Before he was driven into soft exile from every major streaming platform, the internet’s court jester Mister Metokur declared that the typical YouTuber’s career lasts roughly five years. Happily, that window is closing on one of the more odious byproducts of Hollywood’s fealty to the Death Cult–nerd culture outrage channels.
For those who’ve had better things to do, the past few years have seen the rise of YouTube accounts dedicated to obsessively nitpicking the manner in which the Cult manages pop culture’s collapse. Watch any episode of a Pop Cult outrage channel, and you’ll soon hear the hosts beating their chests about fighting Walt Disney Studios or DC Comics. A quick glance at said channel’s video backlog reveals that if Disney went bankrupt, the guys supposedly fighting them would wind up in the welfare line.
It’s a dynamic the nerd rage merchants share with big lobbying groups. One reason infanticide remains legal is because the heads of the pro-life movement would have to get real jobs if Roe v Wade were overturned.
You’ve got to credit the Pop Cultists with picking a time-honored and reliable grift:
- Find a problem that will never be solved.
- Con people into giving you money and attention to solve the problem.
- Repeat.
The takeaway: Never trust anyone whose income depends on the problem you’re paying him to solve.
The internet got a sharp reminder of this lesson yesterday when Zack Snyder went on a charity stream and delivered a ritual condemnation of some YouTube nerds who’d previously feted him.
Now, it’s not entirely fair to fault the nerds in question for thinking Snyder was their guy. He’s been a notorious hack for years. That’s no insult. Hacks abide by a profit motive. We could honestly use a lot more of them in Hollywood.
What wasn’t clear until the fateful stream was that Snyder has now submitted to the Death Cult. He announced his conversion with all the subtlety of his direction style, too–smearing a bunch of geeks raising money for suicide prevention as a hate group and taking his turn in the limelight to bandy his kids about as diversity props.
Surprisingly–who am I kidding? This kind of pathetic behavior is all too familiar by now–many of the rage nerds refuse to release their clammy grip on long-dead IPs.
One of my esteemed Twitter mutuals aptly diagnosed this loathsome behavior as, “Abusive parasocial relationship with childhood fantasy products bordering on sexual dysfunction.”
Star Wars is dead. Marvel and DC Comics are dead. Nor are they coming back. The Death Cult clings greedily to its conquests.
Good riddance. A legion of indie creators are consistently producing work that’s far superior to anything that’s come out of Hollywood or New York in years.
Take action that will make a real difference. Support indie science fiction.
I'm glad I cut my exposure to Hollywood a few years ago. I'd rather just read public domain stuff and listen to retrieve than see another cape flick. One that is FOUR HOURS LONG.
Yeah I am never going back. I'm doing the same for triple A video games as well. If you have Doomguy killing God (see the ending of the Doom Eternal dlc) then I don't want anything more to do with the franchise.
I just read what happens in the ending and it confirms what I've been saying for years. Some things really shouldn't have lore or stories. What a jumbled mess of gnostic nonsense that completely misses the appeal of the original simple concept.
What's funny is that I used to cling to these IPs, and now that I've let go, I find it harder and harder to understand people who are just like I was a few years ago.
None of the creators of the good IPs are still making them, and there are only two things separating the new stuff from fanfiction: 1) They can sue people who write competing fanfiction and 2) fanfiction is written by fans.
What we're seeing now is like if I paid millions of dollars to Elton John, and then everybody talked about me (positive or negative) like I had written Candle in the Wind and the Lion King soundtrack.
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I can think of a handful of IPs where the creators are still involved, but they're all Japanese video game franchises.
I have no objections to derivative works as such–some of them, like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Zahn's Star Wars work, can be on par with or surpass the originals. But I've grown out of caring about 'canon' beyond the creator's intentions, and the stuff being produced now doesn't merit attention.
I understand people being upset back in 2016 or so when the woke crap was more subtle, but it's been half a decade.
The only reason you wouldn't be able to understand it by now is if you either have never been paying attention or are actually a cult member.
Normal people stopped caring about these franchises years ago.
Are we due for a sequel to Cultural Ground Zero about the Rise of the Antifranchises? The mid-10s seem to have been the turning point for any number of franchises. Dungeons & Dragons died for me over 2014-16, Star Wars 2015-17, Star Trek in 2017. Someone less withdrawn and insular than myself could probably trace many more to that same time period.
Star Trek died in 1994. Star Wars and D&D both died in 1997.
Two deaths there for some franchises, I think. The first was when the original went away (D&D died when 2nd edition mainlined house rules and took away Chainmail for mass combat).
A second death happens when entertaining knock-offs (2/3/4e, Star Trek: The Star Trek, LucasArts and the EU) get yanked for woke garbage. It's not as spectacular as the first death, but worth acknowledging.
Yes, what Malchus describes as the 'second death' is what I had in mind–the point where the corruption by the Death Cult becomes overt.
A further distinction might be drawn. For some properties, like D&D and LotR, it's almost entirely a foreign infection. For others, such as Star Trek and Star Wars, the infection's been latent from the start, but only metastasizes after a certain point, whether that be gradual corruption (Trek) or a crisis point (the acquisition of Star Wars by the Mouseferatu).
"Star Trek died in 1994." Not a fan of Deep Space Nine I take it.
It's not a matter of quality. DS9 differs so radically in terms of structure, theme, plot, character, and even world building from all prior Trek properties as to be a separate IP.
Take away TOS or TNG's Trek elements, and you have incoherent goo. Take away all of DS9's Trek elements, and you have a perfectly serviceable sci fi war drama.
Does that make DS9 the That Hideous Strength of Star Trek? 🙂
I never thought of it that way, but you are right. I guess that's why I like it. The farther away you get from Roddenberry's original naive vision the better.
I’d say I’m happy they’re going away but I know that more will just crop up and take their place
I haven't enjoyed a superhero flick since Burton's original Batman, so I've been waiting for this trend to die for a loooong time.
I'll admit I've tuned into anti-SJW grift channels. I've never given then money and reading this I wondered if I paid too much attention to them. Then I realized I only today heard of The Fandom Menace, so I might be okay.
We all tuned in ca. 2017-2018.
Then it became clear all the claims of fighting the system were just fast talk to push comics that never shipped.
The Fanatic Menace has deserved this for years. It's been five years since the first Disney fanfic SW movie (which most of these conmen will tell you they liked, by the way) and yet they are still beating the drum about how they will get the correct product they want to consume and will force the propaganda factory to press the discs for them.
Meanwhile when there are creators out there trying something new they go completely ignored by these grift channels. Not only that, but they put out whole crowdfunded books about their unhealthy obsessions instead.
It's a spiritual sickness that can only be treated, not satiated with material things.
As I've said, there is no more excuse. If you're still invested in the grift after this then there is no helping you. You are too deep in the rabbit hole to drag out.
I think their response to the whole Snyder ordeal is highly telling. Basically it comes down to "look how diverse and un-rightwing we are. Please let us have a seat at the table."
Fuck em
The crowdfunders run by pros who got drummed out of the industry are a huge tell. Those guys know that even a 7-figure Kickstarter isn't enough to challenge the studios or the Big Two. Their parent companies make more than that in interest.
The exiled pro ringleaders made the perennial Conservative mistake of ascribing a profit motive to the Death Cult. They thought proving they're still bankable would get then invited back in.
That gambit's failed and they know it, so they've devolved to petty infighting for dollars.
Saw a review of the Monster Hunter movie on Amazon that encapsulated the pop cult mindset. It was basically a rant against other reviews, saying that if this movie got bad reviews then corporations wouldn't make video game adaptations anymore. Just grovel to your corporate masters in the hopes that they'll make another schlock film with your favorite IP name attached.
Cargo cult confirmed.
At least cargo cults started when the Navy dropped them useful material goods like cans of corned beef and blankets instead of shitty movies insulting them
The best part of the review was that the guy writing it admitted to not being a Monster Hunter fan. So there was absolutely no benefit to him in the movie being a Monster Hunter movie, as opposed to Generic Milla Jovovich Action Vehicle #17. It was entirely a ritual act of support for the idea of a video game movie.
I didn’t think it could get any sadder but here we are
"Never trust anyone whose income depends on the problem you're paying him to solve."
This is one reason why the National Rifle Association – particularly the ILA and the "Political Victory Fund" – is a waste of time and money, and has been for years. They always led from behind, because they had more to gain by pretending to defend RKBA than actually doing so. They did that for so long that RKBA is irrelevant, because the BoR is irrelevant, because the Republic is dead.
There's a NRA member card in my wallet. I can't decide whether it belongs in the lock box with my passports from childhood and my expired driver's licenses, or in the trash. Probably the lock box, because the membership I have now was a gift from my Dad. I haven't sent them a dime in years.
The same goes for pretty much any lobby.
The parts of the prolife movement that are succeeding do their work with prayer and fasting and as direct, personal ministry to women and families in crisis.
^Truth
Abby Johnson, former PP director (now leading Pro-Life advocate), said that the days abortions went down the most were when people were quietly and peacefully praying outside, not when they were yelling and waving signs.
Failure to define concrete victory conditions is exactly why the pro-life movement failed.
Abortion numbers going down is not a political goal. Quietly praying and fasting at home is not political action.
That's not to say people shouldn't pray and fast. It is to say if that's your sole strategy, you need to stop wasting time and money pretending you're a political movement.
I used to adore SW back in the 90s, mostly because of the videogames. Then the prequels came out and I stopped caring about SW. Never bothered with the new stuff. Watched 3 episodes of Mando and lost interest. But I am an avid fan of the new Galactic Fantasy genre that indie writers have invented. Magic in space? I can't get enough. Giant robots? Space mages? Space dragons? Spaceships that shoot magic? Spaceships engraved with magic runes? I want ALL OF IT. I plan to write it once I get enough of it into my brain. Have to finish my superhero series, though. Currently got 8 books under my belt and I'm looking at at least 2 more to finish this story arc. I love being indie.
I enjoyed this video about Sorcese calling modern movies theme-park rides: https://youtu.be/VI9RSlHqu-w at 7:20, he alludes to the Pop Cult.
Good find.