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

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

I find these arguments about "humanizing" the person you're debating the issue with to be extremely ironic, given that people were protesting a tag that dehumanized people of color. :(

[the_con_cept.livejournal.com]

I don't understand what you're getting at. I'm saying that if you approach the conversation with a level of respect for the person you're talking to, whether you're for or against something--and no, I wasn't specifically thinking of the racism wank, but EVERY wank I've seen--you're much less likely to say something rude that you'll later regret. I certainly understand the anger, frustration and hurt people felt regarding the tag, and I was not accusing any particular person of not adhering to good manners, but I've certainly seen a lot of the spillover from FW (on both sides of the issue) that I simply don't like--baiting, swearing and name-calling, none of which advances the conversation or adds anything worthwhile to the debate. It all comes down to the 'personal attacks' which I've spoken to you about before. I'm saying that my position is exactly the same as it's always been. I'm certainly against the tag that demumanized PoC (although I think it was done in ignorance, though compounded by later actions), but I'm also against dehumanizing anyone else. Even if they're stupid and make me angry. Does that make sense?

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

The problem, though, is that what you are saying is that people of color should smile and be respectful when a community's mods and many of its members are insulting them and being extremely disrespectful. Do you see the power imbalance here? There have been many posts already made about this question of "tone," and the way in which it deflects attention from the real issue. But I'll just say this: Why do I have to be sweet and gentle with people who are treating me like I'm not even human?

[the_con_cept.livejournal.com]

I think you're summing my attitude up in the wrong way. In the first place, I'm not telling anyone they have to do anything; I'm just telling you the way I would prefer to see things handled. In the second place, I didn't think the original objection was out of line at all. She came forward and stated her position and explained things very clearly and should have been taken seriously. I was not making any judgment on her or her 'tone.' I'm not any happier about the community or its mods being disrespectful than I am about the third parties who are being disrespectful. I think other people jumping in after the fact (again, on both sides) were rude and turned things into a bit of a circus. I don't like terms like 'bitch' being hurled around. And that was a term I saw used to describe the original protester, not on her behalf. And I'm not saying you "have" to be sweet or gentle with anyone under any circumstances. But I certainly think you'll come off as a more reasonable individual if you approach the situation in a calm and respectful way. Although I was unfamiliar with the word used for the tag, I felt once the meaning of the word was made clear it should have been removed immediately. I felt the ensuing protests were the correct way to handle things. But I felt many of the personal remarks--such as calling witchbane a 'bitch'--were completely uncalled for and did nothing to resolve things or elevate the discussion, and instead created further tension and anger.

And if you'd like to discuss this further, it might be better to drop a message in one of my recent posts, so we don't clutter up Hijja's too much. : )