I'm currently obsessing over how the way ideology adherents in general exhibit exactly the unhealthy thought patterns for which CBT was designed to address.
I think that politics is sometimes not a fandom because fandoms are quite obssessional over "the thing in itself" (i.e. the particular), for instance being in the BBC Sherlock fandom means not caring at all about the other Sherlock Holmes TV shows, or even necessarily Benedict Cumberbatch, or British culture, or any other "universal" or "category", but instead caring very intently and seriously about the particular concrescence of all these things into this one show.
Whereas, in politics, its often the opposite. Party politics is the key example. It doesn't matter to the Democratic base in the general for instance, whether the candidate (the particular) is Bernie, Hillary, Biden, Kamala, Yang, or whoever - they will always vote Democrat (the universal). The particular is disposable but the universal is essential.
- Maybe it becomes a stand-in for other kinds of identification/culture, if not fandom necessarily. Though I do think you can be a "DNC-head" or something. But it's a different texture even when that's true, I agree. The keyed in interest isn't there, just the mindset that "This is the way it is."
Also you have to distinguish between mass politics which often is personality centric and is essentially watching your political avatar engage in ritual verbal combat with the political avatar of your most hated neighbor versus power politics which is when the 6 people in the DNC with actual authority throw the kill switch and your political avatar (Bernie) falls through a trap door.
An aside, writing this I had the thought ... it feels wrong to call it "anime fandom" or "furry fandom" for the reason you cite. When is something a fandom and when is it a community or a hobby?
I think fandom implies passivity and appreciation whereas community and hobby stuff begins when you do stuff. You're in the furry fandom if you read furry zines. You're in the furry community or in the habit of being a furry if you go to a furry convention or make a fursona.
Also we're coming at this way after the fact - the people who introduced the word fandom didn't sit down beforehand and make a committee to design it's exact meaning. We're trying to account for how very different people use the same word, which is a waste of time except that it sometimes makes you think a lil bit
I think fandom is nothing other than "liking" which is really participating in only the shallow sense of feeling an emotion. Being merely in the fandom for Sherlock doesn't imply that you have any duties to other Sherlock fans whereas being in the Sherlock community means you do, I suppose
Not dumb at all, should have included it -- "Identity Workshop: Emergent Social and Psychological Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Reality" -- but she mentions it in a couple
If anybody else is trying to read the paper, the linked site didn't work for me. For some reason I had to search for the paper title, and then download the file from the search results.
I'm currently obsessing over how the way ideology adherents in general exhibit exactly the unhealthy thought patterns for which CBT was designed to address.
This is neither here nor there but tbh I doubt that my mom knows who Thiel is lol. Although maybe, due to his political entanglements? I should ask
Wow I have been blind to this. I mean I was aware of Musk fandom but I never thought there was a sincere Thielbuxx cult. Let me process this.
I use the Twitter inside baseball as a lens to learn about other concepts, I say, copingly
I (and others) have noticed that, as viral as many AI works get, none of them are political. Thoughts?
I think that politics is sometimes not a fandom because fandoms are quite obssessional over "the thing in itself" (i.e. the particular), for instance being in the BBC Sherlock fandom means not caring at all about the other Sherlock Holmes TV shows, or even necessarily Benedict Cumberbatch, or British culture, or any other "universal" or "category", but instead caring very intently and seriously about the particular concrescence of all these things into this one show.
Whereas, in politics, its often the opposite. Party politics is the key example. It doesn't matter to the Democratic base in the general for instance, whether the candidate (the particular) is Bernie, Hillary, Biden, Kamala, Yang, or whoever - they will always vote Democrat (the universal). The particular is disposable but the universal is essential.
That's a good point. Two thoughts:
- Maybe this only applies to the very online?
or, two,
- Maybe it becomes a stand-in for other kinds of identification/culture, if not fandom necessarily. Though I do think you can be a "DNC-head" or something. But it's a different texture even when that's true, I agree. The keyed in interest isn't there, just the mindset that "This is the way it is."
Also you have to distinguish between mass politics which often is personality centric and is essentially watching your political avatar engage in ritual verbal combat with the political avatar of your most hated neighbor versus power politics which is when the 6 people in the DNC with actual authority throw the kill switch and your political avatar (Bernie) falls through a trap door.
An aside, writing this I had the thought ... it feels wrong to call it "anime fandom" or "furry fandom" for the reason you cite. When is something a fandom and when is it a community or a hobby?
I think fandom implies passivity and appreciation whereas community and hobby stuff begins when you do stuff. You're in the furry fandom if you read furry zines. You're in the furry community or in the habit of being a furry if you go to a furry convention or make a fursona.
I disagree-- I think fandom per se is participatory, right?
Also we're coming at this way after the fact - the people who introduced the word fandom didn't sit down beforehand and make a committee to design it's exact meaning. We're trying to account for how very different people use the same word, which is a waste of time except that it sometimes makes you think a lil bit
Well..... I'm thinking here of Fan Studies
I think fandom is nothing other than "liking" which is really participating in only the shallow sense of feeling an emotion. Being merely in the fandom for Sherlock doesn't imply that you have any duties to other Sherlock fans whereas being in the Sherlock community means you do, I suppose
Potentially dumb question - which Amy Bruckman paper are you referencing in the footnote?
Not dumb at all, should have included it -- "Identity Workshop: Emergent Social and Psychological Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Reality" -- but she mentions it in a couple
Thanks!
If anybody else is trying to read the paper, the linked site didn't work for me. For some reason I had to search for the paper title, and then download the file from the search results.
there's just a little big of lag, and it only downloads in RTF :(
"fandoms are just the organizing principle in a consumerist society." Sounds about right
I think that's all I ever really wanted to say on the topic, that American Conservative piece just blew up my spot lol
I'm internalizing...
thank you by the way