gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

1. Andrew Hussie personally identifies with Zhen in a lot of ways, especially with her loss of control over her movement and attempted personal rebranding.

Thu Nov 11 23:22:27 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

2. Andrew sees Psycholonials as an "anti-cult narrative", which... if you've read the story and the consequences the various cult leaders and members have for their actions, is odd.

Thu Nov 11 23:24:37 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

3. Further, "cult" is very much how he characterizes fandom as a whole. There's a lot here I actually agree with about toxic volatility, although I expect we're imaging two very different people.

Thu Nov 11 23:28:06 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

4. He has some interesting thoughts about wanting to not be deified or made into a blank-slate character for fans to project onto in a parasocial way. I'm intensely curious whether or not this is reflection he had after writing himself into Homestuck as a blank-slate god figure.

Thu Nov 11 23:31:16 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

5. Directly following him praising himself for stepping away from the spotlight and not becoming a cult leader, he laments how he somehow lost control over his brand. He doesn't say what he imagines the "preposterous hallucinatory projections" to be, though.

Thu Nov 11 23:34:52 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

6. This article also gets into the Hiveswap controversy and... this is where I have to get into how this article is bad. Let's start with this absurd paragraph that paints Sarah Z's video as hallucinatory rambling accusations without addressing its validity or even linking to it.

Thu Nov 11 23:37:41 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

It's not hard to see that the author (priv, so I won't @ them) isn't exactly a subject matter expert about that "controversy", as they're somehow under the impression that Hiveswap is finished. (Wonder if that has something to do with getting all your information from Andrew?)

Thu Nov 11 23:41:31 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

Instead, the article resorts to classic both-sides-y handwringing about "public theater" and how Sarah and I ignited reddit with "speculation". This is not a good look when someone has serious, credible accusations against them!

Thu Nov 11 23:45:08 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

(In fact, compulsive middle-of-the-road-ness is something Sarah herself was blasted for by some people when *her* first video came out! Then she did more research and refined her opinion based on the evidence, which was the correct thing to do)

Thu Nov 11 23:45:08 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

This exhausts the meat of the article, aside from a bunch of weird false and misleading insinuations about fandom people, including me.

Thu Nov 11 23:51:44 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

It's also incredible in its own right that an article about Andrew's intersection with fandom managed to get around addressing any of the actual controversies. Like, that took some real verbal athletics. Unless it was just omitted for ease, but would journalism do that?

Thu Nov 11 23:53:11 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

"Fandom" here is treated as a great force of nature, some all-consuming external flood whose machinations are unknowable and that can only ever be fled from. Absolutely no attention is paid to how the creator's decisions form and curate their audience

Thu Nov 11 23:58:29 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

It's true that the author of a work doesn't have an absolute enthralling power over their fans, but to pretend there is *no* connection and that both parties are helpless victims at each others' whims is obviously dishonest.

Fri Nov 12 00:00:04 +0000 2021

gio :⁾@giovan_h

Replying to giovan_h:

But this is done intentionally, because granting there's a dynamic there to interrogate at all invites public discussion about the actual actions taken by both audience and author, which is something Andrew has absolutely refused to engage with on any terms.

Fri Nov 12 00:02:12 +0000 2021