(Elongated sigh)
So, apparently, people have now noticed that a cancerous fanbase, in this instance, the "Star Wars" one, is a cancerous fanbase. (Shrugs, annoyed sigh) I don't know why it took this long, and frankly I'm not happy they finally got around to noticing either, but whatever.... Look, I know some of you are actually expecting me to add something to this, as I have been calling out fans and fandoms, many times over the years, in one way, shape or another.
Many,
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2017/02/post-credit-scenes-need-to-fing-die.html
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2016/12/yes-but-is-it-criticism-reflections-on.html
many,
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2016/09/lena-dunhams-apology-and-fan-culture-of.html
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2016/08/4-letter-words-about-rotten-tomatoes_6.html
(Annoyed grumble) man-ny
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2016/04/trailers-again-grrrrrrrrrrrr-and-now.html
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2016/02/mixed-bag-blog-12-star-wars-fandom-tvs.html
many times!
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2015/05/i-am-not-fan-there-i-said-it-and-im-not.html
There's like twenty other old articles I could've list here too, it's basically my go-to, most common theme for this blog, the same way that say on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver", they talk about injustices in the U.S. Justice System once every month or so. Frankly, I'm tired of it and I honestly don't like talking about my annoyances with fans and fandoms, and most people, friends of mine included, they don't agree with a lot of my critiques on them, and really don't understand how I can feel this way when what they tend to see many things as positives to being a "Fan", or apart of a fandom culture and why I so passionately fight, oppose and sometimes outright antagonize fans and fandoms in some cases. That I can just discard the thoughts of some because they like something over critical analysis. You know, I do get it and I try again to understand their perspective on how they can see it as a positive, and then, shit like this happens:
This, is an actual post somebody made in a FB group, not one I'm apart of, but nonetheless, I thought I should share this, sure it's shorthand to explain the recent incidents I'm talking about, but more importantly, 'cause fuck the person who created it, and why isn't he arrested, or at least people investigating him, he's admitting to inflicting a virus on Rotten Tomatoes's website and essentially terrorizing stars of a goddamn movie, and even if he's lying, fuck him even more. BTW, it's a movie that, no, I haven't seen yet. I haven't even seen the last "Star Wars" film yet. much less this one, and it doesn't matter anymore.
I've seen lot of people, even those on the fan side have started to realize that, the "Star Wars" fanbase is a bit toxic. And others are doing thinkpieces about it, about what happens when fans become toxic, or some such bullshit. A lot of them are people within that circle like a Jeremy Jahns, or those who are natural antagonists to it, too. I tried to put up with John Campea's discussions of it and he's been trying to strangle both sides of the fence. I don't think I've ever talked about him much before, but he's a popular guy around some of the fan circles and I think he started Collider or AMC Movie News or something or another...- somebody will correct me, but honestly, I don't get him at all; I know he usually seems reasonable, but every other time I try watching one of his videos it's all about how he "Understands if that's not your opinion," and "We don't have to share the same thought...." and blah, blah, blah, and then talk about some fanboy asshattery the whole time, but it's okay if you're not.... Ye-ah, I think he's a well-connected fan more than anything, and of course, he's got one video out about why Kathleen Kennedy needs to be fired, including one idiotic reason about how she's not coddling to the fanbase, which, personally if I was Bob Iger, I'd immediately give her a contract extension for doing just that..., but then he also has discussed how toxic the fanbase has become, and separate himself from certain parts...- (Sigh) Look, he's not Jeremy Jahns P.O.S. trying to not be a critic while being in place of a critic and therefore taking work and money from actual critics, having it both ways, B.S. nonsense, but I struggle to understand what makes Campea popular. He may be smart and articulate, and be a far more skillful and audience outreach, retention, site-building and branding than I'll ever be, but I can also say that about people who are far more interesting and who I'm not struggling to understand what he adds to the conversation other than being a fan's version of a critic, and there's plenty of those and most of them are better.
(Frustrated sigh)
Look, I'm trying to not go dancing on this tightrope here; I feel sorry for Kelly Marie Tran who has been treated horribly, and she's by no means the first woman to get that severe negative reaction and she's probably not gonna be the last, because fans...- And I'm not gonna justify their responses or for that matter give the counter-arguments in the fan community any credence, either. there's already a bunch of think-pieces that I don't give a shit about that you've probably already read, anything most anything I can or would say is just gonna feel like a retread of a retread for me, so I don't see that much of a point in commenting now.
(Long breathy pause)
However, there is one thing that needs to be discussed here. One thing that I just cannot seem to beat through people, the thought that, because one fanbase or another, they suddenly realize is, "Toxic", or whatever, that other fanbases or their fanbases, they're not yet. I see pieces about how they potentially could be, but there's this presumption that they aren't already. That not all fans and fanbases are toxic.
(Sigh, stretches hands, pops knuckles, sighs again, with a fake chuckle under his breath)
Let's for the moment pretend that's a real thing, that their are actual good fanbases out there. They're not, they're all toxic and if you're a part of them, I'm talking to you, but let's pretend that this is true, that this is only a thing with certain fanbases, how do you know that your fanbases, won't get like this? I'm serious, dead serious, I want an answer to this, 'cause, for the most part, you're a fan of a franchise or whatever that, for whatever reason the decisions that have been made about it over the years, have not caused a gigantic drastic shift and introduced a toxic element into the base, again, pretending that's how this works, that's it's not that fans are toxic, it's that there's an element of fandom that's toxic, how do you know that it won't inevitably happen? How can you be so confident that it won't happen to your fandom?
Or more to, how fandoms actually work, how do you know it hasn't happened already? Why are people confident in that regard? Let's start with that, 'cause toxic elements, they don't suddenly appear of nowhere, they're there already, the dynamite is in the room, it's just that no one's lit it yet; you do realize that right? I see it, whenever I look into a fanbase, "Oh, there's the dynamite, let's see what lights this," and it doesn't matter what it is, it happens, it's always what happens when you take something that's out of your control and you care way too much about it, often to the point of thinking that your appreciation of it defines a part of you, and then, BOOM! Oh, look at that, fifty tons of dynamite just exploded there, how weird? That, is exactly how it always plays out to me. Actually no, that's how it plays to everyone else, to me, it plays like, "What do you mean these are good people to be around and they're just like me, they keep fifty tons of dynamite right there in the middle of the room, where there really shouldn't be any to begin with!? Who the fuck does that?!"
Look, I don't know why, everything that's triggered "Star Wars" fans in the past triggered them, Jar Jar Binks, Alex Lloyd, George Lucas himself, Disney, Kennedy, Kelly Marie Tran..., I don't know and I don't care. but your telling me that, if something happened like those incidents or whatever you're a fan of that suddenly the fanbase wouldn't go all apeshit just like Marvel, DC, "Star Wars" or any other fanbase? Like, I'm not gonna claim it's going to happen, 'cause that would be foolish not every fanbase is big enough and not every franchise has been around long enough, but if those factors are in play, then it's going to happen, and it might happen anyway, 'cause I hate to tell you guys, but the phone call is from inside the house. In your fandom, right now, whatever it is, is a cancerous element just waiting for a reason and a moment to divide and conquer. It might be you, for all you know. Yes, you, like, I'm pointing at you, like the old man "Reefer Madness", 'cause you don't know how you're gonna react. You don't know what's going to happen in the future, and maybe perhaps everything that you thought were good about the thing you're a fan of will change and everything it meant and represented, it might someday have absolutely nothing to with all that, and how are you gonna feel then?
What happens if tomorrow they announce Diablo Cody's writing a remake of "Back to the Future" starring Melissa McCarthy as Doc Brown, how do you "BTTF" fans, react to this, and how do you react to it, if it's turns out it's better than the original?! Colin Trevorrow's directing, Lena Dunham's in the Crispin Glover part, Woody Allen directing, whatever your nightmare scenario I will fucking go there, and still it's better than the original. You want to make a video about how you're not gonna see something like that, or what? I've gotten into knockout drag out arguments over who was the better host of "Jeopardy!" Alex Trebek or Art Fleming, don't give me bullshit, that fans and fanbases aren't toxic to begin with. They all are, and it's because they're full of fans who have decided to truly to give a shit about stuff like this. Stuff they don't control and don't have power in.
Let me try to make it as clear as I can, any separation of peoples in society that is not a necessary evil, is bad, and fandoms, are one of the most unnecessary evils of all. I know, it seems like it isn't, I've fallen for it before too, I get it, it seems like you're finally around people who are like you, and you think it's a good thing but all you're actually doing is separating yourself from everyone else, and if you're willing to separate into little groups like this, especially based on something as trivial as how much other peoples' work has inspired and influenced you, you're begging to be overrun and brainwashed by some maniac assholes like the guy who wrote the post above. He wants to be big fish in a small pond, and he doesn't care above :Star Wars" or whatever, all he cares about is that you're a bunch of guppies he can exploit and control, and maybe if need be, swallow whole. And there's no way you're going to be able to keep that faction out of a fanbase or out of a fandom. And even if you could filter that out, now you're a smaller pond, where another new big fish asshole is gonna make a different kind of bullshit chaos..., and this cycle, it doesn't end.
You can try, but how do you stop someone from being a fan or something? I don't know either, all I can do is write more pieces like this where I call them out for their bullshit and do everything possible to promote why you shouldn't be one. Explain why I am not-a-fan and never will be, and then go watch my Eagles game and yell "KILL 'EM" three times before every snap when they're on defense, without any facetiousness to the demand, and complain bitch and curse and yell after every offensive possession that doesn't go my way, to the point where I'm complaining at the end of a forty-point win that we should've done better, and too many of the other teams players are still alive! I'm not immune either from spurts of fanaticism, but if you're going to notice or care that suddenly, one fandom is horrible, please step out and realize that is in fact all of them! This is what fandom is.
I know it's hard, and you can't see it clearly when you're apart of it; I get it, but trust me, from somebody who is an outsider point of view, this is what it always looks like, because it's always what it is. I've yet to see a narrative where the fans of something do something really good? It's always this shit, it's just some form of it. I don't hear stories about Smurfs fans getting together to plant a tree or something- it doesn't happen. Not as a group, not as a collective, not as representatives, this is all you get, bullying people off Instagram 'cause they did their job. It's always what horrible, stupid thing are fans doing now, 'cause it's all they ever do. Nothing different than any other group of people, groups that seek out people who are, "Like Us" and you turn a blind eye or scold anybody who isn't "Like Us", based on whatever-the-hell they determined that "Like us" means.
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