Internet Idiocracy: The Fandom Menace - MattCMG

for over a thousand years star wars fans

were the guardians of peace and

respectful disagreement in the old

fandom

for the dark times before the disney

buyout

a young group called the phantom menace

an ally of us before they turned evil

inadvertently helped disney hunt down

and destroy the fandom

they betrayed and politicized the fandom

now wholesome star wars fans are all but

extinct

the phantom menace was seduced by the

dark side of the force

[Music]

how ironic

yo who the [ __ ] is mad cmg

hello there hey

everybody and welcome back to a fresh

new episode of internet

idiocracy the show we make fun of the

stupidity from all corners

of the internet i'm your host but not a

force ghost matt cmg

and today let's talk about star wars

fans with the star wars franchise being

as big as it is for the past 50 years

you'd have to be actively avoiding it

somehow to not know at least a little

bit about it like even your [ __ ]

grandma knows what a darth vader is they

know what an r2d2 is you know like i

don't know what i'm saying personally

i like star wars but i'm not a huge die

hard fan or anything you know you know i

watched

i watched the original six movies

growing up i watched the clone wars

animated series as a kid i played a [ __ ]

ton

of lego star wars in the battlefront

games and i think even kids who hated

star wars

still had toy lightsabers as kids i've

had my fair share of star wars expanded

universe lore video binges i tell you

why

i'm not the biggest star wars fan out

there you know star wars wasn't as

defining to me as pokemon or avatar were

but still had a pretty big presence in

my childhood even today i still kind of

like some of the stuff they're putting

out like i like the mandalorian

and some of the new stuff i said some

[ __ ] bastards i'd like to think that

i'm a

pretty casual star wars fan but there

are some people who take these fantasy

space movies

just a little too seriously enter the

phantom menace the phantom menace

started off as a group of prominent star

wars fans

who showed massive distaste for the

direction disney was taking the series

ever since they acquired lucasfilm in

2012.

but back then the fandomatus name was

really only applied to a select few

youtubers and

apparently some comic book writers who

literally formed a group

called that they had a group called the

phantom menace but nowadays

the fandom menace is a term that is now

applied in a more general way to

describe toxic star wars fans

many of which now have very political

motivations it's one thing to dislike a

movie

but it's another thing to call someone a

cuck for liking it or spreading lies and

rumors about people you don't like we're

gonna get into all of it so smash that

[ __ ] like button

let's get weird let's get wild and pull

out the lightsabers as we take on

the fandom menace

the origins of the phantom menace take

us back to 2017

after the release of star wars episode 8

the last jedi after a lukewarm response

to the force awakens in a generally

mixed response to rogue one

the last jedi created a huge divide in

the star wars fandom half the phantom

absolutely loved it for what they viewed

as subversive storytelling and deeper

themes

while the other half absolutely hated it

for some of its bizarre writing

decisions and poorly developed

characters much like what dexter did for

pokemon or what the legend of korra did

for avatar the star wars fan base was

split in half over the last jedi with

some going as far to say that it's the

greatest star wars movie ever made

and others who think it completely

ruined the entire franchise both of

which are complete stretches i think you

guys get the picture and if you've

observed this in nature you probably

already know but the last jedi

divided the fan base or at the very

least widened the schism between the two

extremes that had already been growing

but let's be real this divide did not

start with the last jedi

it started back in 2012 when disney

bought out lucasfilm and started doing

[ __ ] people didn't like you know they

canceled the beloved clone wars series

they took the clone wars team and put

them in a more cartoony series in rebels

they made the force awakens which was

essentially just a rehash of a new hope

and they got rid of the old expanded

universe that people really enjoyed the

seeds for people hating what disney was

doing to star wars were planted long

before the last jedi

the last jedi was just the straw that

broke the camel's back shortly after the

release of the last jedi a dedicated

group of star wars fans decided that

they had had

enough they hated what disney had been

doing to the series so they decided to

unify and make their voices heard

several prominent youtubers including

ethan van skiver geeks and gamers and

world class bullshitters

and a few others banded together to do

exactly this

and thus the fandom menace was born the

fandom menace was simply the name of

this group of youtubers who hated the

disney era of star wars and if that's

all that it was

nobody would really have a problem with

it the problem was that things got a

little bit out of hand as things like

this tend to do more and more people

kind of rallied behind these youtubers

and even though the big three who

originally started the group have since

moved on and don't really seem to care

as much as they used to

the group that they created became much

more than that the phantom menace was no

longer just a group of youtubers anymore

it was a whole movement

an ideology for anti-disney star wars

fans to rally behind

even if nobody was directly leading or

organizing them the phantom menace isn't

even just limited to star wars anymore

as they now apply it to other nerdy

franchises like the mcu and other kinds

of [ __ ] defend menace went from this

small collective of frustrated youtubers

to this decentralized mindset that it is

now now let me get one thing straight

here

i would not be talking about this right

now if all the phantom menace was doing

was calmly or even firmly or

aggressively saying what they don't like

about star wars right now if all they

were doing was criticizing the movies or

disney's business practices

i would not have a problem here i have

zero problem with criticizing things

even if your criticisms are completely

misguided like you know

for example these hour long hour and a

half long last jedi reviews

i might not agree with everything that

they say in them but i 100

respect their right to exist as long as

they aren't spreading hate or spreading

misinformation the problem though is

that the current fandom menace

does exactly this they just spread hate

and spread misinformation at this point

the fandom menace isn't even about

whether the movies are good or bad

anymore the movement has become so

bastardized by what i assume is the

quest for internet clout

it's not even about the movies it's

about the people making them it's about

unrelated politics and it's about

completely making [ __ ] up just to spread

rumors and get clicks you might not

agree with what the original phantom

menace group was aiming to do but at the

very least they had a defined goal of

making their voices heard the phantom

menace as it exists now

seems like it's only out for clicks and

will obtain those clicks by any means

necessary

even if that means lying and

politicizing every little thing

oh no i'm not brave enough for politics

i don't know what it is about the sequel

trilogy but apparently whether you like

or dislike these movies can be seen as a

political stance which is completely

[ __ ] asinine to me well

you know i say i don't know what it is

but i i think we all know what it is

apparently if you like the last jedi

you're an sjw [ __ ] while if you hated it

you're a right-wing misogynist i don't

think it's crazy to say that this

mindset is not even remotely accurate

but i'd be remiss to not tell you that

there are definitely people who fit this

description just by looking at the

uninformed cesspool that we call film

twitter we can see that a lot of

left-leaning feminist types really

related to rey and rose and the sequel

trilogy

they really wanted poe and finn to be

gay they liked the trilogy's themes

regarding identity and family you know

that kind of stuff you know the kind of

stuff

that's really relevant to the left

meanwhile on the right

we've got people who hate the movies for

daring to question the past and for

spreading

sjw propaganda lo and behold the people

who say [ __ ] like this are often the

same people currently representing the

fandom menace movement what i'm about to

say to you right now

should not be seen as a political take

in fact it's probably one of the most

apolitical things i've ever said in my

entire life having women in a movie

is not sjw propaganda and if you're

offended in any way by what i just said

to you

then chances are you're a bigot in some

capacity and are probably part of the

problem like that's

like that's not even like remotely a

partisan tank like at all but now here's

the deal right you are entirely free to

dislike the female characters in star

wars you're free to just like ray your

feet are just like rose you're free to

just like hold the leia cara dune

[ __ ]

man's kanata it doesn't really matter

you're allowed to dislike these

characters but

when your reason for disliking them is

that by them simply being women that

they're now pushing an sjw agenda

you're [ __ ] bigot at that point maybe

i just haven't been looking hard enough

but i am yet to see how any of these

characters simply existing

is any form of sjw propaganda like we

could totally get into the specifics

about how some of these characters

were very badly written but that is

entirely separate from them existing to

push some [ __ ]

sjw uprising or some [ __ ] like what the

[ __ ] the reason the phantom menace is so

adamant about star wars now having an

sjw agenda

is because of some statements made by

the disney higher ups that essentially

said

that they want to make the star wars

series more diverse to appeal to a wider

audience it makes perfect sense why they

would do this right you know you know it

makes star wars more accessible to more

people which is a win for them like this

is such

this is such an innocuous statement that

i genuinely don't know how you can have

a problem with that quite frankly women

and minorities have always been in star

wars

some in very prominent roles pre-disney

so why don't you have a problem with

those characters but you do with the new

ones

you dropped this one chief no don't get

it twisted i'm not saying that every

diverse character in the disney

era is well written but that's entirely

separate from them being a diverse

character this leads into something that

ends up becoming a much larger topic

than we really have time for today so

maybe i'll save that for a different

video

so what i'll say for now though is that

representation is a double-edged sword

you can have extremely well-written

characters that just so happen to be

diverse or you can have characters who

are written around that diversity you

know that diversity is part of their

character in a non-pandering way but

ultimately it's not really about the

diversity it's about the way you write

it criticize the way a character was

written 12 ways to [ __ ] sunday nobody

would really care

but as soon as you bring in the

characters race gender et cetera into it

you start to look a little bit suss for

example rose teego from the last jedi is

a character worthy of criticism there

are many faults with the character you

can criticize the character all you want

but as soon as you bring race into it

you kind of out yourself as a bigot

especially when that character's race

and gender have nothing to do with their

character much like representation in

media id poll is a double-edged sword

too another example of disney supposedly

using star wars as sjw propaganda

is the tagline of the force is female

this was actually a tagline from nike to

promote their air force ones but was

adopted by star wars fans after a

picture of lucasfilm's ceo kathleen

kennedy wearing the phrase on a shirt

went public there's actually a reddit

post out there that details how kennedy

has ties to nike and that the phrase may

have been made with this double meaning

in mind but regardless of how that came

to be

the force is female has two clear

intentions to mark and appeal to girls

whilst also promoting their earlier plan

of diversifying star wars neither of the

intentions behind the slogan are even

remotely malicious but some fan of

menace dudes didn't think so i've seen

plenty of takes around the internet from

the phantom menace that say things like

they're trying to

elevate women by alienating men which

the slogan simply does not imply

i've also seen literal interpretations

of the slogan where people actually

think that disney is trying to like

retcon the force to have a gender

which misses the point so unbelievably

hard what do you what do you think they

call update felony be like

hey hey dave yeah we're retcounting the

force so make sure you change the

[ __ ] lore accordingly

them having a catchy slogan doesn't mean

that they're changing the [ __ ] lore

like what while the slogan was clearly a

marketing scheme it's a highly

inoffensive one they know star wars

already has the male audience for the

most part

so mark it to the female audience and

double your profits it's not that hard

of logic to follow okay but okay

whatever right with everything we've

talked about so far

let's assume that disney genuinely is

trying to push some sort of political

agenda with star wars right how is that

any different

from the other two trilogies the

original trilogy was made specifically

as an allegory for the vietnam war with

an anti-war

anti-imperialism message with some

allusions to world war

ii they're using asymmetric warfare

against a highly organized

empire i think we call those guys

terrorists today

we call them mujadine we call them

al-qaeda when i did it they were

vietcong exactly so were you thinking of

that at the time

so it was a very anti-authoritarian

very kind of 60s against the man kind of

thing

the prequel trilogy revenge of the set

specifically is a clear allegory for the

war on terror either

you are with us or you are with the

terrorists

if you're not with me

then you're my enemy even the clone wars

series showed the viscerality of war in

a negative light contrary to what the

title suggests

star wars is very anti-war and has

always been that is an inherently

political stance and in this regard

disney would not be doing anything

differently by being politically charged

just with different political topics

granted they don't always sick the

landing having a political message

doesn't mean that you spread that

message effectively you'll criticize

them based on that criticize them based

on whether or not they spread that

message effectively

but let's not pretend that they're

breaking new ground by being political

in the first place i guess the point

i've been trying to make here is that

the phantom menace will look for any

reason to gatekeep star wars and will

oftentimes use very politically charged

motives to do so i think it's pretty

damning that the culture the phantom

menace has created is so against being

inclusive and making star wars something

for everyone

to the point where when star wars actors

like gina carano knowingly say some very

bigoted things

the phantom menace is right there

supporting them not a good look guys

you don't have to like what disney has

been doing with the franchise you don't

have to like the new characters or the

new direction they've taken their

marketing

but the problem occurs when you take

those things as personal jabs towards

you

no you [ __ ] idiot they're not trying

to retroactively ruin your childhood by

integrating more women and minorities

into the series nor are they promoting

an sjw agenda by doing so these things

are completely inoffensive to any

rational human being and if you were

offended by them then you're just as

much of a fragile [ __ ] snowflake as

you claim your opposition to be i think

you know

the worst defense though is is using the

term sjw unironically

that's no that's just cringe you know

2016 just called

they want their [ __ ] buzzword back

stop now come back

i love you liar i mentioned earlier that

a lot of these fandom menace types are

really only saying a lot of the [ __ ]

that they say for click bait

and this is 100 true even some of the

original founders of the original group

before it became decentralized literally

admitted to making these star wars

outrage videos not because they

genuinely believed most of it but

because they got views and made them

money this kind of thing has snowballed

over the years to the point where a lot

of weird rumors and lies have been

circulating and many people seem to be

taking them as fact despite them having

no evidence to them at all

for example it seems like every few

months there's a new rumor about the

head of lucasfilm kathleen kennedy

being fired or stepping down from her

position none of it has

ever been true the same rumor has been

circulating for like years at this point

and at no point were any of these rumors

even remotely accurate like this

like this is a new level of [ __ ] cope

you know what i'm saying like these

people hated the new trilogy so much

that they created this like fictional

reality in their heads in which the

person that they viewed as responsible

for them

is fired don't worry chewie the mean

lady's gone

she can't ruin our franchise anymore

like i like i get it right like y'all

need a scapegoat to blame for why star

wars is bad now or for why you hate star

wars now

but a lot of the anger towards kathleen

kennedy is very misdirected y'all will

[ __ ] and moan about how kathleen

kennedy is ruining star wars when they

make a few movies he didn't like

whilst also praising clone wars and

mandalorian for being free of her

control and in the hands of the great

dave filoni well guess what [ __ ]

[ __ ]

kathleen kennedy is just as much a part

of mandalorian clone wars as she is the

films

she's an executive producer on

everything star wars she's not even a

[ __ ] writer

go blame the writers not the executive

producer whose only job is to make sure

everything is on brand and on budget oh

and uh and dave filoni

well he's a he's a pretty liberal guy if

you look into uh what he actually

believes you know he's one of those he's

one of those sjws y'all hate so much but

but y'all won't be mad at him because he

made stuff that you like another example

of these weird lies is brie larson

famous for herrell as captain marvel in

the mcu brie larson has publicly

expressed interest in being in a star

wars movie this is the only thing

that has ever been publicly stated

regarding brie larson and star wars

she's never been in a star wars movie

never been involved with the series she

just expressed interest in playing a

jedi or something yet for whatever

reason the phantom menace likes to treat

larsen as if she has been in a star wars

movie and has been actively ruining the

series for years you will find tons of

angry tweets and comments aimed towards

her

saying things like you know how dirty

you ruined star wars it's it's it's

your fault star wars sucks now and much

like with kathleen kennedy

there are a bunch of people who have

created these fictional realities in

their heads where brie larson was in

star wars and then got fired it's

genuinely [ __ ] insane but don't get

me wrong there are reasons to dislike

brie larson some of her political takes

are a little bit too id pull from my

legging a little bit [ __ ] out there

and she's been a bit aggressive towards

some of her critics right i assume

that's why a lot of these phantom menace

types don't want her involved in star

wars but that is no reason to treat her

like she's already in the series and

has been actively ruining it for years

honestly i wonder how much of the brie

larson hate is people genuinely getting

her confused with daisy ridley like

honestly

they look vaguely similar so i'm

assuming that people who don't give a

[ __ ] probably get them to views

example number three comes in the form

of pedro pascal who plays din jaren in

the mandalorian nearing the end of

season 2's release rumors began

circulating that pascal was unhappy with

the production staff and didn't like

that his character wore the helmet all

the time

so that they would write him out of the

show and then replace him with boba fett

this turned out to be completely false

as pedro pascal himself revealed in an

interview that there was no behind the

scenes drama at all and when that rumor

fell flat they moved the goal post and

instead claimed that pascal would not be

coming back for a third season

this was also proven to be false as he

recently just signed on for a third

season

with his stunt double also confirming

the same thing these rumors had

literally no source

yet their prevalence led to a lot of

misinformation within the star wars

community this is a really weird rumor

to me

because even people who hate what disney

has been doing still love the

mandalorian the phantom menace people

love the mandalorian but every so often

we get these people trying to justify

their hatred for disney by tearing down

a show that they actually [ __ ] like

so much for saving what you love by

destroying what you hate am i right

these people genuinely want to believe

so hard that every time a good episode

of the mandalorian comes out that

[ __ ] kathleen kennedy's just sitting

there seething in her [ __ ] chair how

dare they make [ __ ] good star wars

how dare they make good star wars on

[ __ ] yet another of these weird

lies are the ones that put words in the

mouths of prominent star wars figures

namely george lucas george lucas of