The Wank Prevention Squad presents: Don't Be A Menace To Fandom

[seriousfic]

Ah, the dogpile. We've all seen it happen. The OP does something controversial. Within mere moments, it seems, a happy and production member of fandom is then transformed into a "wanker." How does this happen, you ask? Let's find out together.

The wank-avalanche starts small. A few lurkers or friends get wind of the OP's gaffe and spread the word. Like wildfire, it spreads. And it seems like everyone has something to say about it. Hundreds of comments hit the OP's inbox, all telling him or her what a douche they are. The OP becomes overprotective and lashes out. Before you know it, a full-blown wankfest has started.

But it doesn't have to be this way. We can prevent wank with a few simple steps.

1. Don't look at this picture of Catherine Tate's breasts.

You looked, didn't you? I know, I know, you'll be in your bunk.

2. Fill out this questionaire before commenting.

• Do I have anything to add to this discussion? If your sentiments have already been covered by another commentor, then restating them could simply put more pressure on the OP.
• Is the OP joking? Being sarcastic? Ironic? On the internet, the "I'm just kidding" mannerisms found in nonverbal, face-to-face communication are not available. Add a mental "[/sarcasm]" to the comment and see if it fits.
• If you know the OP is joking, are you still upset because they're not allowed to joke about something? Says who?
• Put yourself in the OP's shoes. Do you understand their position? And what would you do if you were in their shoes and you received a comment like the one the OP has been receiving/you were about to make? If you say "I would never make a gaffe like the OP did in the first place!", go home. Now. 
• Are you only commenting to make a clever burn/use a "bitch plz" icon?
• Could your comment/tone be nicer? Think long and hard about this one. Just because wankers always claim that the tone is too harsh, doesn't mean you're not being a jerk.
• Has the OP apologized? Are you still mad because their apology wasn't "apologicious" enough?
• Were you referred to the OP's gaffe by an independent party? Beware of "lynching mobs" that form when someone else decides to play vigilante with their f-list.
• Could your problem with the OP be described as "My kink is okay, but theirs isn't!"?
• Even though you have kinks that are just as "bad"? (i.e. they write non-cons, you write incest.)
• Do you have any friends that share the OP's position or viewpoint?
• If you found out a friend shared the OP's position or viewpoint, would it make you de-friend or otherwise push them away?
• Are you thinking of banning the OP from commenting on your journal?
• Even though the OP's never commented on it before?
• Would you ever consider reading one of the OP's fanfics/fanarts/vids?
• A week from now?
• A month from now?
• A year from now?
• Will you never, ever, have anything to do with the OP or anything they create?
• But you're not a grudge-wanker?
• Who is hurt if you don't make a comment on this post?
• Who does it help if you do?

As soon as you've answered all those questions, then make your comment. I think you'll find that there will be considerably less wank.

 

Comments

[kittybats.livejournal.com]

I've seen your stuff on my flist's flist and it's always interesting.

[v5-vendetta.livejournal.com]

Problem is, wankers will always find an excuse to wank. Why? Because some people can't handle that the people who don't share their views aren't polite enough to keep their mouths shut and fade quietly into the woodwork.

You do make a good point on the hypocrisy inherent in much wank. Like, X is a bad person for liking Deathstroke, who is supposed to be this unrepentant super-killer, but Y is perfectly justified in Y's love for Jason Todd, who since his resurrection has been known largely for lethal vigilantism in the vein of a snarkier Punisher. Granted, that's an example from a personal trauma that I am still healing from, and it's even a thoughtless hyperbole to call it trauma, but I think it fits.

But like I said before, you're always going to find wank, because the real source of wank is intolerance of opinions and likings other than yours and we're not gonna get over that until we all take a big hit off the tolerance bong or we just blow each other to hell. Just my somewhat pessimistic two cents.

[v5-vendetta.livejournal.com]

a.) Committed statutory rape on Terra, who was not very mentally competent at the time.

Terra, the original one, was as much of a sociopath as you claim Deathstroke is. Contrary to the retcon Brad Meltzer put in "Last Will and Testament," Terra was a remorseless killer even before she met Deathstroke. Marv Wolfman himself, at least in the post-Judas Contract interviews, admitted as such. It was even recorded that the misaimed fandom --- which you seem to be a part of --- threatened his life on account of Terra's death because they thought she was just like the X-Men's Kitty Pryde, a sweet, cute, innocent young girl, when Wolfman intended her from the beginning to be a subversion of that archetype. Go to the Titans Tower site and find those interviews and you'll see what I'm talking about.

c.) Chosen his pride over his son's life.

A decision he's regretted ever since. Not enough to stop what he does, I'll grant you, but enough that he has canonically aided the Titans --- at least in the Wolfman-written stuff --- simply out of trying to make up for what he put Joey and Grant through. Hell, the whole reason he started trying to kill the Titans in the first place was that he was tricked into thinking that it was their fault Grant was dead.

j.) Will kill anyone as long as the price is high enough.

Distortion, plain and simple. After the Judas Contract arc's epilogue, when he was seen again, it was pretty clear that he was restricting his assignments to people he thought didn't deserve to live, and the story almost always showed that those targets were bad guys. And the retcon charge doesn't count here, because that was Wolfman through and through, and as long as Wolfman has had creative control over the character of Deathstroke, he has never been quite as amoral as you would like to believe he is.

b.) Dropped a bomb on the Teen Titans.
d.) Been responsible for blowing up Bludhaven
e.) Drugged Cass (heavily implied he raped her too.)
f.) Drugged GeoForce in the same manner.
g.) Hooked up and palled around with Dr. Light. I really shouldn't have to explain why that is a shitty thing to do, should I?
h.) Drugged and completely screwed over Rose.
i.) Continually hunted Green Arrow.
k.) Screwed around with the Outsiders, and taunted Roy that he was going to take Lian, raise her, and turn her against her family.

If the bomb thing you're referring to happened in the first arc of Geoff Johns' Titans relaunch, bear in mind that Deathstroke was possessed by the ghost of his son Joey, who was canonically stated to be still influenced by the Trigon-corrupted Azarathian spirits he'd been fused with when he died.

The other stuff was written largely in the "buildup to Infinite Crisis and later Final Crisis" period and Geoff Johns pretty much came out and said when he got the job of writing Teen Titans that he never thought Deathstroke was as honorable and respectable as he claimed when Wolfman was writing him. On that, you and Johns are in agreement that Deathstroke is no more than a killer, no matter how he or anybody else tries to justify it. Furthermore, in that same period, Deathstroke was being built up as a major threat to the DCU hero community, and to do that successfully they had to strip away his more "anti-villainous" traits and make him more the remorseless sociopath you, Johns, and the rest of DCU editorial seem to think he really is.

With the exception of two or three, most of the list you've put together to prove Deathstroke is nothing more than an evil scumbag who deserves to die was stuff written after Young Justice was dissolved (and symbolically, the DCU's remaining innocence died) and written by people who seem to think of the good/evil paradigm in complete "black and white" terms, where the heroes must be knights in shining armor and the villains must be card-carrying psychopaths. Guess what? Real world never worked like that; bad guys might be bad guys, but most of them are not the completely inhuman monsters that the media loves to portray, and the good guys are, far too often, good only by default.

[v5-vendetta.livejournal.com]

And frankly, "the only people worse than Deathstroke are the Joker and Dr. Light"? What about Lex Luthor? He's supposed to be the greatest villain of the DCU. Or Darkseid? He conquered an entire world, intends to conquer others, and wants nothing more than the entire universe completely subjugated to his whims. Lex Luthor is pretty much the same, only he's content with just Earth. Deathstroke's small fries in comparison to those two, at least in the scope of their respective ambitions, so saying that he's somehow the worst of the worst is just you letting your dislike of the character jaundice your interpretation of the things he's done and the events he's been involved in, plain and simple.