So, I have gotten to view two groups of people, and I must say, this observation period has been interesting. The first group of people are the Ron Paulites. They are members of the Cult of Ron Paul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYaujnR_8NE&feature=colike). These are people who believe that Ron Paul is the glorious savior of America, and how he is some kind of glorious messiah character, and how he is going to make everything all better. The next group are the Twilight series fans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gpHK5orJQ&feature=colike). These are people who believe that the Twilight books are all wonderful and beautiful, and how they are so poignant and deep. They also love the films too.
I have observed and almost eerie creepy devotion that these people have to these two characters. For real, check out the videos above, specifically the Comments section. The supporters come out of the woodwork, giving thumbs-down and massive amounts of lambasting to both the vloggers who talked about both of these groups. The guy attacking Ron Paul, my favorite vlogger, TJ Kincaid, pointed out that absolute truth – that while Ron Paul has a couple of good ideas, he has some incredibly bad ones, and whenever you call him to task on it, his supporters will attack you without remorse.
Laci Green attacked Twilight in her video, pointing out that Edward was an abusive asshole, and Bella was a complete doormat. The abusive relationship between the two of them is something that a Mormon moron endorsed, without thinking that the media that young girls take in affects them. Any media that anybody takes in affects them. Of course, since Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon, maybe that is what she wants. The Mormon faith is scum anyway.
It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy how quickly the apologetics came out and defended this. And what I find interesting is that the tactics that both sides used were almost the same! Both sides accused both vloggers of taking things out of context. They accused them of not being fair to their respective heroes. They accused them of not giving them a chance. It is almost eerie how similar the arguments were, at their core.
See, with both groups, the people who are so massively in support of them seem to wear blinders. They see only what they want to see, and to hell with everything else. The Paulites will see Ron Paul talking about liberty and freedom, while ignoring that his economic ideas (like bringing back the Gold Standard) would bring our nation to ruin, and he basically wants to strip women of their reproductive rights. And the Twilight fans will totally ignore the fact that Edward was clearly and abuser and say that he loved her. Yes, because love always made abuse, acceptable, right?
This is so humorous, because it shows you that the more things change, the more they stay the same. These two groups both have a fanbase that is so loyal that any statements that they don’t agree with, they just put out of their minds. It is funny, and tragic at the same time, because it is kind of making the point that people are weak. That isn’t something that we should be talking about. Not really.
Oh well, in the end, that is how it goes. Funny, no?
Until next time, a quote,
“…And is essentially ‘it’s a life! Can’t you all people see it’s a life?!’ Yeah, the same argument that’s been made by literally every pro-lifer since pro-lifers began, but now, because Ron Paul said it, ‘That’s very persuasive! Yeah, I see what he’s getting at!’” -TJ Kincaid, CULT of Ron Paul
Peace out,
Maverick
Definitely agreed. It’s something I notice with everything people like a lot, from games over books to prominent figures. You’ve touched on the topic before with your Mother Theresa example, that’s pretty much the kind of thing you get when you criticise anything others might have liked a lot more than you have. I notice it on reviews on amazon.com, especially on a mainstream product that has a large fanbase. All the reviews criticising it get raped with thumbs down ratings and insipid, two word comments by people who give the product a 5 star rating get thumbed up by the fanbase.
I suppose it’s this general idea that – I noticed males have this more than females – “if I really like something, that means it must be really good”. They won’t settle for a “it might be crap, but at least it’s crap I like”, no, the product / whatever it is must be all-around fantastic, *or they wouldn’t like it in the first place*. This leads to what you referred to as blinders, and lame apologetics. I don’t have a problem whatsoever accepting that sometimes, I have a trashy taste, I like things or characters that have their cheap and trashy sides, and I’m not ashamed to admit to it. My penis won’t shrink by an inch because I openly admit to liking trash sometimes, or admitting to the fact that sometimes, I like elements in a story that others would consider cheap, trashy and lame. Seems like it hurts many others to admit the same thing to themselves. Guess the taste in things that people have are used by some in an attempt to “upgrade themselves”, they like to think they’re personified sophistication by liking certain things, apologetics pre-programmed.
We all have guilty pleasures. I loved the Alien vs. Predator movies, both of them. But yeah, people need to not get so screwed into a way of thinking that all perspectives get formed into a line that is moving straight.