Why Fandom Is Hateable

I don't know, the general masses have something about them that makes them hateable.

But, there is a certain amount of nerds/dweebs/etc. in the current that are bothersome. It has been something that has irked me for some time. I know this sounds like a crappy thing to do. I mean, they are fans and the like. And understand, this is not a blanket statement for the general fandom at large.

Rather, it is something that is occurring as nerds become more and more accepted into the mainstream.

Most of it has to deal with the fact that we are quickly approaching a nerd bubble if things continue to be the way they are. Repetition is needed for an artisan to be skillful, but the public sees repetition as tiresome. The brain loses meaning of a message as it continues to be repeated on and on.

And when that occurs, we get backlash. Backlash occurs when people forget why you're famous. Anyone can accept someone doing the crazy celebrity shenanigans when they are on top. But, if your partying outshadows your current slab of output (music, movies, etc.) it can be damaging.

Backlash, like fame, can take a while to grow. It also can be hard to detect now more than ever. Trust me, if the Bee Gees had Twitter, they would have never known disco was dead. They would receive all those tweets from fans telling them how much they loved them, and they would have never known the difference.

If culture acted the way we do now in the 80s, Van Halen would never have a chance, and some hack would have belted a half remixed version of Stayin' Alive that would have been number one in week and then drop off the charts in the following week.

I can't be one to blame the industry at large. We have done this to ourselves. A lot of times, I see a bunch of original films in theaters. Kind of things we compliment without watching/paying to see. And yet those projects come short. Not necessarily because we didn't watch them, but because there are as many bad original films as there are remakes/sequels/mixed chronological media franchise pieces.

A lot of movies that we view with nostalgia as childhood classics bombed at the box office. I mean, they destroyed people's finances. Secret of NIMH comes to mind. Again, ambitious, but it didn't sustain itself in its lifespan.

You can't make a living off the imaginary wages and praises of the Bohemians. Woody Allen lives in a little apartment for such a reason.

In 1997, it was said that out of all the albums that are put out by a record company, ninety percent will lose money, only to be compensated by the ten percent that make a profit.

You ever watch a music video by a crappy band and wonder where all the fans came from? The record companies paid for all those extras. They paid a whole bunch of money for flash and flair. It started in the eighties, it sort of continues now, but the record companies had to back off because they had taken too much debt promoting original acts that didn't make any money back.

Can we make speeches and examples of record companies ripping people off? Sure, it happens all the time. But the risk has gotten too high for these companies, and if they will see a sampled 2003 hit with some rapper's name dropping designer brands in exchange for everybody keeping their jobs, so be it, they will do that.

It is only when we see both sides of the spectrum that we can truly bring about change. Understand that for every action, there is a reaction. For every file shared, there is another Justin Bieber.

It is easy to be a "foodie" and complain about boring food on Yelp. It is a whole other thing to run your own restaurant. And yet, the consumers think it is so easy to profit from concoction.

Negativity Is Reciprocated When It Is Not A Vehicle Of Change 

I can understand hating something. It's an evil world. They build you up and tear you down. It happens.

But, a lot of film critics don't make this a pleasant experience. You go to Twitter and they talk about all the negativity and complain about every damn thing like anyone cares. If you find yourself an artist under scrutiny remember to look at the person, not the words regarding harsh criticism of your work.

I mean, I'll deal with criticism. If you don't like it, and there's a way to fix it, we'll do that. But I won't deal with people who don't know what they're talking about. I won't deal with people complaining about mumblecore when they haven't watched mumblecore. I won't deal with people complaining about a film that is obviously not in their target audience.

Might there be an exception? Maybe. But some big picture common sense goes a long way.

Sometimes I see somethings that remind me of how large the world is. How it's larger than my concerns. It's usually the silly things that make me realize this. Mostly involves angry Australians complaining about how their favorite soccer player has been traded, people in India complaining about new laws that have been passed, or Filipinos blocking up Twitter with love of their own Bieber-like teen idol.

Again, silly things. Americans have been taught to think that rest of the world is so much more refined. But, the Internet has proven this is not the case. This is so not the case.

Cause look at what people complain about on Twitter. It's always some vague relationship thing. Do you ever stop to wonder how much time is wasted on relationships which will inevitably go nowhere? How much time is wasted on an argument that started over where to place a towel or some other silly nonsense?

I could have been doing something productive that entire time.

It's like when you watch Maury and see the arguments those people get into. It's gotta be so consuming to deal with that on a constant basis. Who the hell cares?

Everything Has Become Disposable 

I guarantee you that people will leave the nerd scene. I know enough about trends to know it is coming. It happened in the 90s when the comic book companies launched seven different collectible copies of the same comic book. It gave us titles like Youngblood. The industry reached its peak, and it never truly recovered.

That's where the root of the disdain comes from. Popularity is temporary. We are up. Let us fall, before we aren't paying attention and end up hurting ourselves.

As bad as this may seem, it isn't as bad as the worst thing about fandom:


It Destroys Creativity 

Anyone will tell you that they want Hollywood to have an original idea. But, go to any convention, and you'll see a lot of stormtroopers, and a lot of Marvel characters.

You see a lot of artistic echoes is what I'm saying.

I don't hate cosplay. I just think the people who spend thousands of dollars replicating other people's work could use that same energy to make an original idea.

I'll echo a previous statement of mine: If George Lucas had the same mindset that we do now, we would have never had Star Wars and instead be given a cheaply made version of Flash Gordon.

And it would be cheaply made, because money spent on licensing fees is money spent not making the film. This is why so many video games based on movies suck.

And I'm getting really tired of fandom mentioned in media. Can it be executed properly in certain situations? Absolutely.

Were there any nerd characters in Star Wars? Indiana Jones? Not really. I mean, Indy knew his stuff, but he was also a womanizer.

Did Han Solo have a tattoo of Darth Vader on his arm and give a detailed lecture of the lightsaber schematics? No, he did not. Luke did a little "golly gee" thing when Obi-Wan mentioned the Clone Wars, but he grew to leave that in his past.

One cannot grow if he does not grow up.And if we do not grow, we're probably dying.