Positive Cynicism – You’re not entitled to anything

Aaron Davis

Aaron R. Davis

This morning, I read all about Phil Fish, the indie game developer who created Fez, a popular Xbox game with a sequel that was in development until the other day when all of his frustrations with the game industry came to a head in the form of a pissed-off, self-righteous, entitled asshole.

I understand totally where he’s coming from.

Internet hatred is hard to take, especially since 99.9 percent of the time, it’s completely pointless.

Phil Fish had a game in development and was taken to task and hounded by a guy who styles himself a games critic and a journalist. What was his problem with Fez? According to what I’ve been reading this morning, not much. His real problem is that Fish wouldn’t comment right away on the Xbox One policy towards indie game developers. This led to a Twitter war and other such shit, and Fish decided to call off the new game and quit the industry, because it’s just not worth dealing with idiots anymore.

I get it. I’ve been there.

Isn’t that fucked up? That I’ve been there? I don’t even do anything remotely of consequence. But on my own blog, I’ve been taken to task many times for things I said or refusing to talk about certain things, always by some asshole who is offended that I don’t think the same way about the same things that they do, or I seem inconsistent somewhere, or I like something they can’t stand. It gets vicious and it’s always, always, always about nothing remotely important, or something totally different than I was even talking about in any given post.

I once used the phrase “the most perfect Spidey movie I could have imagined anyone making” to describe Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man, and some idiot drew me into an argument because I used the word “perfect” and he hated Green Goblin’s costume so much that I how dare I use that word?

(Incidentally, this is the same idiot who told me that a black actor playing the Kingpin in Daredevil was equally as offensive as a white actor playing Martin Luther King, Jr. So that’s what we’re dealing with there.)

Internet hatred is soul-killing, in part because it’s annoying and petty, and in part because it’s just so fucking stupid and useless. It’s so entitled. It almost always is.

Please, everyone, understand: you’re not entitled to anything. Anything. No one has to talk to you about anything they don’t want, even if you’re a journalist or pretend to be one on the Internet.

Do we really need to make it national news that Selena Gomez walked off an interview because an entertainment critic asked her a personal question? Who fucking cares? In my opinion, it doesn’t make her a brat to not answer a question; it makes him a jerk for asking her a personal question in the middle of an interview promoting her new album. Have you ever had that conversation with your mother where you’re excited about something you’ve done and then she suddenly asks you when you’re going to lose all that weight? That’s exactly what happened. Yeah, what a brat. She didn’t give us answers on all the gossip we’re apparently entitled to.

Just stop, everyone. Stop being assholes just because you’re assholes.

Stop telling people that reading on a tablet somehow doesn’t count because of the Internet’s constant romance with hanging out with books.

Stop with the hypocritical whining about how the Kardashians have done nothing to deserve attention in the same breath that you coo over the royal baby with.

Stop acting like in an age when the Democrats are fighting to allow the NSA to keep spying on Americans and the Republicans are fighting to keep allowing people to go bankrupt from medical costs and the President is using killer robot planes to murder Americans overseas without trial and basically continuing Richard Nixon’s policies on whistleblowers that the absolute worst thing going on in politics right now is a candidate emailing a picture of his dick.

Stop getting up in everyone’s face for being an intolerant bully at the same time as you’re bullying everyone about who’s “allowed” to feel discriminated against, Tumblr. And if you honestly think me writing two sentences on why I think zombies are lame is intolerance and not just an opinion on a facet of entertainment, please don’t talk to me anymore.

Stop demanding that your entertainers have good character as though any of that matters to how much you enjoy the newest overlong Hollywood piece of shit. Do you really care if your mechanic’s a good person, or do you care if he or she knows how to fix your transmission and charges you a fair price?

“Ugh, Kristen Stewart didn’t smile on a night when she was hobbling around on crutches with a gash cut in her foot, HOW DARE SHE MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY???”

“Watermelon-flavored Oreos? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH SOCIETY AND ITS QUEST FOR DIFFERENT FLAVOR COMBINATIONS!!!”

Internet hatred makes almost no sense, and that’s what’s so particularly infuriating about it. I see people every day who are otherwise bright, smart and engaged go off on tears about the stupidest, most petty things, and that’s really hard and annoying to watch. It’s hard to respect someone when you think they’re an interesting person and then you see them lose it over how they still hate the Ewoks.

Bottom line here: you’re not entitled to everyone thinking and living the same way that you do, so stop feeling bad about it and stop trying to make other people feel bad about your shit. No one has to answer your questions just because you ask them, engage your comments just because you leave them, kiss your ass just because you think you’re interesting, or make you any more comfortable just because.

If you want to change things, first you have to accept what is. Getting pissy about it is the opposite of that. Stop being twats and get a life. You’re not really that different from anyone else, so stop crying when people don’t treat you as if you are. Be distinct, not entitled.

Maybe take a walk every morning.

Aaron R. Davis lives in a cave at the bottom of the ocean with his eyes shut tight and his fingers in his ears. You can contact him at samuraifrog@yahoo.com.

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