The kitty be sprawled
One of the only thing the 2000s had going for it was the mythbusters. Those dudes ruled, nobody hated the mythbusters, I mean they hated each other but nobody else hated the mythbusters
An entire generation of scientists, engineers, and psychos with access to amphetamines owe so much to them
Sorry prev, but your tags were good and I felt like everyone should get to read them
This post pissed me off so bad earlier because it made me realize I know enough about My Little Pony to disagree with it. And I hate knowing that about myself
I think so much of the outlook over fandom would change if many people treated it like it is: a goddamn hobby.
A fandom group is no better nor more revolutionary than a knitting club. It can replicate any real world biases and discriminations and it can also be used to raise money/group people towards causes. It can foster connections that will turn to actual real political action or it can just be a gathering of people who don't know much about each other outside of it.
It can be lovely to experience when you're surrounded by a lovely group and it can be hell when the group is full of cattiness and pettiness . It can be inclusive or it can be exclusive when you're surrounded by bigotry.
Because it's a group of people - it's going to have problems. And when there's a conflict or people are pointing shit out, it needs to be solved so its members aren't spit out in the sake of "avoiding drama". Because it's a group of people, it's not automatically changing the world in a blaze of self grandeur. Because it's a group of people with a common hobby, it can impact its members lives for the better and give them a space to express themselves.
Fandom is a goddamn knitting club. It's not this inherent great, subversive force of good nor this den of evil that's traumatisizing the children. Chill out.
I would point out that some of the worst online conflicts have occurred in knitting groups, and also, women were knitting in front of the guillotines in the French Revolution.
I think the OP vastly underrates the potential for revolution in fandom and in knitting groups :)
Aight, I woke up with no patience today so here we go.
With this post I am NOT saying knitting groups are some peaceful places where no conflict happens or that a gathering of people can't be a force of good. I say that, explicitly, multiple times in the post. Please do read.
What I meant with the original comparisom is: nobody, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY joins a knitting group expecting to solve imperialism. You do because it's a fun hobby. That's it.
Can this group of people who came togheter for a hobby end up organising to solve a problem in their community? For sure. Is this expected or required? Fuck no. Do people look at the grandmas knitting in the corner and go 'damn, nona, why aren't you solving world hunger instead of discussing patterns'? NO. Because IT'S A HOBBY. It'd be silly and plain performative to expect otherwise.
I cannot stress this enough as a Latin American person from the Global South: y'all first worlders are obsessed with consumer activism and the idea that you, individual, can solve the problem's aches on your own. You're constantly thinking about the big fucking picture and it constantly shows how many of yall don't have a tradition of collectivism and local activism. And because you don't know how the fuck people do activism, you think activism it's some kind of funky identity that must show in everything you consume, including fandom. You think changing the world is some painful, glorious thing and your hobbies should reflect that. They don't.
Let me tell you the secret to activism. Find a concrete, small material need in your community, find a group of people who also wanna solve it. Then try. It won't be glorious, it won't be easy. It's slow, steady, boring material help. Ant work.
Sometimes it's difficult to balance the work with everyday life so you may bow out for a bit then come back. That's how it goes.
I'm not underestimating the power of change (or chaos) a group of people can have. It's collectives, groups of people, united to solve concrete material problems what helps. I'm just saying: nobody expects fandom to solve, idk, lead poisoning just as nobody expects a knitting group to solve british neocolonisation.