#dark side of fandom

[contentment-of-cats]

The Dark Side of Fandom: Creating The True Believer

Fandom has a dark side. I saw it in the Harry Potter fandom and other Live Journal fandoms. It was present to a lesser extent on e-Groups and other listservs, and also to a much lesser extent on the fully public but still sockpuppet infested waters of Usenet. There are people who feed on a particularly geek-flavored type of naivete, and the idea that geeks do not _____. We look to our fandom friends as a haven that gives us a space to be geeks, included instead of excluded and bullied. The last thing we look for is to be harmed and the last thing we think about is harming others.

Unfortunately geeks do and one of the most powerful acts is the creation of the True Believer.

One of the most powerful cohesive acts is to create the common enemy - a person or group in which it is safe for all others to hate. Hitler was very effective in drawing together the masses of disenfranchised people by giving them a group that was now beneath them. People who were otherwise on the lowest rungs of society now had the Jews to look down upon. Not only did it elevate these people, but it gave them something to bond with the people around them, a common enemy.

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” ― Lyndon B. Johnson

If this sounds familiar, ask yourself why the person you have recently befriended is campaigning for you to hate another whom you barely know? It feels good! Crap on someone else, join them and be accepted and protected and guaranteed it’s not you…until it is.

The second half of this process has to do with being ensnared for later blackmail or extortion or simply being used as a tool to eliminate a rival. The person doing this needs plausible deniability, they need clean hands, and if there's a scapegoat needed - there you are.

When a new acquaintance vents to you a lot about some villain you’ve never met before, ask yourself — do you do the same? Do you trash talk your least favorite acquaintances at length to people you’ve never met? Most likely, no - because this is not the 3rd floor bathroom in seventh grade. So why is this person doing it? What do they stand to gain by making you hate a stranger you’ve never met, or never had a bad interaction with? Three reasons off the top of many.

Help the smacktalker remove a rival and

Isolate them from their friends or those who might befriend them and

to ensnare you into a web of, “I’m gonna screenshot your smacktalk if you don’t toe the line”

Beware of becoming a True Believer and following the edicts of a charismatic group leader. You are being led into a dark space by someone taking advantage of your desire to belong.

[orbch]

“big sister makes a face like a dog kept in a cage”

[sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes]

Love thinking about their dynamic pre-canon

[pransesdp]

[thatlilgremlin]

Omg... Am I getting pulled into the dark (short Snape) side?

[waterfall-art]

I GRADUATED!!! 🎉🎉

help me celebrate by supporting me and my art!

please reblog!!!

[teabeearts]

Dad Vader and Leia.🖤

Not a huge fan of this, but the point of drawing this was to not get fixated on perfection.

Etsy | Ko-fi | Socials

[compressedrage]

Dark loves him.

I don't care how you headcanon Dark and Chosen's relationship. We all agree that they love each other in a way that transcends labels.

Dark loves him so much, but he sees how much he's hurting. He sees how angry he gets. They start destroying websites to help Dark satisfy his mission code– destroydestroydestroy– but Dark can see how much Chosen needs this too.

He loves him. He wants to help, but the only way he knows is by breaking things. Setting fire to the sky so it chases away the shadows. So when they settle down– Chosen's idea, strange– Dark doesn't know what to do with himself.

Maybe he can stop breaking things. Maybe now he can build.

So he does. He learns code, he takes things apart to figure out how they work, and he starts making things.

Chosen approves. Good, because Dark needs to be doing something with his hands or he'll slip back into destroying–

Maybe he can do both.

He loves Chosen. Maybe they can't burn websites down anymore, but they can go after the source of all their suffering. Of Chosen's suffering.

He can make something. He loves him. Chosen doesn't need to worry; he's going to fix it.

[lilacpaperbird]

"sam was so ungrateful. he didn't love dean. his happiest memories in heaven–" *I make you explode telekinetically* *I rebuild your body, fusing your atoms together, bringing you back to life successfully* *I make you explode telekinetically again*

[thapunqueen]

CHARM PREORDERS JUST ADDED TO THE OL ETSY SHOP !! blew off some of the dust off my etsy shop for 2 new charms !! they're up right now and will be up for preorder until SEPTEMBER 9th !!!!! international shipping SHOULD WORK THIS TIME !!! i know last time i was unable to for whatever reason despite etsy giving me the thumbs up for it but now i think im able to !! (if not though PLEASE let me know somewhere so i can see what to do to change it as im still very new to etsy and already etsy does not like me lolol </3)

[0nightwolf0]

Mheh...

[k9punkout]

NO ONE talks about how Hyuna is said to like cigarettes in her profile and is seen trying to light one in the "sweet dream" music video, but in all-in she isn't shown with a cigar at all, but rather a lollipop.

LOLLIPOPS ARE A COMMON REPLACEMENT FOR RECOVERING SMOKERS TO LET GO OF THE HABIT.

we know that she tends to run away from her problems and grief and stress through partying and drowning her sorrows out in drugs, but after she rescues mizi we don't see her doing that other than drinking some alcohol at a party.

something something her showing mizi freedom is a form of closure for her since she saw her past self in mizi, and in All-In she makes the decision to stop running away from her past, while mizi makes the same decision to stop ignoring the oppressive society she'd been living in all her life.

they're both taking the next step to letting go of their denial and cowardice, and to hyuna that means cutting low on the drugs she used to rely on, and GHHH ALL-IN WAS A MASTERPIECE THAT NO ONE CARES ABOUT

[sukibenders]

Racism and misogynoir are so apparent in fandom, especially when it comes to shipping because why is it when a white male, sometimes female but I see it more with the former, character is on screen with a love interest, particularly woc, especially if they're black, and even with all the emotional scenes or just moments where they look at one another in ways different from the rest, it's met with "No, they aren't dating/the show is not going to put them together" but let the other love interest be white as well and suddenly it all makes sense? Heck, the examples I mentioned above don't even have to exist between the latter for some to STILL go and believe this rhetoric (eg. some Jace and Helaena shippers because, even if these two only interacted with a dance but yet we see Baela console Jace, after he seeks her out, apparently it's to far fetched to believe that Jacela could be a thing?!)

Sometimes it could be a headcanon that, largely, would make sense (and oftentimes was birth due to lack of respect that the poc characters could have been given by the writers *cough* TVD *cough*), and yet you'd still have people dismissing it left and right and spewing hate. At a HEADCANON! And I'm not saying that just because the other person in the ship is poc that you have to ship them, I'm not, but it's very apparent to many poc fans in fandom that unless the characters are swapping spit and doing the nasty, the possibility of them being viewed in any romantic lens feels too much of stretch even though their white counterparts don't have to jump through the same loops.

[materiaheartt]

wanted to try and see if I could make other heart sounds by playing around with effects then it reminded me of a headcanon I have of VV

if you know your jrpg lore then you know what happened to this guy LOL

[raayllum]

y'know i'm all for being patient and the trailer will get released whenever it gets released but i might actually need it to get posted soon bc i just had a trailer dream where the only significant thing was that in it callum was buffer and had a boob window um and i think that's my last personal straw

[teabeearts]

Sith/Dark Side Ahsoka for libpaint

For their DTIYS!

Art made by me!

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