A different kind of fan narrative. ^^
OP, I wouldn’t feel too bad. It’s highly likely your messages got buried under the thousands and thousands of others just like it. Your level of creep probably didn’t even match half of those.
“I follow Spoony on Twitter, and I have a pretty big internet crush on him. In the past I’ve responded to his tweets, and while it’s all innocent stuff, I feel embarrassed now that I look back at those tweets. It makes me look like I’m begging for attention, and I’m not, I just want to talk to him. He probably thinks I’m creepy because of it. I’m sorry Noah.”
It’s apparently an unpopular opinion I hold, but I feel compelled to share it nonetheless.
I am neutral about TJ/DW/Amazing Atheist. I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, but I’m unable to exert the kind of energy it takes to outright hate the guy. I’m going to chalk this up to my “the enemy of my enemies is an ally” complex. TJ and I hate a lot of the same things, so I tend to defer my energy elsewhere. Am I going to go out of my way to watch his videos? Nah. Am I gonna buy his merch and applaud his every word? Nah. Am I going to read every lick of text he dumps on his Tumblr? Oh fuck no.
I’m a large, boorish, brute of a human being that has never really found anywhere to fit in. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t identify with TJ on some level. My views on government, religion and human sexuality certainly match up with his… but that’s where the similarities end. I’m not the kind of person who thinks making sport of rape victims is a good way to “get my point across”.
Has he taken things waaaay too far in the past? Yep. And he’ll probably continue doing it. That’s just who he is. I’m not making excuses for him, nor am I rallying any kind of defense. I’m just stating plain facts, here. I don’t expect TJ to change, and he’s not going to… no matter how many people out there hate him.
… It also occurs to me that TJ doesn’t seem so bad if you compare him to another YouTube cultist. What do you folks know about Onision? … If nothing, do a little light digging and what you’ll find will make you want to tear out your own eyes. And his throat.
So, there you go guys. My best “defense” of TJ is “At least he’s not as bad as Onision.”
Take from that what you will.
“I see a lot of people here really hating on TJ aka The Distressed Watcher/Amazing Atheist and it makes me kind of sad because he is not the monster some people make him out to be, he has been called a misogynist, racist and a homophobe when he is in fact the exact opposite of…
Message to OP: Do you need a reminder of what happened when some of Spoony’s fans showed up at his place unannounced?
Do you want to go to jail?
Do you want us to look even worse than we already do?
Do you want to drive Film Brain off the site due to fears of random stalkers showing up at his house?
NO!!! *bops with newspaper* NO NO NO! That’s a BAD fandom! BAD!! *bopbopbop*
“After finding out Film Brain lives very near me I just want to go to Swindon and find his house and jump out of a bush and surprise him. And then tell him that he is awesome.”
(Please step away from the Film Brain. I repeat: please step away from the Film Brain. -Meerkat)
(Stay out of his bush, anon. -Mosu)
It was this incident with Lupa that made me totally disregard the Bronies as socially retarded trolls. I was iffy before this, and even considering getting into the show, but their behavior was … in a word … completely inexcusable. It showed me the kind of people who had the loudest voice in the community … and it’s the kind of people who enjoy telling others what to do. And not just telling them, YELLING AT THEM UNTIL THEY COMPLY.
That is not friendship! That is not tolerance! That isn’t not respect for the views of others! That’s bullying, the complete antithesis to the whole point of FiM.
On Twitter I remember Lupa saying that she had considered giving the show a chance, but was completely turned off by the hate-spamming and causing a shit-storm for simply choosing not to have an opinion.
Honestly, can you blame 90% of TGWTG for having a negative reaction when asked about FiM? Even if they had considered the show, the fandom had already proved to them how entitled, petty and thankless they all were. Want to feel disaffected and shunned, Bronies? Well, thanks to your own actions, you now have a legitimate reason to feel that way.
Which is a shame. Because there are sane people who like FiM out there. I understand that policing a fandom as large as the Bronies are is a difficult task, but there has to be a way for the voices of reason to eclipse the obnoxious wank that has colored the fandom so negatively.
“I was genuinely enraged with the Brony community when I found out some Bronies bashed Lupa for not liking MLP:FiM. It’s this kind of thing that makes the rest of the Brony community look bad.”
(Did she ever actually say that she didn’t like it? I thought she just said she never saw it. -Meerkat)
(That’s the most egregious thing. She didn’t mention MLP:FiM in her review of the old My Little Pony film, so people assumed she hated and flipped their shit. Bronies, you’re making us look bad! We have enough of a reputation as it is! -Rants)
