Hello everyone.
Today I want to talk about aggressively disliking art and how that's bad.
Part 1: What's "Aggressively Disliking Things?"
A couple years ago, I discovered a youtuber called Hbomberguy (who you should definitely
check out if you haven't) through his video entitled "Sherlock is Garbage: And Here's
Why".
In this video, he goes through and meticulously analyzes the show Sherlock, pointing out its
flaws and its inconsistencies in a well thought out and humorous way.
When I found this video, it was like he was talking to me directly, and explaining that
I had been right all along to not really like that show very much.
I felt validated.
All my friends loved the show, and would wait with baited breath for the next episode to
be announced, regardless of how silly or bizarre the plot ended up being in the hands of Steven
Moffat.
I was happy to finally find a group of people who hated this thing as much as I did.
But lately, I've been thinking a lot about how this kind of...loud anger about a piece
of art existing isn't helpful and is very tiring.
And a lot of this was in the wake of The Last Jedi, and the outrage it sparked.
By the way, the fact that I can still bring up The Last Jedi, a full year
after it came out, and still get a reaction from people is bizarre to me.
So let's talk about The Last Jedi, briefly.
The Last Jedi was a movie that I liked.
It was a movie that many other people really didn't like.
They didn't like it so much that even though the majority of people did in fact like The
Last Jedi, it made it seem like this movie was hated universally.
They were so loud about their dislike of this movie, that the actual statistics, which again
showed that most people liked it, were drowned out by their screeching about how Luke wasn't
"their luke" and other nonsense misunderstandings of character development and storyline.
Sorry, I'll stop talking about The Last Jedi now.
That's all you get.
The point I wanted to make was that the vitriol directed at this film was so loud that you
couldn't see...the forest for the trees.
The forest in this case being that the movie did well and was universally enjoyed, and
the trees being loud angry nerds.
It's that kind of anger that made me think about my own expressions of dislike towards
different pieces of art.
Looking back, I spent a lot of time talking to people about how things were "bad".
I would go to parties and get in arguments about random movies and tv shows, arguing
with people about how they shouldn't like that Thing because it was "bad".
I would try to convince my friends to not like Sherlock, for instance, because "I saw
a video which meticulously goes into every reason Sherlock is bad and you should watch
it and purposely ruin your liking of a show that brings you joy!"
[sigh] You see where I'm going with this?
Part 2: Why Does This Exist?
What I want to unpack here is why we, as a culture which consumes so much #content, have
a fascination lately about trying to make other people dislike stuff.
And I think it comes down to two things: 1) We as a culture right now, due to political
climate and the internet existing in general, are ready to be angry about absolutely anything
at any time for any reason.
And 2) Because content is how many people make their living, and internet algorithms
are a game we have to play.
So let's talk about the second one first.
And I'm going to have to focus a bit on a youtube channel, pretty small, tiny thing
that you've probably never heard of:
Cinema Sins.
Now there have been many people, including the youtuber Shaun, who have talked about
how wrong cinema sins is almost all of the time.
They don't fully watch the movies they're making fun of, so they point out sins that
actually aren't sins if you watch the whole movie.
they forget parts of the movie that happened at the beginning which explain stuff, they
don't know what the phrase deus ex machina means, and they cut bits out of single scenes
in order to make it seem like a mistake was made.
There are many things that cinema sins does poorly.
But people watch them, and those people, I think, are like myself a couple years ago
watching Hbomb's video about sherlock.
They like to be validated, and it makes them feel smart.
if you are one of the smart people who smartly notices that there are problems with a film,
you're one of the intelligent ones, not the sheep who actually LIKE this garbage.
But why does cinema sins make videos like this?
It doesn't even matter if they really DO think these movies have all these flaws.
It's because they now have to.
If a movie came out that was agreed upon by everyone was absolutely flawless.
a perfect film.
that damn channel would have to make a video about how bad it was, because that's how they
make their money.
if the cinema sins people wanted to quit doing that, and actually do good reviews of films,
or go into carpentry or whatever, their income would tank. even if they already had had a
change of heart, we wouldn't be able to tell, because in order for them to keep living,
they have to keep making videos about how terrible movies are.
they are trapped in a world they created.
a world of "cinema sins".
I've thought about this phenomenon often, even in the world of normal people with normal
jobs.
If you work for 30 years in some career, and you've become high level in some company,
and you suddenly don't want to do it anymore, it's not exactly possible to just quit.
most people don't have the privilege to pick up and change their life, because if they
do they'll lose a lot of their income, they may not be able to live the lifestyle they've
cultivated for themselves, and they may not be able to pay the bills.
In our current economic system, there is no safety net except the one you build for yourself.
So people like cinema sins, and other channels who built their brand around doing bad reviews
of movies and pointing out problems with art are stuck there unless they're ready to take
a dangerous leap of faith to something else.
And that's terrifying.
The other reason these videos keep being made, from what I can tell, is that we're all ready
to be angry all the time right now.
Politics are obviously a big part of this.
I mean I know as far as I'm concerned, I pretty much always have a boiling core of anger constantly
bubbling in my soul about whatever terrible thing the right wing is doing lately.
And I'm certain that this is happening across the political spectrum.
Right wingers can't understand why we on the left don't get that immigrants are dangerous
and that white people need to be protected or that personal responsibility and the free
market should matter more than people's lives, centrists are angry that everyone can't go
back to pretending to like each other and letting minorities suffer under a status quo
that's bad for most people, or can't understand why people get angry at you for obnoxiously
telling a fast food worker to register to vote.
We are all constantly angry about something.
The internet has made this easier, especially with algorithms.
If you watch a single Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro video, you're down the rabbit hole
of the youtube algorithm, telling you that your fears are correct and that the world
is fucked up because of some specific group of people.
Cultural Marxism!!!1!! D:
If you watch a single hbomb or contrapoints video, you're down the rabbit hole in the
other direction, angry about how the world is fucked up because the system constantly
works against us (which is the correct side, by the way).
So watching rather cathartic videos, confirming your own dislikings for movies seems like
an escape.
You can get away from your own politics that actually matter so that you can be angry about
something trivial for a while.
The problem is when those things bleed together.
That anger over the last jedi suddenly becomes as world-ending as anger about children in
concentration camps or taxes or whatever.
It's a viscious cycle of doom and rage, that culimates in this constant, neverending fury.
What I'm saying is that because of the way the world is right now, I don't think these
videos are going to go away.
But that half-segues into
Part 3: So are reviews pointless then?
In short: No.
I knew this question would come up, because a lot of these videos, including Hbomb's sherlock
video, could be looked at as legitimate criticism.
That is definitely arguable, as he goes into deep art analysis instead of just pointing
out things he hates about it, but I want to talk about reviews in general, especially
ones that are posted on the internet.
How many times has a bad review of something you have never seen swayed your inclination
to see that piece of art?
I know I've been convinced not to spend my money on movies a lot because I've accidentally
stumbled upon a bad review of it from someone online.
Or I've trusted rottentomatoes or whatever.
And I don't think this is a good thing.
And the main reason I don't think this is good is because: bad and good are completely
subjective ideas as far as art goes.
This isn't reviewing a toaster and saying "After two days the toaster broke so this
is a bad toaster."
This is people saying "I watched this film and I didn't like it, AND HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULDN'T
EITHER!"
Regardless of whether you think you're just posting your own subjective opinion of a piece
of art, even if you at the end of it say "Please go watch the film though" (which no one does
really unless it's a good review), you are going to convince someone to not consume that
piece of art.
And that's where the problem is.
This same sort of thing can be worse for spreading independent art, specifically on places like
Amazon.
If an writer wants to self publish a novel on the platform, like I am going to do later
this year, the reviews make or break that book.
And the thing is that one subjective opinion that the book is bad is not objective proof
that it's bad.
I personally would never post a bad review of a piece of art, especially on Amazon, because
my own subjective disliking of art should not have the ability to tank another artist's
ability to make that art.
This includes even people I don't think are good artists, like Steven Moffat, for example.
You may think that bad reviews of something are important for "The Discourse", and might
help make art better as a whole, but I would like to postulate that that's not how it works
in practice.
What bad reviews do is stunt art's ability to spread and be viewed by more people, especially
in the internet age.
I would take many many people seeing a movie that I didn't like over barely anyone seeing
it because of some bad reviews, because I want art to be everywhere, and i want artists
to be able to make art.
I want artists that I don't like to be able to continue making art.
That's how important I think art is.
Let's take a look at the movie "Venom".
I liked Venom, not as a superhero film but as a weird monster rom com.
Many other people agree with me, but if we look at the actual critic reviews, they hated
it.
They thought that movie was bad.
Which of these opinions is the "correct" one?
Neither of them.
And both of them.
Good and bad, liking and disliking, are subjective ideas, and using your own subjective ideas
to convince other people to not consume a piece of art, and thereby preventing that
particular art from being seen by more people, is damaging for art as a whole, and unhelpful
to the artistic community.
Conclusion.
The last thing I want to talk about, beyond the reviews themselves affecting how art is
spread and enjoyed by more people, is about that low level of anger we all feel all the
time.
remember when i mentioned that the anger one feels over something like the last jedi can
combine with that anger one feels just generally?
yeah.
i do not think it is healthy to be angry all the time.
i find it difficult to not be, since i also want to constantly be informed about what's
going on in the world.
There's a joke that goes around about how we all stay on twitter because we want to
stay informed, EVEN THOUGH we know it makes us anxious and angry all the time, but we
just...need to stay informed.
What if something happens that we NEED to put our energy into stopping, and we were
busy...taking care of ourselves?
So I am sick of spending the energy I could use to help the world into aggressively defending
my disliking of something, and explaining how it's bad to people, and even spending
the energy to watch someone ELSE explain how bad something is, so I can feel good about
my opinion for a second.
I'm backing down on my attempt to convince people Sherlock is bad, for instance.
It's not worth the energy.
And I hope that people who make videos about how supposedly "bad" pieces of art are will
think twice about it in the future.
I hope people like Hbomb and Lindsay Ellis and even fucking cinema sins realize that
in making videos about how terrible things are, and catharting with people on the internet
about how their opinion on this piece of art is the "right one" is both not healthy in
the long run, and not helpful for art as a whole.
I for one have made a decision to stop being loudly angry about art.
Here's my advice to anyone who wants to join me.
If you see a movie, say, and it's the worst movie you've ever seen.
Like thinking about it makes you get pissed off, and you want to tell all your friends
to avoid this piece of rubbish, try this instead: don't.
If someone asks you about it, tell them it's not for you.
That piece of art was not for you.
Because that's what all this boils down to.
Subjective enjoyment and subjective ideas of good and bad.
What you may think is terrible might be enjoyable for some people.
And liking things is not a bad thing (provided they're not legitimately dangerous or problematic,
of course).
And disliking things is also not a bad thing, but I think the world would be a better place
and much easier to handle and more filled with art if we all just...
SHhhhhhhh.
Let people enjoy things.
Thank you for watching, everyone.
If you enjoyed this, be sure to hit that like button down there, and if you want to see more content
like this, do be sure to hit that suscribe button.
And if you REALLY like this and want to support me and my creating of videos like this
and, I also do music and films and other things like that,
be sure to check out my patreon page which is linked in the doobly-do.
So again, thank you for watching, and have a wonderful day.
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