The difference between Fans and Fanatics or "How arseholes ruin everything"...

Fan

/fan/ noun

"A fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person who is enthusiastically devoted to something or somebody, such as a band, a sports team, a genre, a book or an entertainer. Collectively, the fans of a particular object or person constitute its fanbase or fandom. They may show their enthusiasm in a variety of ways, such as by promoting the object of their interest, being members of a fan club, holding or participating in fan conventions, or writing fan mail. They may also engage in creative activities ("fan labor") such as creating fanzines, writing fan fiction, making memes or drawing fan art."

fa·nat·ic

/f?'nadik/

a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause.

The definition of the term “Fan”, is surmised to be taken from the term British slang term, "Fancy" so says William Henry Nugent. Mirriam-Webster, and the Oxford dictionary make a differing claim that the term actually derived from the word "Fanatic". Both definitions have been displayed at the top of this article, in order to aide in a discussion about the difference between the two.

You see, the reason for these two definitions being posted here have much to do with a larger issue at play; A young budding artist, who should be actually happy posting her artwork, and working on her webcomic has been for the better half of a year, the subject of internet bullying from the same fandom she was supposed to be part of....

Paige Paz, whom from what you can see on her blog and Deviantart page, is incredibly talented, to say the least. When she's not working on her webcomic, Basin Vale (A comic about a Vampire named Alessa, who goes on a journey with Vampire hunters witches and her Hell hound sidekick, Ampyx to find her coven), she seemed to enjoy being on Tumblr posting fan art. One of her favorite series to create fan art for is the Cartoon Network show, Steven Universe. Paige seems to be a person who is enthusiastically devoted to something or somebody, such as a band, a sports team, a genre, a book or an entertainer, and tends to engage in creative activities ("fan labor") such as creating fanzines, writing fan fiction, making memes or drawing fan art.

Of course, the fan art she posts in particular, is the reason why we are talking about this young lady.

You see, Paige enjoys or rather enjoyed drawing art from popular Cartoon Network show, Steven Universe, and until recently, had been the target of ideological bullies who claim to be a part of the Steven Universe fandom. According to the SU subreddit, She had been accused of drawing SU character, Rose Quartz (a notably heavyset character) smaller than her actual character design. Of course this sent this rather petulant portion of the fandom on a torch and pitchfork run through social media in an effort to shame her into submission. Taking to Tumblr, in an effort to "Correct" her "problematic" behavior, The shaming brigade created over 40 mock pages in order to harass her for the better part of a year.

The differences are staggeringly non existent

These examples are rather harsh, however, for the sake of argument, they need to be seen. For the sake of context, A link to the archived page has been provided.

What the Zamii haters want from Zamii:

"an apology for racism, ableism, fatphobia, and transphobia

an apology for continued friendship with a convicted child molester and pedophilic ideals in her art

an apology for mocking fat people, people of color, and trans people who have tried to explain to her what she did was wrong

a genuine attempt to rectify these acts (drawing fat characters fat, giving black coded characters their black traits, not drawing native American and Asian characters as stereotypes, not drawing underage characters in sexualized positions or situations)

an attempt to improve in her anatomy cus gotdamn

being a better role model to the younger fans shes attracted, in both her art and character"

Before we continue, Let's note that Paige states multiple times on her blog, PizzaTimeFunTimes, that she suffers from Depression. (It begs to be stated that this is Tumblr, we're talking about. It is fair to note that a large number of people on Tumblr, who most likely have frequented WebMD more times than necessary, state that they may have anxiety or mental disorders. On good faith, however, Let's be willing to give the benefit of the doubt, here. ) The next set of statements have to do with that bit of knowledge.

"zamii is a bitch. she is twenty fucking years old and mental illnesses aren’t a get out of jail free card. grow up because she obviously hasn’t"

"she’s fucking racist. i have mental illnesses and do not just say “oh but im mentally ill” whenever someone calls me out on something i do wrong. i fucking apologies and fix it."

Now, the shaming did not go completely unchallenged, and despite having numerous people coming out to defend Paige against this ho, the harasser in this particular instance, still views themselves as "righteous" for what seems to be baseless harassment.

"i have said so much in previous posts that i really have just not been wanting to repeat myself: the making of a mock blog is juvenile on your part. in what cases has a mock blog caused someone to give in so easily? people never want to look weak. look like they lost. none of you are going really anywhere with continuously insulting her."

"i'm fairly certain the existence of this blog doesn't affect zamiis ability to own up to and apologize for her actions. that's a problem beyond any parody blog, and i'm not liable to help her fix it, so don't act like i'm at fault simply for laughing at a bigot as she descends into her own pride-dug hole"

"it’s juvenile. if someone made a mock blog about me, for whatever reason, i would not at all really want to say sorry. but whatever. your blog. just think of how much you aren't even helping. just being someone who is dissing on somebody on their art. i mean, if you posted only about asking for apologizes instead of just finding ways to insult somebodies art then.. i would be more understanding. it’s a full on hate blog. the immaturity is the main problem. you're not being mature in this case. it wont help being so immature."

"I'm not here to be mature. my conduct doesn't and shouldn't affect zamiis ability to apologize

as soon as she makes a decent attempt to atone for her wrongdoings ill gladly delete this

but even before the conception of this blog shes shown nothing but immaturity, stubbornness, and arrogance, so i felt jabs at her art were justified, especially since it seems she puts minimal effort

so up it stays, and ill continue making fun of her lazy art as well as her bigotry until something changes"

Is there such a thing as Pedophile by proxy?

Let's take a closer look at the phrasing for a sec.

- Paige has been asked to draw fat characters as fat, and black characters as black, but not draw characters as stereotypes? "black traits" are big noses and full lips, dark colored eyes (Normally, sometimes Hazel and green and even rarely, blue.), and dark skin, but wouldn't that be considered stereotypical, by some?

The definition of Stereotype is "A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing." Given that cartoonish drawings are also oversimplified The statement makes very little sense in context of a non human Crystal Gem based being. Why is it that it's rather easy to get the feeling that no matter how much she changed the drawing to suite the desires of the harassing parties, she would still be ridiculed for something else?

Haven't you heard? Everyone is a "round-eye", IRL

- Also, take a look at the wording of the detractor, here. It always seems like the emphasis is always on “Growing up”. “Grow up, and take responsibility for your actions!” .“The industry needs to grow up!”. The term “Grow up” seems to be a mainstay in the Social Justice Lexicon, and highly contradictory to the actions displayed by the person stating it. Jonathan McIntosh (Anita's Puppeteer) , Quantic Dream's own David Cage and former Polygon Writer, Samantha Allen come to mind, here. Both, much like the person stating it in this instance, appear to fly into tantrums like a petulant child being forced to leave a toy store. Of course this always seems to happen when the persons in question are attempting to get their way. And both have made claims that the gaming industry, for the sake of their own interests or perceived notions, needs to grow up.

Above: The maturity of developers who wanted the industry to "Grow Up".

- It also seems, in Social Justice Warrior nomenclature , common to raise accusations against someone while making it a point to not tell the person being accused the means of how they've trespassed.

“It's not my job to educate you” or in this case “I'm not liable to help her fix it”

This seems like a fancy way of talking their way out of not explaining terms that even they themselves don't quite understand. Like the old saying goes. “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit!” And bullshit is is, folks; The terms that are being used often, are constantly used as shaming methods to bully people into doing what they want. All to get you to bow down on one knee and kiss the ring in order to “atone” for your “sins”.

For the layman, the term “apologize” really doesn't exist in the Social Justice lexicon. When you find yourself being asked to “apologize” for your transgressions against this group, the cycle usually goes like this;

• Person does something that the group dislikes
• Group harasses person using shaming terms like "Problematic" while throwing out a litany of “misdeeds” the person being harassed has done, until they abandon their stances and adhere to the will of the group.
• Person, often fearful of being ostracized by the group breaks down and apologizes, hoping to get back into their good graces, or just get the pressure off of them. The group continues on coasting off the momentum of their own arrogance onto the next target.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

There is no such thing as atonement. You just roll over and let them walk all over you, and then when they get bored, they move onto something else on their radar. This is the mindset of the typical bully through-and-through. There was even talk on the Steven Universe subreddit, stating that these harassers had just been looking for a reason to attack her, and cherry picked these arguments as reasons to wage a Tumblr war on Paige, but of course

Of course, This is just part of the cyclical nature of bullying in the name of some “righteous cause” (Or 'Virtue signaling' which is starting to become my new favorite term), and this often happens despite things such as consequence or collateral damage.

Getting back to Paige's story, as it so happened, she had left a suicide note on her Tumblr, stating the following, and had since, spent a few days in the hospital recovering. The message can be seen, below.

Paz's attempt, and subsequent hospital stay wasn't enough for these bullies, either. Let's take a little peek at the response.

No minority is safe from the dreaded “white privilege accusation" rhetoric

I took the liberty of placing the link to that graphic up so you can see what the harasser/accuser looks like. Raise your hand if you think she's a suburbanite twenty-something Caucasian woman accusing a nineteen year old Mexican girl that her “white privilege” is the cause of all the suffering of the world. ( made you raise your hand! ) Another point of contention, here:  People who make claims like this have the projection level of a Saturday Double Feature the local Drive In!

If you think the above statement was some form of racial profiling, you'd be surprised to know that this is largely the type of persons who engage in this sort of activity. Not the only type of person, mind you, but definitely part of the visible symptoms of an ideological movement comprised of bullies using virtuous language as a shield to mask a virtual lynch mob. The people who fit in this category would be definitely considered the Fanatic; or a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause. 

You better draw that ethnic minority right or not at all!!

 

The Fanatics in this case seem to latch onto a particular thing of interest regardless of what it is (usually depending on the popularity of that thing) and try to push their own beliefs into it. It's highly believed that the reason why they do this, has a lot to do with their own narcissism; IE It's important to them that you have to adhere to their authority because you may be too dumb to understand what it is you did that offended them, and once you do understand their logic, they can go on to continue lording over you with their terminology which has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of interest.

After a brief stint of reading up on Narcissistic Personality Disorder, it seems that a lot of the traits seem to match up with some of the behaviors of these harassers.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder involves arrogant behavior, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration-all of which must be consistently evident at work and in relationships. People who are narcissistic are frequently described as cocky, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. Narcissists may concentrate on unlikely personal outcomes (e.g., fame) and may be convinced that they deserve special treatment. Related Personality Disorders: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic. Narcissism is a less extreme version of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Narcissism involves cockiness, manipulativeness, selfishness, power motives, and vanity-a love of mirrors. Related personality traits include: Psychopathy, Machiavellianism.

Narcissists tend to have high self-esteem. However, narcissism is not the same thing as self-esteem; people who have high self-esteem are often humble, whereas narcissists rarely are. It was once thought that narcissists have high self-esteem on the surface, but deep down they are insecure. However, the latest evidence indicates that narcissists are actually secure or grandiose at both levels. Onlookers may infer that insecurity is there because narcissists tend to be defensive when their self-esteem is threatened (e.g., being ridiculed); narcissists can be aggressive. The sometimes dangerous lifestyle may more generally reflect sensation-seeking or impulsivity (e.g., risky sex, bold financial decisions).

Emphasis is mine.

Now of course, there are people that will say that this is the nature of all groups that have anonymity within the confines of the Internet. However the attack on Zamii/Paige has been considered to be unprecedented in any fandom that has existed. If this is believed, then this is the only case where hundreds of people have basically attacked, and harassed a young lady, forcing her into attempting suicide because she drew a character the “wrong” way. The result of this is memes where people have gone out on a limb to claim that the Steven Universe fandom is the worst fandom ever!

Think about that... Steven Universe, a show that is supposed to be about acceptance , tolerance and love for everyone, has the worst fandom ever. Worse than Hetalia's fandom, whom detractors have claimed are more interested in shipping than Historical context or understanding the culture of the country they're trying to personify, Worse than the Five Nights at Freddy's Fandom, whom their detractors claim that they act like immature brats who whine at youtubers because they may not agree with the fan theory of the week (Okay, so it might also be because people often crap on Furry culture as well, but hey, if you want to walk around in a hot fur suit for fun, more power to ya! ) Worse than the dreaded * Gulp* Sonic fandom, with claims of their OC breeding frenzies, Rule 34 furry “train wreck” artwork, defense of largely terrible games like Sonic 06' and their.... rational discussion?   Wait a minute... That can't be right.....

Even with all the issues that may actually be prevalent in these aforementioned fandoms, at least they weren't toxic enough to actually push an artist into trying to take their own life to escape being harassed for a year. Then again, at the very heart of the matter the blame really shouldn't be placed solely on the SU fandom, either. For the last five years we've seen these horrid narcissists push their way into group after group, culture after culture, trying to take it over in an attempt to push themselves and their silly ideologies into the forefront , past the actual point of interest, itself. “Sure, I like Steven Universe, but let's talk about cultural appropriation!” . Or my personal favorite, “Video games are nice and all, And I see all races and genders getting together for the sake of gaming and developing games,  but let's talk about the lack of women in games!” Despite the fact that the whole point of being fans of something consists of a group of people with similar interests congregating and elating about the thing that they actually enjoy, perhaps wanting to draw pictures of said thing, and just have a good time. Surely, though the needs of the few who want people to place attention on them and claim how special a snowflake they really are seem to supersede that, as they are that much more important.

Paige, may use the same terminology as the harassers, but It begs to be asked, if this is because she believes that it's just “things that are trendy to say” and not considered as shaming language. It can be wagered that it's clearly the former and not the latter. In a recent video she had stated that she will be “staying with her grandmother, and won't be online for a while”. Perhaps that's for the best. According to Brietbart writer Allum Bokhari, The harassment is starting to subside, as many of the hate blogs that sprung up are being deleted, and the harassers seem to be getting a taste of their own medicine.

 If there is any bit of a silver lining in all of this, it's the notion that it's this behavior that is getting a lot of the Social Justice Warrior movement ridicule from all sides. Seeing people openly confront these menacing bullies is enough to show that people aren't going to tolerate this nonsense any longer, because as we all know the only way to truly defeat a bully is to actually stand up to them.

“Anonymous asked: People in the Zamii tag are already saying " How dare you be anti Sjw to support Zamii! We Sjws did nothing wrong. " Yeah, keep telling yourselves that....

DO YOU PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND WHY WE CALL YOU SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS?

BECAUSE WARRIORS ATTACK PEOPLE BLINDLY.

ALL YOU DO IS HUNT FOR BLOOD

LITERALLY EVERYTHING YOU DID WAS WRONG

YOU DELIBERATELY LIED ABOUT HER AND TOOK EVERYTHING SHE DID OUT OF CONTEXT FOR AROUND A YEAR AT LEAST

YOU MADE OVER TWO DOZEN BLOGS TO KEEP TABS ON EVERY RIDICULOUSLY TRIVIAL THING SHE DID

AND YOU ENCOURAGED PEOPLE TO HARASS HER

AND TELL HER TO KILL HERSELF

WHICH SHE ALMOST DID

AND EVEN NOW

DESPITE THE OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE

YOU STILL GENUINELY THINK YOU’RE THE VICTIMS

BECAUSE EVERYONE RIGHTFULLY EXPOSED YOU FOR THE HATEFUL SUBHUMAN TROGLODYTES YOU ARE

YOU REFUSE TO ADMIT WHAT YOU DID WAS WRONG

YOU STILL HAVE THE AUDACITY TO BLAME HER FOR YOUR ACTIONS

YOU ARE MONSTERS

I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO REFER TO YOU DEGENERATES AS HUMAN

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS YOUR FAULT

AND IF THERE’S ANY JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU IS GOING TO FUCKING JAIL FOR THIS.

AND I WILL NOT FEEL A SINGLE SHRED OF SYMPATHY FOR ANY OF YOU.

GET. FUCKED.”

- See you next bossfight!