First off, I want to talk about something personal - the other day on DeviantArt, someone (for the record, I am not giving out names) accused me for being bigoted, just because I labeled ten episodes (thirteen if you count dishonorable mentions) of My Little Pony as overrated (that post long since removed). Okay, I have absolutely no clue why this guy even bothered leaving a comment on my DeviantArt page just because I have a differing opinion. Not everybody is entitled to the same opinion, you know!
Let's talk about the word "bigot" - it refers to someone who has no tolerance for those with a differing opinion. Other words that are similar to "bigot" are sectarian, racist, sexist, homophobe, etc. And let's talk about myself. Firstly, I absolutely loathe discrimination - it's wrong and abhorrent. Secondly, I have friends in real life that aren't Caucasian, and some of them are actually girls! One of them, Deborah, is Mexican, and yet she and I get on alright. Thirdly, I know of a lesbian married couple named Raven and Liz and we get on fine. If you're calling be bigoted, you're essentially saying I should not be friends with them - am I hearing you correctly?
I never consider myself a bigot - I consider myself opinionated, yet honest about my views, and always have been since I started this blog. "Opinionated" means that someone sticks to their own opinion. Now, you might be saying "isn't that the same thing as bigoted"? Yeah, but I'd never view myself being pompous or arrogant - I never fear giving my own personal opinion regardless if I agree or not. Is that a bad thing? Well, that depends on who you are.
Now, I want to talk about the hatred Ken Friedel received over his review on The Adventure Begins. Okay, I've read the comments and some of them say that his review is poorly edited, and some people even went as far to mocking his review and even telling him to kill himself. Seriously?! Attacking someone just because of one video? That's like giving Amy Keating Rogers death threats just because of one flaw in Filli Vanilli! Not only is it extremely immature, it's also very insensitive. Even if you don't like the person, you cannot attack them over one small thing.
Also, why do we attack people just because they like what we don't? That I find unfair - if you agree with them, great. If you don't, what's the point in attacking them? It just makes you look petty and mean-spirited. Is it our place to mock people who do something different? Have you ever been through what they're going through and now you're laughing at them? If so, then that makes you a hypocrite.
For the most part, nobody asks people to do reviews or share their thoughts on something - we write reviews because we want to get our thoughts out there and get people to understand where we're coming from. And we don't ask people to see our reviews unless there's a reason to do so. Granted, there's people out there who have done bad things in their lives, some of them so severe that we never, ever let them forget it for a long time.
Take a look at Jeremy Clarkson, former co-host of Top Gear. A few months ago, he punched a producer in the face and the BBC suspended him, putting Top Gear on hold. Even though what he did was wrong, people have been begging for him to come back. Prior to his suspension, that wasn't the only time Clarkson had stirred up trouble - he's mocked a few cultures (in the case of Argentina, he claimed he'd done nothing wrong), asked Richard Hammond if he was now mentally ill after Hamster's crash, was accused of running over a cow, joked about lorry drivers killing prostitutes, and even used the N-word in an outtake (that was his final warning). In that time, people have protested to the BBC to give Clarkson the sack because of his behavior, and I don't blame them.
I'm not speaking in defense for Clarkson's actions - what he did a few months ago was wrong, but keep in mind that we can't call him out for being a jerk if you've done similar stuff in the past. Has anyone heard of forgive and forget? Are the outcries really all that fair? Well, that can depend on how big it is.
Speaking of which, there's John Lennon's comments about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ way back in 1966. In the United Kingdom, nobody really cared, but in America? People were outraged, even going as far to burning Beatles records and memorabilia. (Matters aren't helped by the fact that the American album Yesterday and Today had a controversial butcher cover, but that's another matter.) Of course, what Lennon said had been taken completely out of context, and yet fifty years later, people are still bitter about a mere misquote.
Ah yes, religion. Don't even get me started on the Westboro Baptist Church. If you want a prime example as to what's wrong with America and the prime example of bigoted fools wasting their time, there you go. I have never followed religion throughout my life, and therefore, I consider myself an atheist. Again, I don't discriminate those who are religious.
And now I can talk about both the Thomas and My Little Pony fandoms. Where do I begin? I could seriously ramble on about how messed up both can be, but long story short. many of them are excessively ungrateful and bigoted and hate anything that's positive. Whether it's Twilight being an alicorn, Thomas going CGI, the Equestria Girls spinoff in general, little stuff that isn't really important... And then we come to certain characters - Derpy loving muffins? Fair. Lyra and Bon Bon more than friends? Sure. Doctor Who-inspired pony? Why not? An episode with background ponies and a nonsensical plot? Oh yeah! Twilight with Flash Sentry? NO!! KILL HIM OFF!!
You get my point, right? Also, whose bright idea was it to ship her with Thomas? Not even TwiComet, my most hated MLP shipping, is that stupid! For those who actually ship them, at least they have the common sense to see that they're from the same universe. Thomas and Twilight are not - why is it one rule for Thomas and yet another rule for Flash? The sooner those certain groups of people realize they are the ones who are messed up, the better.
I ask you this - did I make myself clear in this rant? I wish to start a discussion and ask for your thoughts on the recent amount of hatred spewed across the internet. Is mocking people for doing something you don't like even the right thing to do? Should we be more sensitive to how people might react? I'd love to see what you might add, but if things go out of control - you know, if people become extremely disrespectful - I'll block comments on this blog. Here's hoping things become more controlled in the future!
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