Revenge on the Nerds! Toxicity in Geek Culture.

So it's October the "official " start of Autumn, and a great time to watch scary movies or play horror themed videogames. But October also signifies the month of Breast cancer awareness and Bully prevention month.  The latter is unfortunately overlooked by most people, when it is just as  important as a Spooky holiday or acknowledging one of the worst forms of illness. Bullying is a mental illness and is deserving of recognition. It affects one's mental and emotional development, causing toxicity to both the victim as well as his or her perpetrator.

In a perfect world, no one should be persecuted because of their interests in cinema, comics or even other hobbies that don't fit the status quo. However,  times have changed from the early Eighties as more and more people are unabashedly celebrating Geek Culture!

But unfortunately, it's now the Geeks themselves who  once were picked on, have now become the oppressors thanks to the advent of the internet.

You see people harassing others on fan sites, chat rooms and  making racist comments during Call if Duty deathmatches for no reason other than being some backwater, belligerent asshole! The toxic spillage of course, finds its way on social media,  but for the most part, its either political or racial affiliations.

Just look at all the vitriol behind the latest Star Wars trilogy! Sure the movies sucked, but the fault therein lies with JJ Abrams' poor direction, storyline, character arcs, and not the ethnicity nor gender of the characters themselves.

Slso, when it comes to pop culture sites, you would think there would be some common ground or happy medium between geeks but noooooo! A normal conversation can  turn to an  ugly, shouting match, real fast!

You have a collective bunch of mostly your typical White Angry Males (WAM?)who would personally insult you over a movie you dislike, or even those who find themselves within an enclave of bigots, enablers and various dweeb trolls under the guise of a " Movie site"  be it your Reddit, 4Chans or Comment threads, where the toxicity is not limited to the butthurt bigots, but annoying SJWs, who in certain ways, are no different from the jerks I previously mentioned!

I have practically seen it all since the early days of Aint it Cool News, where the forum threads was notorious for trolls going at it. If it wasn't "passionate " debates about polarizing films like Avatar,  one of the content contributors Hercules,  would  further exacerbate or rather  instigate things when bringing up politics.Then came the Disqus commenting system that allowed people to harass by downvoting anonymously. That is, until I had something to say about it.

AICN served as a preparation of what is yet to come as I have witnessed several Geek Culture  sites be it Talkbacker, Supernaughts and the very short-lived Pop Axis  go down in flames  that stemmed from infighting and collective egos going at it like the Deceptions on-board Astro Train! You know, that  hilarious scene from Transformers the Movie?

Pop Axis was a short lived effort continuation of SN, but immediately folded thanks to a Whistleblower who exposed its founders of impersonating or rather parodying one of our friends, who didn't take the abuse too kindly. 

You had a few shit stirrers who would cause all sorts of trouble, but In the end, they are either praised or someone dedicates a thread eulogizing a deceased troublemaker.

One idiot went as far as flipping the script by defending a bully, while trashing my site. Then again, this guy was always a hater who even bashed another pop culture site, when it was gaining more traction than the Supernaughts.

A friend at the time, developed his own site, "The Man who saved Movies" that started out as a one man operation. It mostly consisted of reviewing films both new and old.

The owner had an unbridled passion for cinema and it shows from his writing. I would like to believe that he was inspired by our tenor at the Supernaughts but that may be too presumptuous of me.

TMWSM was doing great until one big troublemaker caused problems to the extent of the site being shut down.

The irony of it all, is how this instigator created his own site and pissed so many of his contributors off, that there was a mass exodus leaving behind one or two who would publish something at Film Goblin.

As with most of these comment threads you have your usual bunch of incel losers albeit wash women, who gather around and make racist comments or fun of others especially when they think no one's  looking. If it wasn't any of those Dojos its other shitpost forums, that reeks of "scum and villainy".

Then there's the sanctimonious Social Justice  Warrior bullshit  from BirthMoviesDeath, where normal disclosure at times can lead to discord. Have an opinion that doesn't sit well with a few idiots, and *snikt*, the claws pop out from the wannabe keyboard crusaders if not one or two contributors, picking a fight.

And here is where things really became problematic. I was a frequent commenter at the BMD threads, prior to that, AICN and it was the best of times and the goddamn worst of times! The last straw was in March when Evan Stanhoff  announced that Birth Movies Death and Fangoria found a new buyer after Alamo Drafthouse went under due to Covid 19. While everyone was enlightened over the good news, one forum poster who was furloughed, made angry remarks aimed directly toward the sitting President and those who support him.

A certain Editor in Chief,  took umbrage of the poster comparing the POTUS to a borderline terrorist with down syndrome and banned him for it.

"BMD is a party. This is our house. The commentariat are our guests. If someone came into my house saying some shit I didn't approve of, I'd give 'em one shot at rectifying their behavior. And if said person wanted to argue the point with me, the homeowner, I'd throw them the fuck out of my house, because I want to keep the party going and not infringe upon the good time my other guests are having.

Therefore: if I ask you to stop doing a thing and you aren't willing to listen, you're leaving. If you don't like that policy, well, I'm sure plenty of other parties would love to have you."

And the rest is history,  so was Birth Movies Death, A House where no guests were really allowed.

Now that was an odd course of action considering that BMD's founder was accused of sexual assault and I'm 100 percent certain that his staff was more than aware of it, but never walked out or at least called him out for it.

I remember making light  of Faraci's  scandal at the BMD threads and as predicted,  the rabid  keyboard warriors formed like Voltron and went at me as in "Fuck you motherfucker " and other belligerent comments.

So, I went back to those clowns at BMD, and it must've really hurt because Evan banned me.  I laughed my ass off because I triggered a bunch of idiots who defended Faraci.

These dweebs would again,NEVER say those things to me in person! One tried to go at me at some loading dock and let's just say, how "humbled " he became after the incident. 👊😎

Two or three months after the announcement of Birth Movies Death's new ownership, it's deja vu all over again as another scandal broke! It seems as if the CEO of Cinestate the company that bought both Fangoria and BirthMoviesDeath was exposed as a serial rapist and abuser, forcing the staff from both sites to quit leaving BMD an empty husk or shadow of its former self.

Fast forward to today, where I was accused of " bullying" because some poster in the forums, didn't appreciate me calling out EIC Scott Wampler after he was exposed for wishing BMD did not have a comments thread. So what does this  dweeb does instead of having a civil debate? He downvoted me and my friends on more than four occasions! What's funny is how he thought it was under Disqus' anonymous downvoting system. He exposed himself and got clowned for it.

This is an old tactic to deflect from their own accountability or lack thereof. The moral of this tale is "don't start none, and there won't be none"!

Look, I despise bullies and never tolerate that kind of behavior whether it's online or offline and

I equally despise the narcissism and hypocrisy they use as this defense mechanism when called out .You can't cry wolf when you're committing the same acts to harm others.

The internet has become this standard-bearer when it comes to embolden pathetic individuals to spew all kinds of vile posts or emails that would for the most part, would not say these things in your face because, "repercussions "!

In layman's  terms, would beat the breaks off those punks!

Nerds/Geeks are a subset of an  ostracized group however, when some reach the high ground, be it a politician or even supervisor at work, there is abuse of  authority against others. This is not a blatant sentiment nor speculation just the facts as History has often proved.

And while some have said that it's not about groups but "people",  in response to that, I guess people suck!Would it justify one to be misanthropic or highly cynical? In some ways, yes! However,  there are a lot of honorable individuals from all backgrounds, oppressed or no, that have stepped up against bigotry, harassment or unjust trolling.

the cowardice and ignorance of Toxic Nerdom, stems from the "bad ol days" of being bullied in High School and that's why they vent their personal frustrations onto others, but with "convenience ". While there's no proper way to avoid being harassed by a troll, there is the option of the block or report abuse button. Me, I rather ostracize them all together like I have done in the past. But not without a few "parting shots"! 😉

I think most of these keyboard clowns are single and lonely.

I mean, god forbid if they should procreate!