Fandom and the Mob: a Rant

[kennahijja]

As much as I'm often proud of fandom – its collective creativity, courage and subversiveness – there are a few things about it I dislike. There's extreme shipping, which fills me with scared amusement and confusion; there's writers deleting their stories for other but serious RL reasons, which pains me almost as much as the random destruction of historical artefacts. Those are minor wibbles. There is, however, one thing that above all else that just plain disgusts me – and that is the rabid mob mentality fandom can exhibit from time to time.

I'm talking of the attack dog mentality that stampedes braying after a leading opinion, hurling insults and mindless approval without pausing to spare an individual thought or a shred of consideration that the 'other side' might have feelings, or reasons, or might on some level be acting in good faith. Perhaps there's something liberating about feeling in the right and being edged on by a crowd of others feeling the same way; maybe that provides the sort of anonymity that allows one to behave like an utter arse which one wouldn't get away with in any other situation. I don't know. I only know that it's perfectly disgusting to watch.

I'm by no means saying that there can't be disagreement, or strong disagreement, or even sharp arguments worth falling out over. But if there are no arguments, not the flimsiest attempt of questioning one's own point of view rationally before starting to scream, and not the tiniest bit of respect for other people and opinions – nothing but a virtual mob, yelling – then it's truly fandom at its very lowest.

I'm only talking about mob mentality here, not about right or wrong. This rant has been brought on, of course, by recent events, but I've been in fandom for a few years now and have seen it happen again and again. Sometimes over an opinion I agreed with, sometimes over one I disagreed with. Truth be told, it sickens me even more if I happen to agree with the side the mob is on, because it makes me want to be able to change my mind, or yell the old "get off of my side, you're making me look bad (and feel sick!)." But then I've always believed that it's preferable to lose well than win badly.

It just makes no difference whether you (or I) think the cause is a bad one or the most worthy of all or anything in between: if in order to make your point, you have to incite, or pander to, or rely on the mob (or, if you happen to stir it up by accident and fail to try and slap it down again), you've already damaged even the very best of causes beyond salvaging. Yeah, it means you can be right and still be made of fail.

Most of the time, fandom is a great place to be, but at times like this, it sickens me. I honestly wish we could be better people, a better community than that, but sometimes, it seems we can't. And that's a bloody shame!

Won't make a habit of ranting for sure, but this has been festering inside me for a very long time.

ETA: Apologies if I'm owing any of you replies still, but I won't be getting around to it. It's time for War, not Wank.

Comments

[lakadyn.livejournal.com]

Ditto! Thanks for saying that spare_change.
All of you out there defending the people who started insulting us in the first place, I don't know about you but when people start calling my parents "deviant", I react. Does that make me irrational? We are so sorry to have bothered you with our hurt and pain. How inconsiderate of us to think you would give a damn.

[(Anonymous)]

Nobody called your parents "deviant." Nobody insulted you. You read into it what you wanted to see so you could wave your PC flag around.

Plus, I didn't see kennahijja defending the DD mods at all in this post. She didn't even mention them.

Your response, which entirely ignores the actual content of the original post, actually proves the point the OP was making.

[lakadyn.livejournal.com]

I hate PC. I'm old enough to know when I am being insulted and you must admit it's kinda strange how so many of us felt the same way. But I guess your mind is made up and we had no grounds for concern. I should keep my mouth shut when interracial sex is called deviant and when the word 'Miscegenation' (KKK copyrighted) is used because you know what's best for me and WHEN I should feel insulted.

Please, everyone knows what this post refers to, it's clear as day. Again if by defending my rights to a minimum of respect, I'm part of a mob, then so be it. And it's sad to say that YOU are proving your own point because if I am a gang of one then what are you?

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

A mouse? Tsk...

I'm tempted to agree, although to be fair, I *did* participate in the wank du jour at least on the sidelines, and considering that lakadyn sounds quite distraught and caught up in the heat of things, it might not be quite so easy for them to look at what it looks like from the outside.

Although the problem is that with a bit more rationality and empathy and awareness of shades of grey from the outset, things would never get this heated and ugly :(.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I think whatever you can say about the comm in question, there was not a shred of intent to insult *anyone* until it turned into wank.

And I'm very sorry, I neither know your parents, nor have I called anyone *deviant* lately, or insulted/hurt anyone (I hope). I try to avoid that, in general.

That's exactly the thing I tried to point out with my post - the ugliness of insults, mindlessness and mud-slinging that accompanies fandom wanks.

[lakadyn.livejournal.com]

When you (not YOU personnally, it's a manner of speaking) use a racist word in a comm and refuse to acknowledge your mistake for days, you can't be surprised to have wanks.

I know the mods main fault was ignorance and not racism. But I refuse to take the blame for reacting. If we had not, this racist slur would have stayed there. We should all be glad to be part of fandoms where we acknowledge racism is a problem. It SHOULD make people react and it is not be treated with indifference. And if it takes a wank to make people understand how serious it is, so be it.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

When you (not YOU personnally, it's a manner of speaking)

Yeah, I understand you, but that's already the first step to everybody losing their cool and starting to misread and misinterpret and go to war needlessly. I find it easier to walk up to an opponent assuming a) she's got a point and her reasons, b) she's a human being and I'll treat her like one, and c) she's acting in good faith (contrary to what HP would tell us, we're not usually out there to be evil, like Voldie). Yes, they may still turn out to be irredeemable arses in the long run, but at least I haven't set out to misrepresent and vilify them. It helps me not to lose my cool.

If anyone behaves fairly, there's no blame - disagreement is totally fine. I'm not saying everybody on the 'other side' was a rabid mob-ling - there were excellent and convincing points made against the use of the term, and I don't doubt the sincerity of those who bothered to make them. It's the ugliness of the wank that bothered me - not just here, it's just the most recent example.

My personal take on it - and you have *every* right in the world to disagree with that if you see it differently - is both of proportion and of example. Example, because I'm still extremely thin-skinned about *any* attempt at outside interference in non-mainstream comms after Strikethrough. As such, I want a firm stand of 'don't let *anyone* dictate to *anyone* what to write/what prompts to use' - because we've seen where it can lead. And well, proportion. This thing started over a word that was chosen without negative intent, which led to perfectly harmless fic/art (in the context of the comm, that is), was not recognised as racist by many, and whose racist connotations would (that's my personal opinion) fit the HP-universe with it's strong focus on race and prejudice very well. Yes, I can really *see* why people who've encountered it in a RL context might be upset about it, but I don't think that the extremity of the wankstorm wasn't appropriate to the offense.

Yes, you probably think differently, especially if you come to it with different experience. I respect that - a lot. My basic point is that we can have different opinions and *still* treat each other like human beings instead of constructing the other into a evil monster. At least I hope we can?

[lakadyn.livejournal.com]

Of course we can, none of us are evil. Unfortunately our differences are irreconciliable and I think that's when a divorce is in order.
I can agree to disagree on every topic but this one. And yep, it's pretty personal.

Ironically I was also involved in Strikethrough and we fought side by side on that wank war. See you in the tranchees for that fight.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Yes, there *are* the too-personal-to compromise things (and no one should, really!).

Ironically I was also involved in Strikethrough and we fought side by side on that wank war. See you in the tranchees for that fight.
Yeah, I probably will - it seems kind of unavoidable, doesn't it?

Totally and Miserably OT

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

... I wish you weren't so prophetic :(.

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

I find it easier to walk up to an opponent assuming a) she's got a point and her reasons, b) she's a human being and I'll treat her like one, and c) she's acting in good faith (contrary to what HP would tell us, we're not usually out there to be evil, like Voldie).

That's exactly what witchqueen did, btw.