One of the most utterly insane cultural phenomena of the last several years has to be entertainment companies and media - be it in film, television, or video games - waging open war against their own fanbases. Entire movies, shows, and hours long interactive experiences are created with the express purpose of provoking fans of popular IPs; not to mention the accompanying promotional campaigns for these products, where the pretentious and disparaging attitude is a feature and not a bug.
Examples of this pattern playing out time and again over the last decade are legion. This might be a copout on my part, but I’m not terribly interested in parsing the history of said spiteful craze. However, recent examples include (but certainly are not limited to) Milly Alcock’s catastrophic press tour for her upcoming Supergirl movie, as well as the societal backlash against what appears to be director extraordinaire Christopher Nolan’s rather elastic interpretation of The Odyssey.
(Before moving on: I think it’s also worth mentioning that I first became aware of such adversarial behavior in 2017, when The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson openly antagonized longtime Star Wars fans before, during, and after that film’s contentious theatrical run.)
What’s even more exhausting and dispiriting, however, are the scores upon scores of intrepid keyboard warriors - valiantly throwing themselves into the fray to bravely defend the multi-billion dollar corporations from those who would dare besmirch their honor.
Don’t like it, don’t watch! they proclaim, with belittling smirks across their smarmy faces. It’s a made up story! What does it matter if they change x, y, or z, racist? they crow; knowing full well why it actually does matter.
These same people will turn around and throw the absolute bitchiest tantrums if anyone has the audacity to meddle with the issues they are personally fanatical about, without the slightest hint of irony; à la the SJW outcry over casting Aaron Pierre as Black Panther after Chadwick Boseman died because he was too light skinned (this is a real thing that really happened).
But people are allowed to just, like, have their opinions, man.
We may not like someone’s opinion; we may even think it’s a dumb opinion (seen plenty of those here on Substack dot com, to be quite honest). And that’s perfectly fine: I’m not saying all of society needs to come together in a big kumbaya circle like a horde of drugged out hippies to validate everyone’s feelings. We all should be able to simply disagree.
Which is ultimately my point - people can just not enjoy things if they want to, in much the same way others can just enjoy things. They don’t need anyone’s permission, let alone approval. I’m honestly so done with this mindset of, Why do you care, nerd? It’s not real, so what’s the big deal? You’re a stupid and toxic bigot for having an opinion I don’t approve of!
As the Great Man himself says: it’s not toxic, it’s just called being passionate.
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The funny thing is that they actually DON'T understand. They're not pretending. They don't actually have any solid beliefs, which is why they can turn on a dime, adopt any position, and pretend they've always believed whatever they're saying in the moment. They aren't really even right or left. They're bullies, not a genuine, coherent intelligentsia. Like most bullies, they actually lack the intelligence to read and comprehend any social, political, religious, or economic ideas more complex than Doctor Seuss. It's why they don't do anything but regurgitate slogans or engage in bumper sticker politics. Like all bullies, they just get off on antagonizing other people. They think it's funny until they get serious pushback. Then, like all bullies, they turn around and play the victim for perceived authority figures, real or imagined. Failing that, they play victim to the crowd, hoping to garner sympathy there. It's just what bullies do. They just say and do whatever the demons whispering in their ears tell them to.
The best description I ever saw for SJWs was an article in ZeroHedge, believe it or not all the way back in late 2011 or early 2012: crybullies. Something to keep in mind is that many of these people who are in control of the hobbies and surrounding media now are the same people who would've bullied people for reading comic books or playing D&D, BattleTech, Jane's ATF, or anything more comlicated than Checkers back when you and I were in high school. (The rest have actually been subversives and SJW commies since the mid-90s, people just didn't know because social media didn't exist yet.) Most of them have always had some degree of personal disdain for pretty much anyone's hobbies. They only started to care about them when they became mainstream, or at least acceptable to the mainstream. But, of course, that wasn't good enough because, like all bullies, they are motivated by abusing even the smallest modicum of power over others. They were never nerds. They hated nerds. They only claimed the moniker of nerd when it became "cool" to be "nerdy." So, they rewrote everything to fit their own mold, most of which was drawn from their college "education." They just enjoy torturing other people. As I said above, their only responses to pushback are no different from a bully stealing a child's ball in kindergarten. "They're just racists" is no different from "he/she is just a baby." And, "why do you care? It's just fantasy" is really the same thing as "it's just a ball."
Henry Cavill is too pure for this world.
One of the rare instances of one of /ourguys/ making it inside the Machine.