So Joss Whedon left Twitter behind yesterday and many have tried to make sense of it all in the aftermath. Sure, Whedon is still alive and well, and his movie is still tops at the box office. But it’s his Twitter account and what led him to flee that has people talking.
Patton Oswalt let his theories fly out from his own Twitter account, noting the radical left having a big part in what happened, but it might be James Gunn’s post on Facebook that sums everything up about as well as it could be. The core problem seems to be the aggressive fan reaction to anything and everything they hold dear, be it the Joker’s look in Suicide Squad or the Black Widow’s role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Gunn’s note covers this territory, asking for folks to be a little nicer when it comes to their opinions:
My plea to all of you – and this is nothing new – is that we all try to be a little kinder, on the Internet and elsewhere. And, honestly, that includes being kind to the people who are tweeting this nonsense. I don’t believe you can tweet about wanting to find a movie director and “curbstomp” him and be a happy person. That person’s statement might make you a little angry – that makes me angry too. But thank God the circumstances of my life and your life didn’t lead us to being the person that has the need to anonymously tweet that to someone on the Internet. And, as much as we may want to respond with vitriol to these tweets, I think that just creates more insanity.
You can read the full note below, an all around pretty thoughtful piece on the current state of fandom. I think you could also just say, “go outside a bit more,” and cover the same territory. Or you could go full Joe Carnahan as pointed out by IndieWire:
https://twitter.com/carnojoe/status/595621103072075777
https://twitter.com/carnojoe/status/595621179672629249
He continues like that for a few Tweets, evoking the need to get laid later on. Whatever works, honestly. Right?
I like what Gunn said a lot better, mostly because he’s not an assh*le. If one person can move past their “raped” childhood because of these messages, that’s a bit of a victory. I dislike the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but I’m not out there claiming it tore apart my life because it exists. My childhood would’ve been pretty sh*tty if that’s all I had.
(Via James Gunn / IndieWire)