Snape Would Probably Think That Fandom Was Full Of Gryffindors

[kerravonsen]

There's been a lot of fail and outrage in fandom recently.

1. There is FAIL.
2. OUTRAGE ensues.
3. Failer becomes defensive and perpetrates more FAIL.
4. OUTRAGE doubles.
5. Failer's friends protest and perpetrate additional FAIL.
6. OUTRAGE triples.
7. Optimistic fools wonder aloud why we can't all just be friends.
8. OUTRAGE quadruples, this time directed at those who are outrageous enough not to join in the OUTRAGE.

I wish, I just wish that for once, the cycle would be cut off before step 3. Six words: "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

I am not an optimistic fool, but in many things I am a pragmatist. Or perhaps I simply have different goals. I would hope that the goal of the OUTRAGE is to prevent FAIL. To change behaviour. Anger is a legitimate reaction to FAIL. When it becomes excessive, however, it not only becomes unreasonable, but it becomes ineffective, indeed counter-productive at the goal of preventing FAIL. And we get Step 5 and beyond.

We also get a chilling effect on others.
There is a story on my bunny-list which is set during the aftermath of an earthquake in the 1970s. I am having second thoughts about finishing it, due to fear of OUTRAGE being directed at me.

There's another reason I'm wary of participating in OUTRAGE. It's the pragmatist in me, again. Peer pressure is a common social tool for changing behaviour. But I am not a peer of these particular Failers. I am a stranger, they don't know me from Adam, they don't care what I think. Me joining in the OUTRAGE would not help.

The other side of that is that, well, I don't care what they think either. Why should I care what a complete stranger says anyway? Really. Someone is WRONG on the Internet. Big deal. Fail happens. Stupid happens. It will keep on happening. I am not going to fix the world by yelling at it. Keep calm, be polite. Lose your temper, lose the argument.

Take the latest round of FAIL. So someone made an insulting remark about people "being off their meds" because they disagreed with them. Yes, that's stupid and insulting. I'm "on meds" myself, and guess what? I am NOT taking that remark personally. I am not taking it as an insult to every person on the planet who is "on meds" either. (Or every person on the planet "on meds" who doesn't ship Doctor/Rose). I don't care. I simply don't care what this random stranger said. I don't give a stuff. Who is this person? Do they have a lot of influence or responsibility? No?(*) Then the potential for harm from their attitude is small. Why should I waste my time on something so unimportant in the scheme of things, then?

(*) Or, at least, they didn't until the OUTRAGE brought fandom's attention to them.

Perhaps this is bringing out the inner Slytherin in me.

ETA: Due to this post being linked to by metafandom and becoming a classic example of Step 8 of the above cycle, this post has been f-locked.

ETA 2: I've changed my mind after calming down and some positive advice. This entry is no longer f-locked, but comments are frozen, and new comments are screened.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

I usually Sort Ravenclaw, too. Very rarely a Sorting test has put me in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, but never in Slytherin. I am not at all ambitious, and I am far far too straightforward. But in some things I am quite pragmatic, and I think pragmatism is often a Slytherin trait.

There are some things I get outraged about, irrelevant of whether I think I can make a difference. But insults by random fans? Not one of them.

I just know I'll never make a difference except maybe to a friend (and probably not even then)
Oh my dear, don't believe those lies you tell yourself. You make the world a better place by being here, and that makes a huge amount of difference.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There are things I get outraged about too, like injustice, management being given even more power over workers in this country, how come greedy and corrupt Americans ruined the planet's economy, but what's the point? I can't change any of that. I avoid news because of the horrible things I'd hear or read otherwise, and I even avoid people after something particularly bad because of their need to discuss it. Damn, once a complete stranger came up to me in a mall toilet to say how awful the bush fires were. It was almost with a weird sort of pleasure, and I just don't get that at all. I just said "Yes," and walked away. I do give money to charities trying to help so I suppose I do make a difference in a tiny way.

I agree: compared to things like that, fans insulting each other or writing stories of various fail really just don't matter that much. Not when I encounter huge amounts of sexism fail on ordinary TV series like NCIS and Burn Notice.

[Corrected a typo] I hope LJ nicks that DW edit reason feature.