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rj_anderson...people in every fandom, of every kind, everywhere, are insane.
Whenever you get a large group of people together to discuss a common interest, and people are passionately interested and emotionally invested in the thing being discussed, it is absolutely inevitable that irrational behaviour will go on, flamewars will erupt, trolls will emerge, and before long the entire fandom will be dismissed as a bunch of wacked-out morons who seriously need to Get a Life.
The key to surviving in any fandom is to find a group of people who, even if they don't necessarily agree, are at least mature enough to handle disagreement sensibly. This can be difficult if a large percentage of your fandom is hormonally crazed and/or ON CRACK, but with a little searching and effort, it can be done. Then you stick with the sane people and ignore all the other stuff.
See? Much better.
No, this rant was not inspired by HP fandom. Though you can apply it there too if you like.
Whenever you get a large group of people together to discuss a common interest, and people are passionately interested and emotionally invested in the thing being discussed, it is absolutely inevitable that irrational behaviour will go on, flamewars will erupt, trolls will emerge, and before long the entire fandom will be dismissed as a bunch of wacked-out morons who seriously need to Get a Life.
The key to surviving in any fandom is to find a group of people who, even if they don't necessarily agree, are at least mature enough to handle disagreement sensibly. This can be difficult if a large percentage of your fandom is hormonally crazed and/or ON CRACK, but with a little searching and effort, it can be done. Then you stick with the sane people and ignore all the other stuff.
See? Much better.
No, this rant was not inspired by HP fandom. Though you can apply it there too if you like.
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Date: 2004-11-16 02:43 am (UTC)The problem is... it isn't even that simple. Because you can't always say "Oh, that's your interpretation and that's fine for you." Otherwise Paul wouldn't have gotten so stroppy about the fellows who said that you couldn't be a Christian unless you were circumcised -- and he was very eloquent about how wrong they were. There is such a thing as truth, and there are such things as heresies. There a need for a balance between both extremes, between a relaxed attitude towards differing interpretations, and a strong attitude towards things that are Just Plain Wrong. And of course, the mess arises because we can't all agree on where the borders are. Though I would think that the Creeds are a good model for That Which Is Important For Salvation, and everything else, while still important, isn't worth fighting over.