... because it takes a lot of love to heal a little hate.
On Twitter today, Kristina and Luke were talking about mean Nerdfighters, which is literally an oxymoron. However, some Nerdpretenders (as I will now refer to them) infiltrated nerdfightersecrets.com (which I had never heard of until 10 minutes ago).
This site is a breeding ground for teenagy angst, and I HATE things like it. Sure there is the occassional (perhaps even frequent) kind, nice post. But the idea of anonymity just asks for people to be mean.
One Nerdpretender blatantly stated that they thought that Dan Brown and Kristina were assholes. Thank you for your profound words. The world is so much better off now that you have shared your wisdom. What did you gain from this? I refuse to believe that you feel a sense of relief getting that off your chest.
What I want to know is what they must think of this community. In their hateful minds, are we in gradeschool? Because that is what this reminds me of; the pettiness of people and their desire to make others feel bad for their own "benefit." If someone bothers you, just don't subscribe to their YouTube or Twitter! That is the beauty of the internet. You only have to deal with people that you like.
Dear Kristina, Dan, or anyone else who reads this: these people are not real Nerdfighters. Real Nerdfighters are made of awesome, and more importantly, love. These people still have a way to go before they can call themselves Nerdfighters and partake in the wonderful things that our community can do. There are so many people out there that you have inspired, and it is a shame that hate is so much more permeating than love. Because there is so much love for you in our fandom. Please remember that.
With lots of love,
Maggie
Something I learned today: We are starting The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare.
Amen. Nerdfighters are all about love and acceptance... without that you can't be a real Nerdfighter. I mean, nobody's perfect obviously, but making an effort to be nice, awesome individuals is what makes life jokes.
ReplyDelete(I totally did not know about Nerdfighter Secrets until five seconds ago when I read this... so yeah)
Sometimes the Nerdfight secrets are so sad. I've been following the tumblr for a while and I just wanted to hug everyone.
ReplyDeleteNerdfighters are about the difference we all have and when decepticons come in and ruin it for us, it just makes us a stronger unit I think.
I dislike Nerdfightersecrets, don't get me wrong, and I haven't perused it in quite a while... but the few I saw, that weren't hateful, just seemed really sad and depressing to me. And those feelings are valid, I think, but--maybe these "nerdfighters" aren't talking to the right people. I know I've felt depressed in that way a few times, but especially recently upon forging friendships with more nerdfighters, this isn't an issue. Maybe they're lonely. I kind of feel like by shunning these "nerdfighters" we're being hypocritical. Which isn't to say they aren't annoying or depressing or whatever, but really: I think it'd be better to try to be productive about it and befriend them than judge. Maybe they don't know. Maybe they're having a bad day.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm babbling. Your point is valid, these are just thoughts. Rereading your post I realize *I* might be misinterpreting, as you're addressing those who are mean about Dan/Kristina/etc. This I do not like--some YouTubers I don't like, and the thing to do about that is (gasp!) not subscribe. Some people you won't jive with, whether you know them or not.
I'm sorry for this mess of a comment. <3
I discovered nerdfightersecrets yesterday as well, and it made me very sad. Mostly, it reminded me of everything I hate about the internet: when people are anonymous, they think they can say whatever they want. That's what I love so much about Nerdfighteria.
ReplyDeleteAn internet community where everyone is loving and supportive??? Wow.
If it was another community that spawned this, I might not be upset. But all of those things were secrets that those people kept so that they would "fit in". Nerdfighteria is all about accepting people for who they are, whether they are depressed or have low self-esteem or don't like Dr. Who. If you can't be yourself in Nerdfighteria, where can you be yourself?
For instance, in all honesty, I don't love Dan Brown. I wouldn't go so far as to call him an asshole, but I just haven't ever been able to get into his videos. But I feel comfortable saying that because, even though most of Nerdfighteria likes him, Nerdfighters are an accepting group of people. It isn't a club- there isn't a yearly quota of wrock albums bought or Star Trek episodes watched that I'm aware of.
It's about loving an accepting one another for who we all are. If you don't like Kristina Horner, who cares? You're still a Nerdfighter. But if you're going to be blatantly rude about it, you obviously never were a Nerdfighter in the first place.
So, this comment is longer than half of my blog posts, but I just felt like getting all of this out. I'm glad someone else felt the way I did when I found that site.