i am so fucking done with this fandom. seeing takes like 'wtf have they done with Robby's character this season' - is this your first time watching a television show? do you think that they might be trying to tell you a story? why does The Pitt attract the dumbest people
I've had a rough week. The deepest I can get right now is that I honestly think it boils down to Goldfish Brain and the inability to correctly Criticize media. (Big C not little c. We are analyzing, not critiquing -- two different things). Season One is finished and apparently gone from their memory, or at least the core lessons we were supposed to take from it.
They remember that Robby was ✨Good✨ and ✨Sweet✨, if a little sassy. They know he cried. Other than that, it's been three seconds and they've swam around the bowl. New season, new analysis.
I've explained before that the basement level understanding of Critical Theory (or at least New Criticism) is that whatever you think is correct is actually correct -- as long as the media supports it. The second something within that media contradicts it, your theory becomes nothing more than a subjective opinion based only on what you feel, and not the media itself. Essentially, the theory is now wrong.
By forgetting everything we learned about Robby, they are creating their theories only on what they can ascertain from this current season. The media has already proven every single one of them is wrong, but Goldfish Brain will not let them see that. Instead we have this obnoxious faction of the fandom spouting hateful rhetoric with absolutely zero merit that is substantiated by the actual media.
E.g., Robby does not respect nurses.
We have seen Robby fight for the nurses , demand respect for them, praise their ability and intelligence, fight for their safety, continuously request more nurses, and even argue that they are not paid enough.
The claim is proven false because it is contradicted by the media.
According to Reader Response Theory, when actively engaging in literature, the reader coexists with the author. Their own personal experiences shape the way they interpret the narrative. If you look at Plato's Cave, which is about people who only experience the world through its shadows, things can and will be distorted through this lens of personal experience -- a tree will not look like a tree , it will look like the shadow of a tree. Given our current political climate, it's understandable that many can and will find it easy to vilify the passing white man. (I say passing because he is Jewish, and while he holds a lot of privilege, he has also seen his share of discrimination. To me a white man is defined as a Christian White Cis Male -- someone with every drop of privilege you can scour from this green earth. That being said, Jewish, queer, light skinned men, etc... They all have privilege. I only add the passing to acknowledge his faith and the struggles that come with it.)
HOWEVER, in order to fully interpret and take in a text, or (as we are doing here) expanding this to media, the consumer of the media cannot only count on their own personal experiences or their Interpretative Communities. You must use this in tandem with what the media says. The example I've given has been that you can say the hospital walls are green, and you can fully believe it, but once the show starts and we see they are white, your theory is now incorrect. It doesn't matter what you say; you are wrong.
On top of this, we should be using our previous knowledge, i.e., the things we've learned already that can help to clarify. And as we learn new things, our interpretations can adjust. Background knowledge like this plays just as an important part of all of this. This includes but is not limited to the knowledge of mental illness, the way administration works within a setting like this, what we know about things such as psych holds and the regulations around CPI, and how a hospital is run in general.
Everything I've listed (and more I'm forgetting, I'm sure) is what helps to correctly interpret media in a meaningful and engaging way.
These people have Goldfish Brain and cannot connect last season to this one, are letting personal views color their entire experience with this show, and they refuse to look into and learn new things that could better help them understand the delicate intricacies of this show.
It's unfortunate, but what we are dealing with is willful ignorance. I honestly thought MAGA cornered the market on that, but here we fucking are.