It’s been weird seeing the tactics and characteristics associated with things like Gamergate and Comicsgate being used wholesale by fans for supposedly progressive causes. Backlash is backlash, I guess, and so things like review bombing should be expected regardless of political positioning.
But I hate to see tactics used that are very much about rejecting complexity, analysis, and texts as open to multiple interpretations, as this mindset is much more associated with conservative thought. One of the more frustrating things about Comicsgate, for example, was the utter repetitiveness of the criticism it levelled against supposedly “woke” comics: I can’t say how many times I saw the phrase “shoving it down our throats” or “box-ticking.” These were repeated so often that they just became the reality: no one was reading the comics they were critiquing, because they already knew they were woke garbage that was ruining the thing they loved.
And I’m seeing the same thing right now in the backlash to TVL. Does it deserve criticism? Absolutely! Does it merit analysis? Also absolutely. But instead I’m seeing the same critiques, with almost the same phrasing, over and over, everywhere online. No room for debate or discussion, just the same assertions again and again, almost without variation, and too often in bad faith.
I’m also seeing “well, I won’t watch that,” or “I was going to watch it, but now I won’t,” or even worse, “I haven’t watched it, but here is an essay about it based on clips I’ve seen.” No one has to watch a show, and we all get to decide what to do with what little precious time we have, but I can’t count how many times a very strong and common opinion expressed online about a text did not end up being one I shared. And I shouldn’t have to say it, but no, you can’t have an informed opinion about something you have little knowledge of, and no, other people’s opinions are not knowledge of the text itself.
We need better criticism in fan communities, and it’s not going to happen if we embrace algorithmic thinking patterns, or see backlash politics as the only way to do politics.
