click for full-size rant reading
When I took part in the Transformers newsgroups many years ago (surprisingly it still exists) every election year some putz had to post a variation of the following question: are the Autobots conservative/Republicans and the Decepticons liberal/Democrat, or the reverse: are the Decepticons are conservatives and the Autobots liberals. This to me was intended to gauge the political affiliations of the other posters. Clearly you would try to claim the Autobots as part of your political perspective because they were the good guys (unless you were part of that small group that tried to make the case that the Decepticons were the real heroes–I’m totally serious and so where they). First off, my official political leanings…though I have said in the past I’m conservative with a friend claiming I’m closer to libertarian, but I’ve grown to not care about labels in general…are nobody’s business. They do not affect my affection for Transformers then or storytelling today. Plus, for the record, some Autobots would be liberal, some would be conservatives, some would be moderates, and others apolitical based on their tech spec profiles. Meanwhile the Decepticons, embodiment of the worst aspects of humanity as most villains are and a product of the 1980s, would be fascists, tyrants (Megatron’s tech spec quote is “peace through tyranny” after all), and anarchists, punks, and other criminals. It’s one of the worst questions Transformers fandom has had to put with, and they still argue “Unicron Vs. the Death Star”. (Unicron up close, the Death Star far away. Now stop asking.)
I bring this up because political divisiveness in geek communities is hardly anything new, and as politics have wormed their way into every aspect of our lives, especially our entertainment as of late, claiming a hero for “your side” has also ramped up. I see them now and then on various subjects but someone was “kind” enough to spread an image on Facebook bringing them all together in one happy rant of dumb, and all for the liberal side. Admittedly “author unknown” did get a few things right, but he (or she, I’ll stick with he because that’s one less letter for each time I have to write the pronoun so it’s out of laziness really) also got a whole lot wrong. Since I know some responses will be longer than others I’ve decided to break this down into two parts so this article doesn’t run forever. I hate when sites do that (especially the ones just trying to eek out more ad revenue, none of which I currently get) and this intro has been long enough.
One last thing before I get into this: I’m going to attempt to be as apolitical as possible given that this is skirting away from the usual types of discussions I have here at BW Media Spotlight, where I want to bring everyone together to examine the art of storytelling. However, there are going to be points where my political views will show up in the name of clarifying. That doesn’t mean I’m going to immediately disagree with everything here, nor is this about the right-winger attacking the SJW since as I said before there are things the writer got right. It’s the stuff that he got wrong that brings me here today.
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BW Vs Author Unknown: Is Geek Culture Left-Wing? (part 1 of 2)
click for full-size rant reading
When I took part in the Transformers newsgroups many years ago (surprisingly it still exists) every election year some putz had to post a variation of the following question: are the Autobots conservative/Republicans and the Decepticons liberal/Democrat, or the reverse: are the Decepticons are conservatives and the Autobots liberals. This to me was intended to gauge the political affiliations of the other posters. Clearly you would try to claim the Autobots as part of your political perspective because they were the good guys (unless you were part of that small group that tried to make the case that the Decepticons were the real heroes–I’m totally serious and so where they). First off, my official political leanings…though I have said in the past I’m conservative with a friend claiming I’m closer to libertarian, but I’ve grown to not care about labels in general…are nobody’s business. They do not affect my affection for Transformers then or storytelling today. Plus, for the record, some Autobots would be liberal, some would be conservatives, some would be moderates, and others apolitical based on their tech spec profiles. Meanwhile the Decepticons, embodiment of the worst aspects of humanity as most villains are and a product of the 1980s, would be fascists, tyrants (Megatron’s tech spec quote is “peace through tyranny” after all), and anarchists, punks, and other criminals. It’s one of the worst questions Transformers fandom has had to put with, and they still argue “Unicron Vs. the Death Star”. (Unicron up close, the Death Star far away. Now stop asking.)
I bring this up because political divisiveness in geek communities is hardly anything new, and as politics have wormed their way into every aspect of our lives, especially our entertainment as of late, claiming a hero for “your side” has also ramped up. I see them now and then on various subjects but someone was “kind” enough to spread an image on Facebook bringing them all together in one happy rant of dumb, and all for the liberal side. Admittedly “author unknown” did get a few things right, but he (or she, I’ll stick with he because that’s one less letter for each time I have to write the pronoun so it’s out of laziness really) also got a whole lot wrong. Since I know some responses will be longer than others I’ve decided to break this down into two parts so this article doesn’t run forever. I hate when sites do that (especially the ones just trying to eek out more ad revenue, none of which I currently get) and this intro has been long enough.
One last thing before I get into this: I’m going to attempt to be as apolitical as possible given that this is skirting away from the usual types of discussions I have here at BW Media Spotlight, where I want to bring everyone together to examine the art of storytelling. However, there are going to be points where my political views will show up in the name of clarifying. That doesn’t mean I’m going to immediately disagree with everything here, nor is this about the right-winger attacking the SJW since as I said before there are things the writer got right. It’s the stuff that he got wrong that brings me here today.
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 22, 2020 in Marvel Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged Black Panther, Captain America, commentary, Deadpool, Doctor Who, political commentary, Star Wars, X-Men.
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