#bad faith criticism

[wolf-tail]

Steven Universe has received so much bad faith criticism from media illiterate clowns who called it's queer Jewish creator a Nazi sympathizer for *checks notes* acknowledging that Hey, Killing People Is Wrong Perhaps and Punishment Is Not Equivalent To Justice, Maybe in a CHILDREN'S SHOW that I get automatically suspicious of people who vocally dislike it. Like, you don't have to like it, everyone has their reasons, but I worry sometimes what those reasons are

[hyperlexichypatia]

Not pictured: Orange, upon being challenged for this deeply unserious take, pretends they are saying the same thing as Purple.

"No, actually, it is not inherently 'fascist' to believe in a human soul" is not the kind of thing I thought I would need to argue, and yet.

[coldgoldlazarus]

One of the arguments about any sort of long-running media franchises/series, that almost always instantly raises my guard and calls into suspicion anything else the person making that argument has to say, is "the older stuff was better and everything after X point has been worthless dogshit with no redeeming value."

It's not like this is an alien perspective to me, either. I've been there, I get it. Where My Little Pony is concerned, I think I will always be at least a little bit of a seasonwunner, despite my best efforts. But this is a mindset that must be actively fought back against, and even if I can't really bring myself to watch the last few seasons, I recognize it's not that the show got worse, it just had different priorities there than what appealed to me about it originally.

And sure, sometimes stuff does just objectively shit the bed after a certain point. But honestly, I think that happens most when a series stops trying to explore new ideas, and falls back on shallow pandering fanservice about the earlier beloved entries. Looking at you, Rise Of Skywalker.

So point is, I do get where the mindset comes from, but it's still an extremely toxic impulse that I think needs to be confronted and dismantled with maturity and perspective. And talking with people who have failed to do that, and don't seem remotely interested in trying, is my personal hell.

But probably the most baffling instances of this mindset are when someone is like "everything before this point was good and everything after this point is bad!!!" but the actual argument makes no sense. Everything you say you hate didn't start after this arbitrary point, it started with the ones you uphold as the best in the series. If instance Y and Z are apparently utterly dogshit writing, why are you giving it a pass with instances W and X? It isn't even the repetition or differences in execution that seems to be the problem, it's just that it was good because it was before this arbitrary cutoff point, but bad because it was after it! (One especially galling example of this hypocricy was where the cutoff point between the 'last good' entry and 'first bad' one was between two releases... that came out simultaneously. Make it make sense.) Or else just pretending that this thing you dislike started later than it did and outright ignoring its presence in those earlier entries.

Like yeah, you are entitled to your feelings, at the end of the day; like I said, I get it to some extent at least. But if you're going to try to argue your feelings as some sort of objective fact about the quality of the series, at least put together a coherent and internally consistent argument. Or else, really reexamine if the reasons you're giving are the actual reasons, and it's not just nostalgia talking. Maybe the older entries don't hold up to your particular sensibilities as much as you think. Or maybe, you're refusing to give the newer ones a fair shake and reading them in bad faith.

[justplainsimon]

Apparently the person who made "steven universe is terrible and heres why" Also did a video about dungeon meshi... and yeah, they hate it/don't get it too

(and boy howdy were her thoughts on laios sure ableist)

and because there were so many dislikes, she took the thing down

[spiderandmosquito]

Can drama affect critisism (RWBY)

[tomboymikayla]

The worst fucking time to be a Sonic Fan:

[sjbattleangel]

Edited from Hiding In Private's fantastic video which you can watch here.

Hiding In Public: "It's unreasonable to attack Rebecca's character as if the most malicious interpretation of everything in the show was their personal idea. The writing and storyboarding team of Steven Universe is one of the most diverse in cartoon history. On a show that pushed diversity and inclusion, a lot of this criticism starts to stink of right-wing co-opting of progressive language, without understanding context and sentiment, in order to have a "gotcha" moment. Considering a lot of videos pushing this also include racist and homophobic jokes (as I've covered in my own series).  Even then, the argument that you're trying to make is that there was a malicious characterization of minorities made by those same minorities...so the next question I guess is: Why Steven Universe? A show about pushing diversity, inclusion and acceptance was being specifically targeted by countless takedown videos (and posts) on this specific thing. It seems to me-at least-that even if someone were to concede all the bad things being said, that it would make more sense to target-more loudly-the shows (and other media) that do the same thing more often with less tact and who are also not led by minority communities rather than one of the only shows intentionally trying to support these communities. Especially when most the people making the criticism, show by virtue of their own comments, are neither coming from these communities or are at worst actively vilifying them with homophobic and racist comments. Say there are two shops: One that sells apples and the other that sells grapes. The apple owner overhears a customer complaining about the grapes not tasting good. Does the Apple owner then run a campaign pretending to be a grape fan in order to make grapes better? Or is it more likely that they stoked a flame to ensure that their business had less competition?"

[edwardshundredyearoldspunk]

"I watched x so you don't have to" "I listened to y so you don't have to" "I read z so you don't have to" I cannot tell you enough how you also didn't have to. you didn't have to do that babe. you could have just not done that and spared the internet of yet another bad faith criticism of a piece of media that wasn't made for you

[geeky92]

I feel like we need to make “Bad Media Literacy” an actual trope on TV Tropes; particularly in regards to bad YouTube reviews that are nothing but bad faith criticism, like Nostalgia Critic’s Sailor Moon review, or In Praise of Shadows’ video essay on The Hills Have Eyes, or Doktor Skipper’s video on Godzilla. We need to think up a really good name for videos like those. 🤔

[iamafanofcartoons]

Vexed Viewer just hit a new low. He made a video insulting Kiersi Burkhart (one of RWBY’s writers) for saying in a twitter AMA that Cinder experienced (clearly negative, as per her own admission of “for better or for worse”) growth and change as a character. In addition to making a mean-spirited gotcha towards her, he didn’t ask her for permission to share her twitter information in the video. You can get sued for that. I really hope someone tells her about this, and that she decides to press charges on that asshole, or at the very least report his twitter account and/or YouTube channel.

Do people STILL think Vexed Viewer is not a misogynist?

Over 50% of his channel is dedicated to insulting women.

His most popular videos and tweets are about hating fictional women.

And he's transphobic.

Then again? He IS a hardcore blacksun shipper and adam taurus lover, so it makes sense that misogynistic men and women love him.

In the meantime, use this.

It will allow you to block his channel, and give yourself peace of mind.

[spacefrog1984]

This is it, this is the post that just got me blocked again by @curly-b-blog - for someone trying to be so flippant with their criticism of @celestialalpacaron and @saiscribbles, Curly really can't take a joke, can she?

[canary0]

So.

My Friendly Neighborhood.

Good aspects: Interesting inventory management, tense moments and atmosphere, good voice work (kudos to the voice director Brendan Blaber/JelloApocalypse), interesting premise, having the puppets just be unexplained and part of the world feels fresh.

Bad aspects: Fake loading screens are weird and distracting, highlighting can be a little subtle.

Aspects up to personal taste, but I hated: The not-especially-subtle implication that the in-story show was meant to instill Christian values in kids, and the game's overall implication that this is an unambiguously good thing, and the loss of it will cause societal downfall because no one can be trusted to make their own moral decisions. The bad faith criticism of children's television.

That last bit, but extended (break if you don't want to read the extended rant, 'cause that's basically what it is):

The marketing niche for Sesame Street and the marketing niche for something called "Dinosaur Mayhem" would be two completely different age ranges and developmental stages. The game kind of implies stuff like Sesame Street was replaced with things like, say, Transformers or generally unnamed violent kids' cartoons, but that's not true at all.

First, Sesame Street is still running. It's had the occasional threat over the years, but people still see the value of it. Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, the other implied reference, ran practically forever. These days, kids also have things like Paw Patrol, Dora the Explorer, Doc McStuffins, Bluey, and in general a whole lot of perfectly wholesome childrens' programming. There is no lack of love and cooperation in it.

Kids grow into shows with higher stakes and more conflict as they get older and are more ready for that kind of content. They're not going to keep watching shows for 2-6 year olds forever. That's not a failure of media - it's just kids entering a different developmental stage. Not everything is going to be appropriate for the very youngest, and that's actually a good thing.

Diversity of media and media that expands subjects people are exposed to as they get older and can handle it is good. It creates room for creative, interesting shows. It respects the developmental changes kids go through. Gravity Falls, to give an example, is not out-competing Sesame Street.

What gets me also is that there's a bunch of manipulation and negging and you get attacked and defend yourself and the game treats you like a monster for it, and the people who are mistreating the main character as correct. Lil' hinky, I think.

It was just frustrating, so I wanted to rant about it. The game was good and then fumbled the landing.

This is all purely my personal opinion, and you're free to disagree. Any interpretation of a given piece of media is valid, and mine is not correct any more than anyone else. Please don't take this as me claiming the final word. This is just what I personally took away from it.

[tuxedosaurus]

Y’know I’d definitely be more receptive to critiques of superhero movies if most of them weren’t flat out incorrect shit like this:

The scenario of this comic only applies to two Disney plus shows. The only movie that paints the government in a positive light is Cap 1 because it’s World War 2 and the villains are NAZIS.

The two big antagonists of Thor 1 are Loki and the government.

Avengers 1 features a reluctant alliance with the government, and the heroes reluctance is proven right at least twice.

Cap 2 says literal fascists helped build the government so they gotta take it down.

The background radiation Cap 3 is the government vs superheroes.

Every other movie heavily featuring the government has them as an antagonistic entity.

[gameguy20100]

You know what I keep noticing in when I encounter salters/critical type people. They tend to either stan the problematic characters and get upset when their fave does a problematic thing and act like it's bad writing.

I.e Chloe, Stella from HB, and one TFA one I recently blocked is a fan of Sentinel Prime

Hu

Now that I think about it. You're right.

It's like Harry Potter haters who stan draco. Or people who hate ATLA and stan Azula.

My mind is blown.

[clt009-wearehere]

To be irreproachable

I think that one of the most dangerous things a person can believe is that it is only your past actions that define you.

I see so many posts about people who are terrified to make mistakes, walking through life on eggshells with an armload of excuses and apologies at the ready.

And like, I get it? Bad enough decisions are hard to come back from, and there are loads of people who will swoop in like vultures if they smell blood. Especially on the internet, where canceling and bad faith criticisms are just a fact of life right now.

But simply being alive means inevitably fucking up. That’s right, everyone fucks up. And you, yes YOU, are going to fuck up.

You will hurt yourself.

You will hurt other people.

No matter how dangerously or safely you live, you can’t get through life without some very big messes.

Messes with, usually, you will have to clean up.

Now, sometimes people will forgive you. Good friends should - usually - adapt and stand by you. Sometimes that’s what happens. It’s their choice either way.

But being alive means continuing to choose what you do with the rest of your time being alive. And while there is a grieving process to consider, the best thing you can do is to learn and to do better. To face your failures, take what lessons you can, and keep moving. And - let’s be real - there are lines you can only find by crossing them first.

Because judgment and forgiveness come first from within yourself. And I will say, the holy grail of self-love is to have total control over who is permitted to judge you and to forgive you. Only you can choose what you do next.

Easier said than done I know but doing the right thing is a lot easier and criticism falls much lighter if you aren’t trying to bargain with an hypothetical arbiter for the right to keep thinking well of yourself like it’s a quota you have to meet. Just saying, as someone taught by experience.

[kayechanted]

Unfortunately I think far too many people are willing to just lay down and die in the face of climate-based social collapse. We gotta drop out of society and start anew elsewhere, it’s too late to wind hearts and minds OR to really develop a militant left :/

I get miserable at the thought of how apathetic everyone is but I'm very sure once people see how destructive the system we live under is as societal collapse starts to happen due to climate change people will get radicalized. And many people already have been getting radicalized because 9 months since October 7th the uptick in Israel's barbarism has opened people's eyes and is causing a major shift in opinion of the United States.

My problem is it's genuinely such a shame this did not happen sooner. That BLM protests in 2020 should have had this effect and we should've mobilized sooner. But that would mean people would have to empathise with, and genuinely include Black people in their activism, which of course means interrogating their own antiblackness. Even now genocides in Africa get ignored because protestors hell bent on looking peaceful think they can do "one step at a time" with genocide and people's lives. Idk sorry I got derailed I still have some tiny sliver of hope that at least younger people will see and understand the only way to deal with the capitalist ruling class. But at the same time there are way too many issues people have to address in themselves and that means being open to criticism for their movements.