#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.

[whitejays-galaxy]

I had to

Meanwhile Dooku and Palpatine

[anonymous-existences]

DCxDP Prompt 17 :

Danny was very displeased, displeased at the fact that he had to be a quarter vampire.

Let him explain, Danny had been visiting Vlad for his annual Therapy session, Dan had told the boy that Vlad has been acting strange and isolating himself in his bedroom.

Danny speculated that maybe the man is... Doing evil things again to mess with Danny and so just as any other sane person would, He visited the man. He stepped into a dark and cold room, "Frootloop...?", he called out as he kept the door open Infront of him.

Without even giving the boy a second to process the darkness, Plasmius pounced on him and had dug his sharp teeth and fangs on his arm, Danny took only a few moments and threw Plasmius to the side, his eyes were glowing red.

Danny was cursing as Plasmius's Hair 'Horns' were actual horns now and he looked... Hungry.

Danny would not like to delve more into those new trauma memories but short to say but Plasmius had a more animalistic side to him due to his vampire shtick and it turns out he knows when it happens but simply forgot to tell Danny or Anyone about this situation.

Danny went home after having been bandaged by Dani, He felt weird ever since that day and for the past few days the sun had felt more hotter for him that he ended up using sunscreen often, he found Ectoplasm more... Delicious as well and when he happened to get injured and licked the blood off his arm due to something urging him, he slowly pieced everything together.

Danny started showcasing more vampiric features, his eyes had a red tint, his ears were pointier and his fangs sharper, slowly he's had more of an attraction to blood and Ectoplasm, being able to find or smell blood from afar.

Danny at some point tells jazz and she ofcourse accepts him wholeheartedly and protects him as much as she could, even going as far as intimidating the A-Listers enough that they'd leave Danny alone.

It... It didn't prove good for him though, The Sensors clocked him more as a ghost. It made Maddie and Jack extremely suspicious.

One morning Tucker and Sam had called him something about Maddie and Jack finding out, Danny was then caught especially at a time where Jazz was out of town.

We all know what happens in Bad Parents Maddie and Jack, They have him strapped to a table.

Jazz went home 3 days later and after finding out about what happened to Danny, she ran to the closest person she could get help from. Vlad.

The DC part ;

Danny had ran away with Jazz, Dan and Dani to Gotham, Apparently Vlad had bought them a Manor and Since Dan was the oldest he was the one who managed all the money and he was good at it.

Danny still had difficulty controlling the hunger, the Half Ghost Thing now along with having vampire stuff on him and still somehow being half human was the only thing keeping him sane and feel like he's in control of his body.

These instincts from 3 different species in one body fused to one causing him to get more confused and erratic with his behaviors, Dan resorts to taking Danny out at night and letting him ravage and feed on Criminals which Dan had specifically picked.

Meanwhilst the bats have been notified of Child and Human traffickers or anything of the same level crime that they don't feel bad about have been found dead with bite marks on their necks and their bodies drained of blood, It confused them ofcourse but no innocent bystanders or civilians was ever turned into a victim of this unknown assailant.

The public had nicknamed the supposed "Vampire Meta" As Apparition (Because Dracula was too cliché), One faithful night, a witness happens to see this strange person feed on a criminal.

A black haired teenage boy had their teeth sunken in the big man's neck, their eyes a red tint but it's obvious they were blue, said civilian immediately told the police which gave the bats a lead.

Witnesses starts to see more of him, Red Robin happens to encounter the younger boy on coincidence, his clothes were bloodied but he stared at the horizon of the city. The boy looked out of thought, his eyes hazed as Red Robin approached him, Danny turned his head at Red Robin almost immediately upon hearing his footsteps.

"Hello." He greets with a fanged but soft and innocent smile that made Red Robin's heart skip a beat. Just who is this boy? And why is Tim starting to have a crush for him.

You guys can take it from here, all my thoughts were, Halfa!Vamp!Danny and Dead Tired.

[sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes]

Love thinking about their dynamic pre-canon

[orbch]

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

[pransesdp]

[thatlittlefangirl]

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

[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)

[pockettron3000]

mira cupcaik!!!

[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

[0nightwolf0]

Mheh...

[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