Looking for content to distract me in 2016, I happened upon the youtube channels of some comic book geeks. I think you can see where this is going. I watched them for some months and they mostly succeeded in being non-political and non-shitty about diverse new characters and such. Just an odd hint here and there of banal shitty geek attitudes, I could deal.
But then one that I do not follow posted some video about how “Diversity is Killing Marvel Comics,” some sites apparently had articles about comic book boys being racist, and foolios felt the need to respond / engage. The realities of the situation I don’t care to get into, not in the comments below or anywhere. Suffice it to say Marvel has been doing some brave things with diversity at the same time as they’ve had sales go into a slump. Whatever.
So at first I managed to avoid watching the one guy’s response video. I imagine he might have even had a half decent thing to say on the subject, but I didn’t wanna risk losing something passable to watch over finding the guy is a crudlord. But then I ended up catching some of it, and he’s whining about the journalists saying comic nerds are racist, calling it irresponsible journalism.
Hey, right now, of any time in recent history, calling out racism has become FUCKING VITAL. Call me racist. I don’t care as long as I learn to be a better person at the end of the conversation. Getting defensive? I don’t wanna hear it. Blow me. Unfollow’d.
Then the other banal moderate probably not a nazi comic nerd I follow was commenting about some bit of media news that mentioned triggers and he said, “Make all the trigger jokes you like.” Nuh. Don’t. Fucking unfollow’d.
Lately at work I’m trying to convince people to stop talking about political issues and these geeks I work with are all like, “Well, sure, I don’t even care about politics.” Which I find almost as offensive as saying you voted for Trump. Fuck you, geeks. I wish I had the ability to unfollow IRL, but I’m pathologically incapable of ignoring words spoken around me. Maybe I’m autism spectrum or compulsive or something. I can’t not listen to you fuckos being fuckos, so please, leave everything even vaguely political at home. I’m trying to get through the day without being fired for going off on a fool.
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… and you say these people didn’t tell you to piss off and mind your own business, or mention the first amendment, but instead (according to you) agreed to comply. Yeah, fuck those guys.
Re: distractions, I find life online has always been a process more or less as follows:
1. discover great new thing.
2. enjoy new thing
3. discover creator of thing is actually racist/sexist/misogynist/TERF/hypocritical self-interested corporate shill/homeopathy enthusiast/sex criminal etc.
4. go looking disconsolately for another thing
5. go to 1.
The only bright side is the internet is full of things, and not quite EVERY one ends up this way. Perhaps it helps that I’m British and therefore culturally always anticipating disappointment.
Right. Tired of your shit attitude in my space. You’re out.
In case anyone hasn’t seen my history of exchanges and wants an explanation, this guy loves including a snide little jab at me with all of his long winded and often reasonable comments. I don’t mind disagreement coming from a place of good ethics, but I don’t have to eat shit in my own house either.
And since I get the last word here, I’ll say I explained why I found their response crappy. Their stated lack of care IS A POLITICAL STANCE I DIDN’T WANT TO HEAR. Like those fucking inexcusable trash heaps who make South Park in their “Vote or Die” episode right before the Kerry/Bush election. Seriously, fuck “not caring,” fuck neutrality. It’s bad morals.
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In my experience, the types that claim that they don’t care about politics are privileged enough to be able too (and severely lacking in the empathy department).
And of course, the moment anything even seems to threaten said privileges (or just inconveniences them in the slightest), they go ballistic. “Waah, saying that we overproportionately talk over women and that’s not cool is politics”, “Waah, telling us that it’s rude to ignore a persons preference in pronouns is pushing a political agenda!”, “Waah, feminists are attacking our hobby by critiqueing/creating their own works!!!”*
Cause nothing says “apolitical” like “I want the status quo, except maybe a couple of years ago when we didn’t have these uppity “. Fuck them.
*(I couldn’t tell one american comic from another, but I’m a big fan of manga and gaming, among other stuff. Sadly, they seem to attract an above-average quota of these assholes.)
True facts, Glor.
I should mention I’m a little iffy on using empathy deficiency as a way to characterize jerks, tho it may be true. Some people who are disabled by empathy deficits might be justifiably annoyed at being compared to the immoral. Not 100% sure on where to draw any lines yet though, just putting it out there.