Toxic Fandom Destroyed Star Wars

I need to start this piece with two separate announcements:

For all of the years I can remember, I have been a fan of Star Wars.  I have lived, eaten, and breathed a life in a galaxy far, far away that was not my own.

And after the events of this year, alone, I have to say that I can no longer be a part of the fandom which surrounds it.

What I have seen, what has been said, what has been posted, and what has occurred just within the small corner of the internet that I swim about in has been heinous, to say the least.  As a person who is attempting to make his way in the world of content creation, watching how utterly horrific this ‘fandom’ has been to everyone involved with providing them content has been downright terrifying.  It is a direct result of a problem which seems to be growing with time and awareness, and that problem is Toxic Fandoms.

In my mind, and within the smaller context of my interactions with content creators and those involved in social media as a function of their business, there are two main players which have enabled the disgusting acts of late: Internet communities and Social Media.

Now.  Lets get something straight: neither of the two things mentioned above are inherently evil.  I’m not a troglodyte, yelling on my website at the passing children to get off my digital lawn.  I have been a part of several such communities through the years, meeting some men and women that I count as my deepest friends while cruising those locales.  You don’t have to twirl a pencil mustache and have an evil laugh to sign up for such things, and eventually I wish to create my own set of forums to act as another positive community people of like minds and hobbies can flock to.

And that brings us to the real, and sharpest, downside of internet communities.  You can build them, and like-minded people will be attracted to them.  When what you want is an opportunity to give fans a chance to write stories about their favorite stories it can be a thing of wonder.  Some of my favorite works of fan fiction have been set in the Harry Potter universe, and have been thrilling to read.  Sometimes though… you get 4chan.

Men and women, regardless of the time period or the technology, have always had the potential to ‘troll’ those whose creations they did not enjoy.  Heckling, nay-saying, negative criticism; none of this is new.  But the internet gave birth to something which has enabled the deepest, darkest nature of individuals whose mind caters towards humanities lesser aspects:  A cloak of anonymity to hide behind when they say disgusting things.

To be crass, this effect has been best personified by the wonderful men and women of Penny Arcade.  I present to you – John Gabriel’s Internet Theory.  (Naughty Word Warning)

Internet message boards ruined the entire lives of a majority of the actors from Star Wars Episodes I to III.

Jake Lloyd, the young child who portrayed Anakin in Episode I?  The constant, ceaseless derision of anonymous fans who were given the freedom to lob hate bombs in his direction turned his life into a Werner Herzog film.

Jar-Jar Binks, that lightning rod of every vile comment imaginable?  Ahmed Best, the actor who portrayed him, almost couldn’t handle the nightmare his life had become, and very nearly lost his life to depression.

Hayden Christensen, the actor who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II and III, was so repulsed by over a decade of death threats, repeated calls for him to kill himself, and just general toxicity from fans that he retired from acting entirely.

While I did not enjoy the Prequels, and indeed the more time that goes by the more I disagree with the artistic choices that George Lucas made and how he controlled his projects, I also make things now.  Not everything that is created ages well.  You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to have duds.  Everyone (with rare exception) has a work or two or five which are just downright awful.  BUT, and I cannot emphasis this next bit enough, when it comes to criticism you must focus on attack the work and not the person.

Attacking the flaws in the script, editing, pacing, and acting choices?  Those are you engaging with the material and finding where things could’ve been improved.  Death threats, calls for suicide, repeated statements about how awful someone is as a human rather than statements with regards to the film?  That’s just harassment.  It’s not love.  It’s not being a fan.

It’s just being a dick.

Then… oh man does it get worse.  Then we got social media.

You see, the internet, for the most part, does not come to your door.  You navigate it one page at a time, or sixteen tabs a time if you’re me but I digress.  You can filter your own results, in effect, by choosing to ignore certain sites.  Remember 4chan?  Yeah, never been, never gonna go.  Reddit threads where my exploits will be thoroughly shredded by men and women unwilling to risk exposure to criticism for their own work?  Pass.  So while the trolls can lob grenades in a bottle at their intended target, they’re still something that can be avoided and mitigated.

And then we got social media.  Oh, what a time to be alive.  1984 gave us such frightening ideas of what our lives would be like if we were under constant surveillance.  Then Facebook taught all of us that we don’t care if everyone knows our deepest darkest secrets, so long as we get some likes and smiley faces.  Ever wonder what your friend is eating?  I almost guarantee you there is a picture of it somewhere that you can find with minimal effort.  Instagram means that no meal is left behind.  No meal is forgotten.

And, at long last, the trolls were armed.  Weaponized tom-foolery was the order of the day.  Cyber bullying and harassment on levels heretofore unknowable have become commonplace.  People all the way up to the President utilize social media to bludgeon others, to gas-light them, and to engage in vicious attacks that would mandate physical retaliation should they ever be uttered.  And yet… it’s still anonymous.  Sure, you ‘might’ have a photo, and you ‘kinda’ have a name, and there’s ‘sorta’ an origination point you can call to task for the foulness?  But the deluge is so unceasing, so infinite in scope and volume, that checks against individual attacks may as well not exist.

This is the real sticking point, because I can’t selectively filter things out in the way I could before.  I would avoid social media, but I can’t.  I’m an author, and being an author in ye olde 2018 means that social media is a tool that I must use.  Asking an aspiring author not to leverage social media in 2018 is like asking a blacksmith to craft a suit of armor using nothing but a brick and a zippo.  Sure, if he or she is good enough they can get the job done but whyyyyyyyyyyyy.

So when I see all these things happen, when I see Star Wars actors so thoroughly harassed by the men and women who are supposed to be their staunchest allies, it frightens me.  I’ve got nothing compared to these people, and they are forced to run from their fans!!

I will take the steps I can, I will do the things I may to mitigate the damage.  But it’s not all on me.  It’s not all something that I can control.  I have loved Star Wars for almost as long as there has been a stream of consciousness referring to itself as Justin Wallace.  That I am forced to step away, that I must take extreme measures to disassociate myself from the crowd of my ‘fellow fans’ is something I could’ve never imagined being necessary.

Mournfully,

Justin Wallace