In a world of social media, podcasts, and YouTube channels, you rarely come across someone who is not an inspiring “Influencer.” With the advent of the internet, we have grown more connected than ever before as a species. A simple click of the mouse, and you can like someone’s post from Japan, or Ireland. However, with all the good the internet has done, there is a darker, much more dangerous side. When we gave a platform to every single person, we did just that. Not only do the good, or great people have a platform, but the bad, and worse do too. In This Article as part of a series we will take a closer look at creators like The Fandom Menace, Geeks and Gamers, Doomcock, Nerdrotic and more.
“With Just a few Clicks” The Nerdrotic Way
Over the last several weeks, in researching for this article, I have tracked a few news stories that these channels/shows like Doomcock(Overlord DVD), Geeks & Gamers, Or Nerdrotic covered. The Interesting thing about these creators, is they typically use each other as “Sources” when talking about their stories. Taking headlines from sites like “Giant Freakin’ Robot” (Who have been famous for stealing scoops and perpetuating false stories to gain clicks) and, then they put their own twist on the story, helping themselves to paint a better picture, allowing themselves to spin the narrative their own way.
It is all very interesting to unwind. A few simple clicks to vet sources will lead you down a rabbit hole. You will find yourself in the middle of a really twisted Echo-Chamber, which can be easily debunked. Even worse, their audiences believe what they say and rarely question a single thing… ever. It can really feel like a cult mentality, and only after you are out, do you realize you were being manipulated for money or power. An idea is still the single most dangerous weapon.
Most of what they say, leads down the path of bigotry, sexism, and anti-social justice warrior narratives. It seems they want a world less full of representation & inclusion, and more full of the same old dominantly white and male Hollywood.
“A Fandom, turned on itself” The Doomcock Way
Fandoms are built on a community of people who love a certain pop culture franchise (I.E Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel Or DC)and it was always meant to be a positive experience. These people thrive on infecting these communities with hate, and fear. They Stir the pot in the wrong direction to get people to react emotionally. To be honest, it almost always comes down to… Yes you guessed it, THE MONEY.
YouTube and Facebook, as well as other social platforms use algorithms to dictate what to show and recommend to visitors to increase the odds of an individual spending more time on the platform, as you can imagine, the more the consumer, consumes, the better and more money they make.
What about when people figure out and are able to manipulate these algorithms? What happens then? Well, then you get channels like Geeks and Gamers, Doomcock, or Nerdrotic, and the list goes on and on.
When you watch one these channels, you will hear a lot of trigger words like “WOKE,” “M-SHE-U” and other things of the nature. Almost all of these channels mentioned, use the same trigger words in their titles & tags. Making it so if you watch one, all of a sudden you’re being recommended the next and then so on and so forth. Until eventually your whole feed is dominated by hate and fear mongering.
Its all About the Money, Baby! The Geeks and Gamers Way
What is worse is, they really do think they are the “Good Guys.” Recently even calling themselves “The Rebellion.” A dig on the Star Wars franchise (That they are frequently bashing on left and right) In Which the rebellion are the good guys who stand up too the goliath that is the Empire, and in their case they are standing up to “Woke Hollywood“(their words not mine.) The villains in a story often don’t consider themselves the bad guy, they think what they’re doing is right, and just.
Villanous intention
Not until the end, after being defeated, does the villain realizes, they are the problem. The antagonist of the story. It is only a matter of time until these people realize they are not the rebellion, and in fact, they have it backwards. They are The Empire. Only the bad guys of the story would campaign to have Females and minorities stripped out of Pop Culture, only to be background characters, or objects to move a story forward for the main white male character.
Combating hate
We must stand up to combat these types of people, we must band together, and show them that we will not stand for their dated views on our media. The World has always been, and will always be a diverse place. People of all different colors, backgrounds, & ethnicities make up the world and that’s what makes this blue rock a beautiful place. Growing up I always looked up to Captain America. He is a white, male character, and I can identify with him. Imagine growing up, not having a hero, or someone you could identify with? Someone who looks like you?
What’s great about comic books is, there are so many heroes. So many types of characters, for people of all backgrounds to identify with. A small girl can look up to Captain Marvel, Black Widow. A Person of Latin Descent can love Blue Beetle, An African American can identify with Miles Morales. All of these things are great, and make these properties that much more inclusive, and rich.
To Be Continued…
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