the failure mode of performative outrage is still hilarity

[edenfalling]

Back in April of 2017, an ff.net anon left a series of misogynist, ableist, and homophobic flames on Tides, one of my old Naruto fics. Ten months later, the anon has returned to leave a flame on Rituals, another old Naruto fic.

I can tell it is the same person because the choice of insults and general tone of performative outrage is exactly the same.

To wit: Naruto is happy with Hinata thank you very much. And suckura is in a dysfunctional family with sasgay! So screw shit!

...

I think the part of this whole experience I find most hilarious is that the anon clearly spends a fair amount of time reading fanfiction -- and reading it relatively closely; the flames on "Tides" correspond to events in the chapters instead of just being generic insults -- and yet doesn't seem to have grasped that the point of fanfic is that it doesn't have to recapitulate canon. It's a giant what-if game! You can just make shit up! That is, in fact, the point.

Anyway, this person makes my morning whenever they show up, but I really do hope, for their own sake, that they grow up and find hobbies less likely to drive them into rage aneurysms.

Comments

[redwolf]

They're hate reading your fic and telling you you're doing it wrong because your writing doesn't align to the voices in their heads? But they read it. All the way through. Do they not know that if they don't like it, there's nothing forcing them to finish it? They could just walk away and find something more to their tastes, but they've wasted their time torturing themselves.

This is one of those times where I have to wonder how people manage to survive without accidentally killing themselves by swallowing their toothbrushes or slipping in their own drool. People are weird, but strangely entertaining at a remove.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, this person reads stories all the way through and leaves comments that are directly-related to the content -- so they pay attention to what they're reading -- and yet apparently hates every word of what they read. I have no idea what kind of emotional reward they're getting out of the process.