Thread by @jessiegender

So I need to say this. People are asking me if Star Trek Strange New Worlds or a new Doctor Who show runner will “unite” those splintered fandoms. While certainly new directions can be interesting and positive- (1/9)

the creators who express only anger at these franchises on platforms like YouTube will never admit anything from a long running franchise that they’ve been yelling about for years is good. They literally can’t. (2/9)

Their entire brand is built upon stoking hatred and hate. Their goal is to weaponize nostalgia that some folks feel as they see their fav franchises not being the same anymore or (3/9)

the sense of disenfranchisement that some mostly cis straight white dudes feel at other minorities being represented in a franchise that typically only centered them. They do this in order to gain attention, power and money. It is the entire point. (4/9)

This fandom grift has played out over & over again since gamergate. People take advantage of & fuel misdirected rage for their own benefit. Hell, Steve Bannon literally used this cycle during gamegate to fuel his own rise to power & politicians have done this for decades. (5/9)

And now fandom creators recognize this dynamic and use it.
Hell we can even see this alliance between this grift and the right wing, given they conservative host Alex Jones literally did a livestream with several of these creators literally YESTERDAY. (6/9)

I have always said, it is ok to dislike a direction of a fav franchise & critique/stop watching it. It’s ok to be frustrated. While I like current Trek, I have issues with the direction of things like Doctor Who or Star Wars. But these can & need to be done in good faith (7/9)

And I also wish to point out that not everyone watching these toxic creators is bad or is wrong for doing so. Again, the point of these creators is to obfuscate their intentions. They take advantage of real and legit feelings people feel but direct it in harmful ways. (8/9)

But these grifters have 0 interest in good faith. Just recycled critiques of SJWs/forced diversity that touch upon real issues but don’t understand or desire to the history, context or substance of them. It’s all about attention, money and power by fueling hatred to get it (9/9)

This all being said, I should say I am very excited for both Trek and Doctor Who. I find all art interesting, even if I don’t like it. I like discussing why something works or why it doesn’t. It like the conversation. And there’s always something to love here or elsewhere.

This isn’t to say that I don’t want franchises I love to be good, but art is a continuum. It’s not static, and art that survives tries new things, takes risks, and enables discussion. If art does that, even if it doesn’t always work, I’m always excited to discuss it,

FYI note on this on the first tweet, I meant the interior fandoms of Trek and Doctor Who, not the joining of trek and Doctor Who fandoms together.