SykoGrafix
SykoGrafix.com
April 13, 2005

The Purist Propaganda.

I’m sure that I’ve said things like this before, but it bears repeating, ad nauseam if need be.

I am so tired of the whole “Purist” mentality that is so prevalent in just about every fandom these days. There are Star Wars fans who can’t go a day without telling everyone how much they hate the prequels and the Special Editions. I’ve encountered Ninja Turtles fans who constantly bring up how they dislike the childish nature of the original 80’s animated series and demand that everything be “dark and gritty” (the most overused cliche in the entire fandom). Them of course, there are the Transformers fans that must have everything exactly like G1 and act like they are owed having their every whim catered to by the people responsible. And you can pretty much take every novel, comic book, video game, movie, or TV show and find somebody in the fandom expressing their displeasure of how they can’t stand to see how their most favorite thing is being changed in order to be adapted into a novel, comic book, video game, movie, or TV show. Every fandom has them. It just never ends, and for the most part, absolutely nothing could ever be done to make these people happy.

I’m not going to say that these people shouldn’t have the right to feel the way they feel. In some cases they may even be justified. But for crying out loud, you don’t need to be an elitist bastard about it! Just because somebody refuses to acknowledge the “grotesque” existence of whatever sub-sect of their fandom they have such a big problem with, doesn’t mean they’re any better of a fan or a person than someone who doesn’t think it’s worth getting upset over, or, God forbid, actually might enjoy! In fact, when you get right down to it, if I like something that these so-called “purists” hate so much, then doesn’t that make me the bigger fan?

The worst thing is when there are jerks who act like their opinion is the one that everyone else has. It only seems that way because the people who are the most unhappy with whatever it is they are getting at the time are always the loudest and most obnoxious. So because so many of these loud and obnoxious people agree with each other, their opinion must be the right one! Sheesh. Meanwhile, the rest of us are fairly content to sit back and enjoy being fans, so we’ve got nothing to be upset about. Except, of course, when those jackasses go out of their way to insinuate that everyone agrees with their point of view and that anyone who doesn’t is an idiot. Then, as far as I’m concerned, it’s on. When I see something like that happen, I make it a point to make sure that their voice isn’t the only one that gets heard.

You know, if you’re going to proudly stick a label on yourself and call yourself a “purist”, then that’s fine. But for the sake of everybody else, please know when the time is right to just shut up about it. Go right ahead and like what you like with as narrow a field of view as you see fit, and leave the rest of us, the ones who actually have an open mind about things, alone.

Too many people seem to spend too much time hating what they don’t like and not enough time liking what they do like. What a miserable existence they must lead.

Sayonara.

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