As the title suggests, I believe there are, generally, three different kinds of movie-themed Youtubers. So without wasting anyone’s time, I’m just gonna dive right in and explain what I think those three groups are:
1.The ones who genuinely say what they mean
2.The ones who, in the front of their minds, think they’re being genuine, but are really just subconsciously conforming to some norm and/or playing both sides
3.The ones who exaggerate (or sometimes even just lie) for popularity and/or financial gain
Most famous “movietubers” started out in the first group and then gradually moved on to the second and/or third. Some of the newer ones already started out in the second or third group. I’ll try to avoid naming names, but I have an idea in my head of which tubers fall into which bucket, and I imagine most of you do too…
For those of you still in disbelief of that third group I mentioned; I’m sorry to break it to you, but “grifting,” or whatever you wanna call it, is very much a real thing, in more fields than one. I was recently watching an interview with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan where he was being asked about the meaning behind his song “Chip Away” (cause Bob Dylan endorsed it) and he revealed that the inspiration came from flipping back and forth between politically-driven news channels and seeing “the grift” in action. In his own words: “All these people wanna keep you pissed off, so that you stay addicted.”
Here’s the question now, though; why do people keep falling for this? Three and a half years ago I blogged about nerds having a bigger tendency than others to conform to mob mentality. Unfortunately, I think it’s only gotten worse. Male virginity is still on the rise, and our post-covid world has only made people more lonely than they already were, with geeks starting out at a bigger disadvantage than most. When you’re in that kind of a position, you’re more likely, be it consciously or subconsciously, to go along with whatever most other people are thinking or saying…
I even see the people who make the films and shows themselves give into this. During the press tour of The Rise of Skywalker, JJ Abrams and the cast were making low-key disses towards The Last Jedi (which is ironic, considering that Rise was arguably a worse movie in the end). And make no mistake, I’m mostly a fan of Abrams, and also the sequel trilogy as a whole. That said, I still feel the need to call this sorta stuff out when I see it. You can tell the initial backlash of Last influenced all their ways of thinking, at least until the same thing happened to Rise. It’s also weird when people act like certain opinions have more authority than others. Marcia Lucas dissed The Force Awakens, for instance, and I even agree with some of the things she said, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop liking that movie. Yet people act like whatever she says goes just because she technically “saved” Star Wars way back in 1977…
Look, it’s fine if you think Disney mostly messed up over this last decade or so with Star Wars. Heck, there’s even a valid argument to be made that they did, at this point. But at least back up your points with your own opinions based on the content itself, instead of just relying on out-of-context quotes parroted to you by some “armchair critic.” And for what it’s worth, I do still think that things will calm down from here on out, at least when it comes to Star Wars. After The Acolyte, the only other live-action shows in the pipeline are Skeleton Crew (which is about a bunch of little kids, so people will probably go a bit easy on them), Andor season 2 (which everyone already knows they like), and Ahsoka season 2 (which has the benefit of Filoni being the closest thing to Lucas, and Anakin likely showing up again). After that, the studio seems determined to pivot back to movies, which are harder to generate hate-content from since those stories won’t be released slowly over a week-to-week basis (on one hand I’m glad this will limit discourse but on the other hand I’ll miss having something sw-related to look forward to weekly).
So, in a sense, The Acolyte is likely the last time all these people who make a literal living off hating Star Wars will have the opportunity to milk it this much (I’ve been wrong before, though). At this point, I almost want to say “let them have their fun.” Furthermore, as twisted as it may sound, a part of me almost can’t help but sympathize with these people. A lot of them make thousands of dollars a week from YouTube ad revenue whenever a new live-action Star Wars comes out that’s easy to hate on. The very popular YouTubers make tens of thousands of dollars a week from this stuff! If you knew you had a big enough of a following to pull in that kinda cash, as long as you act like you hate something enough, wouldn’t you at least be tempted to sell out like that too?
On top of that, I’m sure most of these guys (and girls to a lesser extent) are aware that youth has a lot to do with their influence too. I could be wrong, but I have a hard time believing people are still gonna listen to most of these YouTubers when they’re old and wrinkly. There’s an expiration date to this sorta stuff, and they’re all aware of it. Plus, it’s not like they have enough skill-sets to suddenly transition into other careers. The money is gonna run out at some point, so they might as well make as much of it now while they still can…
So, once again; let them have their fun…
Peace!
PS: Not saying everyone who hates The Acolyte is a troll, bigot, etc. There are valid reasons for disliking it. Even I’m starting to not like it as much anymore.
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