a not-nearly-comprehensive guide to classical logical fallacies as employed in fandom

[pocochina]

I should probably preface this by saying I don't think I've seen more bad arguments than usual or worse arguments than usual lately. But I do feel like I've seen an uptick in people expressing a few specific frustrations across a surprising variety of fandoms? And so when a post earlier this week (locked and not mine, so I'll go no further, but if

Comments

[pocochina]

Why and how a specific viewer, or group of banded viewers, will hold to a certain interpretation or defamation of an established interpretation is psychologically fascinating.

Oh, it so is. I've caught myself torturing logic to defend my own opinion of a character, good or bad - though I've always enjoyed the narrative and fandom in question a great deal more after I acknowledged that pattern and knocked it off, whether that changed my ~official opinion for better or worse.

the variance and passion of fandom is more growth-provoking to me as a writer/thinker than defending my position. Heh.

Agreed, actually, though it probably doesn't look that way, lol. I really don't enjoy the frequency with which I feel pressured to defend my position. But when people try to gaslight me out of acknowledging that gaslighting is occurring in a narrative, DEFEND I MUST.

Particularly since there is so much accessibility for such interesting plurality at this moment? Like, I don't know if you are into Game of Thrones/ASOIAF, so I'll try not to go too deep into spoilers. But Tyrion Lannister is such a fascinating character, right, there's SO much exciting conversation about him. (A lot of gross conversation about him that makes a girl reconsider her non-Hulk-inclusive lifestyle, but a lot of good stuff, too.) Like, I am not sure what I think about him, and then I have two sets of opinions - do I like show!Tyrion better than book!Tyrion? are they even all that different and I just understand them in different ways due to the fact that his POV is so central to the books? or is it just that show!Tyrion is midway-through-book-3!Tyrion and I didn't get that or don't remember it? THOSE are the things I want to talk about, not "lalalala disableism doesn't exist because inconvenience!"

[bleodswean]

I don't know GoT but I can follow this. And those are the things I want to talk about too. It's very frustrating, with my Literature background to find myself mired in an exchange with someone who is all netspeek and teh love about a character cuz he's hunky. *bored now* I mean there are places for that *ahem* tumblr *ahem* but when it explodes on LJ and becomes ugly and loud and mean...I have to back out. I had to quit three TVD/TO journals last year because I truly thought I might induce a brain aneurysm.

I love your brain. *licks* And I've told you this before. It's not because we share fandom commonalities as we really don't, but because of this elegant way in which you balance fandom-y thoughts and intellectual meta. It's just lovely. Keep on, bb.

[pocochina]

♥

I feel like my lack of Literary knowledge makes fandom much easier to enjoy, lol.