Anti-Fandom and Fascism are the Same Thing

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[Applause]

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in the early 1950s a confluence of

conservative fear-mongering launched a

destructive socio-political phenomenon

that crept into the fabric of society

and thrives today despite evidence

against the claims despite reason

and decades of their doom saying being

shown

as false

the now disgraced psychologist frederick

wertham began his baseless crusade

against the popular medium of comic

books in 1948

in the spring of 1954 the infamous

seduction of the innocent was published

shortly after publication of the pearl

clutching tome the united states senate

convened hearings on harmful effects of

comic books as part of its investigation

into juvenile delinquency

in response to wertham's high-profile

criticisms and the senate investigation

the comic book industry implemented a

self-censorship code

these restrictions included not

portraying authority figures like police

and judges in a disrespectful manner nor

could comics use certain words like

horror or terror

the rules of the code were generally

vague with so much room for

interpretation as to effectively censor

publishers simply out of fear sexuality

of nearly any kind drug use even in

context of anti-drug messages seduction

or

sexual perversion which meant

homosexuality

all banned

any depiction of passion or romantic

interest had to be shown in context of

traditional marriage and family values

so unmarried couples couldn't kiss or

even imply physical interest in one

another there were many dubious

oppressive limits placed on comics for

six decades but as time went on and

those traditional regressive values slot

off of society the rules were more and

more ignored until eventually the code

was eliminated in 2011.

it had become a relic of a time when

white conservative men in power targeted

low information citizens for the benefit

of social conditioning fear-mongering

social panic and misinformation aimed

directly at the public by men in power

nearly killed the comics industry

in the more strictly political arena

american leaders of the post-world war

ii era repeatedly told the public that

they should be fearful of subversive

communist influence in their lives

communists could be lurking anywhere

using their positions as school teachers

college professors labor organizers

artists or journalists to aid the

program of world communist domination

this paranoia about the internal

communist threat what we call the red

scare

reached a fever pitch between 1950 and

1954 when senator joseph mccarthy of

wisconsin a right-wing republican

launched a series of highly publicized

probes into alleged communist

penetration of the state department the

white house the treasury

and even the us army his probes also

reached into hollywood during

eisenhower's first two years in office

mccarthy's shrieking denunciations and

fear-mongering created a climate of fear

and suspicion across the country

and no one dared tangle with mccarthy

for fear of being labeled disloyal

those conspiratorial attitudes were kept

alive by the john birch society a

far-right authoritarian political

advocacy group that continues to have an

effect to this day

the birch society was linked to donald

trump prior to and during his presidency

and uses wild baseless conspiracy

theories to perpetuate fear and

hostility toward any social progress

labeling it communist activity

the john birch society is much more

private now but its influence can be

seen in recent years as absurd cries

about communist takeover in the u.s have

once again reached fever pitch

wertham mccarthy and the john birch

society planted destructive seeds that

over the past seven decades have

contributed to the cracking foundations

in u.s social and political landscapes

along with figures such as rush limbaugh

mayhe rest in hell bill o'reilly steve

bannon andy noe tucker carlson alex

jones those ideas have continued

infiltrating the collective

consciousness of conservative voters

they've become so scared of phantom

commies and socialists that they've been

herded into the camp of neo-fascism most

of them don't even realize it and they

will fight tooth and nail against those

labels because they assume their

perspective is the one true objective

default perspective

and they can't recognize that they've

been pushed so far right that they're on

the edge of a cliff

they're abandoning any pretense about

freedom or liberty while still using

those words as rallying cries they think

their views however hostile and

anti-social are a justified reaction to

what they see as an infiltration of

their values what they've been spoon fed

is an anti-american takeover

president biden is regularly called a

socialist by popular conservative

figures which is really really stupid

and causes actual socialists to scoff

and those same delusional sentiments

grow in comics and nerd culture

youtubers like doom geeks and

gamers nerd roddick young ripa that

umbrella guy the quartering and ethan

van skiver they've painted over the same

talking points with fear-mongering about

sjws and wokism destroying the fandoms

that they claim to love much as fascists

in america use the bible and the flag as

their shields

anti-sjws anti-woke ranters and anti-fan

influencers use comics star wars and

anything they can weaponize to create

the exact same panic

among uninformed audiences

modern neo-fascist conservatives don't

know the text nor the meaning of the

constitution or the bill of rights or

even the bible in many cases they aren't

well versed in law or political theory

but they use these concepts as bludgeons

and label anyone who disagrees as

traitorous and anti-american

anti-fandoms similarly seem to rarely

know the history of comics even the

blatant social messaging that has

existed in the medium yet they insist

the media has always been and should

always be apolitical whatever that means

and should not corrupt the audience with

nebulous agendas

the fandom menace and other anti-modern

star trek youtubers try to convince

people that star trek has never had

progressive social messaging

they're the modern reincarnation of

mccarthy and wertham while presenting

themselves as being pro-free speech

it's really difficult to reach people

who operate on that level of cognitive

dissonance

gamergate was the first time these views

were successfully weaponized against

larger fandoms in the social media age

and like their battle cry of ethics in

game journalism glossed over their

misogyny and bigotry and their

harassment campaigns and doxing

anti-fandoms like comics gate and the

phantom menace and others say they just

want good stories or that their alleged

beloved media is being destroyed by woke

political messaging and agendas

but of course as these movements become

more common and their members more

comfortable expressing their true views

and as the victim tallies rise it

becomes clear that these superficial

arguments were just a front

and that the tactic has carried over

into these like-minded movements

regardless whether they fight in the

battlefield of anime or comics or star

trek or star wars the core ideologies

remain the same with many players

transitioning from one group to the next

without any difficulty like mccarthy and

wertham and bannon and carlson these

people operate from a very distorted

notion of reality and of humanity

they use terms like culture war to

describe what they think is an

unnaturally occurring push for more

inclusion and acceptance

they say anything that doesn't center

itself around a white cis hetero male

perspective is identity politics

these terms are thin veils for what

boils down to regressive anti-progress

beliefs and should be a red flag to

anyone who sees them

and if they're not red flags to you

you're either in that feedback loop

or you're privileged enough to be

apathetic

so what is the goal of these anti-fandom

networks

it's to siphon off new and casual fans

those who maybe just became interested

because of the mcu or the broadening

star wars franchise

people like me aren't at much risk of

falling in with these obviously false

narratives but if you're just a kid

searching youtube for content on comics

or trek just trying to get into a new

hobby you're almost certainly more

likely to find anti-fandom content over

genuine fan videos

uninformed excited to engage

impressionable these are the traits that

anti-fandoms prey on their perceived

dominance in the algorithm only possible

because of their low information carbon

copy content they produce at high rates

creates the optics of validity in their

views

a new or casual fan can be sucked in and

on the path to fascism before they

realize there was ever another option

like i said earlier there's no

neutrality in this

the anti-fans call themselves culture

warriors and they seem to think they're

noble heroes in said culture war but

they are in fact an aberration an

astroturf weaponized brainwashed

minority of citizens and fans who

pretend to be the majority simply by

being louder more aggressive and

ignoring facts

many of these figures views line up

exactly with conservative talking points

such as being anti-vaccine anti-data

anti-democracy anti-journalism

anti-lgbtq anti-blm anti-poor and even

against discussing solutions for climate

change no matter their warped reasoning

their cocksure defiance they are

anti-reality anti-fans like conservatism

in general are defined almost

exclusively by what they are against

they offer no real policies or solutions

they move goal posts to suit whatever

they're arguing in a given scenario they

contradict themselves constantly and

they all seem to be fueled by a juvenile

desire to own the left or trigger the

libs which is portrayed as being

pro-freedom

but at its core this phenomenon of

anti-fandom is merely an extension of

the cancerous organism that is modern

fascism it's in every crevice of our

culture including and especially within

fandoms of all kinds

there is no neutral position apathy is

capitulation complacency is surrender

make your choice

but sitting on the fence is a choice for

anti-fandom

for fascism

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you