit awfully on me, but the quality is horrendous. Never again. I still wear ONE of the dresses that I recieved from Romwe, but I feel like I was able to make it my own at this point. Anyways, what infuriates me the most is how some people have completely forgotten what it means to be alt nowadays. Alt originally STARTED with DIY-ing your own clothes...and by having the courage to step into a BDSM shop. People will go online and complain about how they want something but they can't afford it when in reality they could make it themselves. One of the biggest things about being alt was to go against consumerism, so why are we now embracing it? TikTok has eaten up people's attention span to the point that no one even wants to go through the process of making or customizing their own clothes. To them, it's a lot easier to just order it on Dolls Kill. Don't even get me STARTED on AI in the alt community. Bands using generative AI disgusts me both as an artist and someone in the alt community. If this community was meant to CELEBRATE and SHOW OFF human creativity, why are we using a robot made by a money hungry corporation? It's just so hypocritical, especially whenever it's bands, like Megadeth, that THRIVED and BRAGGED about their originality. We're literally feeding into the system that we were originally so against. It's even more ironic whenever these bands SELL their soulless AI generated merchandise. I will forever stand by this and will DIE on this hill if I have to, but you should NOT be considered alt if you can't even customize or DIY anything. Thank you for coming to my tedtalk :D