new star wars film boycott

[General Zod]

The OP refers to multiple people attacking the film for such reasons. Sure, they're probably a fairly small percentage of the total, but white supremacism, racism, misogyny, etc. do still exist as ideologies with a significant support base.

It said multiple twitter "accounts". Multiple accounts doesn't mean there's more than one person.

[The Romulan Republic]

True. I suppose it could just be one agitator/troll. No way to know for sure, I guess.

[Starglider]

It's vaugely amusing, if a little sad, but hardly a cause for concern. There are always going to be mixed nuts on the Internet, this one isn't going to achieve anything.

[Adam Reynolds]

I wonder if anyone actually believes any of what they are saying with regard to issues like this.

There was an amusing post Elfdart linked to that he made when he was trolling in a similar fashion:

"This "tower" looks like a Third Reich phallic idol designed by Albert Speer. Add in the fact that the elves are a crude caricature of Jews and that hobbits are an insult to gay black midgets who play stepnfetchit to the blond Aryan superheroes; and this movie is the sort of thing Jorg Haider beats his bishop to every night. Just when the movie business tries to pat itself on the back because a strong, proud black actress (Halle Berry) proved that she could show her tits as gratuitously and get dry-humped by a lizardlike actor just as well as any white actress could; they try shoving this racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Italian, anti-Mormon, anti-midget shit down our throats. IT'S FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS! Lord of the Shitter: Twin Towers is also an insult to those who died on September 11, 2001 in New York AND those who died on the same date in 1973 in Chile because LotS promotes fascism and I'll bet Pinochet loves it, too."

[Joun_Lord]

The really sad thing is that some people really believe the Two Towers was about 9/11 despite the story being written decades before the WTCs were even built just like some idiots believe that Attack of the Clones was about the Iraq War. Not trolling or anything, but actually sincerely believe crap like that.

[Wild Zontargs]

You have been trolled. You have lost. Have a nice day.

In further proof that the Internet is sometimes a flaming junkyard, the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII started trending early this week amid the excitement over Star Wars ticket sales and the new The Force Awakens trailer.

This hashtag—the obvious work of a well-timed troll campaign—supposedly represented a new wave of racist backlash against the presence of actor John Boyega in the film. News outlets from The Hollywood Reporter to The Washington Post covered the racist viral campaign—most while pinching their noses about the fact that they were giving the trolls exactly the publicity they wanted. Alexandra Petri wrote for The Washington Post:

Let me start by saying that I realize that the discussion about the “Boycott Star Wars VII” hashtag is the equivalent of swatting a fly with a Star Destroyer. We are feeding the trolls.

A minuscule handful of idiots on Twitter decided to try to get “#BoycottStarWarsVII” trending, on the grounds that the movie somehow promotes “White Genocide” and objecting to the fact that the lead, John Boyega, is black.

This is so patently inane that it would probably have died on its own, had it not been for everyone swooping in to express their indignation that such a hashtag would exist at all.

While some Star Wars fans and some media outlets denounced the hashtag campaign in earnest, arguing reason, human decency, and even attempting to school the hashtag's few supporters on Star Wars canon, plenty of people seemed to be aware they were looking at a hyperbolic, 4chan-style troll campaign and just couldn't resist taking the bait.

#BoycottStarWarsVII folks, Lemme get this straight: Wookies, Ewoks & Droids are fine but a BLACK PERSON is a problem? Go home.You're Drunk.
— Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc) October 19, 2015

4ch: ha ha, we made up #BoycottStarWarsVII as a joke and you fell for it Us: so you're not really racist? 4ch: oh no that part is super true
— Rebecca Watson (@rebeccawatson) October 20, 2015

Ok #BoycottStarWarsVII people; this is going to melt your brain, but you need to know...James Earl Jones voiced Vader & Lando is black.
— Jeremy Jahns (@JeremyJahns) October 19, 2015

In fact, as soon as the hashtag went viral, people began suggesting that it was just another hoax from the anonymous message board 4chan, following in the footsteps of hoaxes like the #EndFathersDay hashtag.

One million dollars says #BoycottStarWarsVII started on 4chan as a joke in order to get idiots to blindly agree.
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) October 19, 2015

Oh hey You been had 4Chan wins again #BoycottStarWarsVII pic.twitter.com/f2F9lZSpB4
— Ms Jones If Ya Nasty (@FeministaJones) October 19, 2015

Several accounts claiming to belong to 4chan users have taken credit for the hashtag's popularity.

LOL @SaintNegro28 #BoycottStarWarsVII We did it Again #4chan should win a Nobel Peace Prize ! We made a racial issue out of thin air!!
— 0 Hour 1 (@0Hour1) October 19, 2015

So #BoycottStarWarsVII is a 4chan op and sjws swallowed it :3 KEK.
— Extrange (@The_Extrange) October 19, 2015

But while #BoycottStarWarsVII bears all the hallmarks of a 4chan hoax, we haven't found any evidence of it actually originating there. Of course various 4chan users are still getting a kick out of the chaos caused by the hashtag. There's even a 4chan thread debating whether the whole thing was a "false flag" PR stunt organized by Disney. (Our verdict: no way.)

Vox writer Genevieve Koski already traced the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag back to two white supremacist Twitter accounts in the early hours of Monday morning. As Koski pointed out, the hashtag went viral not because a huge number of people actually supported it, but because it was so outrageous.

Let's get #BoycottStarWarsVII trending @DarklyEnlighten
— Lord Humungus (@DarklyEnlighten) October 19, 2015

#BoycottStarWarsVII because white children deserve wholesome movies, not more PC anti-white diversity crap.
— End Cultural Marxism (@genophilia) October 19, 2015

So, conspiracy theories aside, it looks like #BoycottStarWarsVII rose to fame due to a combination of Twitter trolling and viral outrage. If anyone actually is boycotting The Force Awakens, they make up a microscopic fraction of the potential audience—and they certainly haven't made a dent in the film's astronomical ticket sales.

[The Romulan Republic]

In other words, they're saying that the way to defeat racism is to ignore it. I can't say I buy that.

And even if it was a hoax in the sense that the people promoting it didn't actually believe what they were saying, they were still promoting racist ideology for the sake of a fucking prank. And your article offers no proof that it was a hoax.

Also, no shit the films' sales won't be seriously harmed by this boycott. This film has a real shot at breaking the box office record, in my opinion.

[Wild Zontargs]

In other words, they're saying that the way to defeat racism is to ignore it. I can't say I buy that.

And even if it was a hoax in the sense that the people promoting it didn't actually believe what they were saying, they were still promoting racist ideology for the sake of a fucking prank.

So, if any trolls don the cloak of an unacceptable -ism to get attention, we must feed the trolls. This could never go wrong.

We've been seeing this sort of thing from the 'chans and their troll-alikes for years now. Pick a hill that internet activists are willing to die on, and shitpost about it. #FreeBleeding and #BikiniBridge, #EndFathersDay and #WhitesCantBeRaped, #CutForBieber and #PissForEquality. Pick the cause of the day, make up some Poe's Law grade hashtag relating to it, and grab the popcorn.

Fighting racism, sexism, etc. is a noble goal, but the only way to stop a troll is to starve it to death. As long as you must fight every battle, the trolls will keep on shitposting, and since they win as soon as someone takes them seriously, they'll keep on winning.

[bilateralrope]

The problem with these trolls is that it's difficult to tell them apart from the genuine racists. Leaving no option but to treat them identically to how you treat people spouting racist garbage that they actually believe.

[TheFeniX]

Trolls baiting bored Twitter followers into action is quite a bit different than DDOSing or vandalizing websites or attempting to incite a panic in whoever. Why not ignore Twitter trolls and or quietly have their bullshit deleted by site admins?

The fact is "The Internet" is way to quick to jump on the hurt feelings bandwagon at the drop of a hat, write long-winded bullshit, then spread it everywhere at the speed of stupid what with all the content aggregation/suckup>vomit out going on: and that's actually a problem. Fact is, at least on the Internet: ignoring people spouting stupid bullshit is not only generally very easy, but it's usually preferable lest you give them the attention they want and even attract people that agree with it.

NOTE: I'm not talking about blatantly criminal acts such as those noted above or shit like Doxing and harassment.

Long story short: people take the Internet way too fucking seriously. I laughed at the stupidity and moved on. I think the Internet would be a better place if more people did the same.

[Wild Zontargs]

The problem with these trolls is that it's difficult to tell them apart from the genuine racists. Leaving no option but to treat them identically to how you treat people spouting racist garbage that they actually believe.

The unfortunate side-effect of that is, as the number of trolls and the number of genuine racists converge (between more pseudo-racist trolling and a downwards trend in genuine racism), the number of false positives increases. If the general public starts to think you're doing a Chicken Little, they'll write off everything as "the sky is falling" and start to ignore it when you point out genuine racism.

We're starting to see this with the more outspoken Social Justice movements. When everyone from South Park to My Little fucking Pony is mocking them, people are taking their legitimate ideas less and less seriously. "Feminism" has become a toxic label for people who agree with the goals of "real" feminism because of the extremist elements, and anti-feminism is gaining in popularity as a result. Anti-racism seems to be headed down the same road, and that could have truly unfortunate effects.

[Sidewinder]

Being a troll is the ABSOLUTE WORST way to raise awareness of social problems. See the following articles on Joshua Goldberg:

The Sydney Morning Herald: "Unmasking a troll: Aussie 'jihadist' Australi Witness a 20-year-old American nerd"

The Daily Beast: "'Terrorist' Troll Pretended to Be ISIS, White Supremacist, and Jewish Lawyer"

[Sidewinder]

The problem with these trolls is that it's difficult to tell them apart from the genuine racists. Leaving no option but to treat them identically to how you treat people spouting racist garbage that they actually believe.

The unfortunate side-effect of that is, as the number of trolls and the number of genuine racists converge (between more pseudo-racist trolling and a downwards trend in genuine racism), the number of false positives increases. If the general public starts to think you're doing a Chicken Little, they'll write off everything as "the sky is falling" and start to ignore it when you point out genuine racism.

We're starting to see this with the more outspoken Social Justice movements. When everyone from South Park to My Little fucking Pony is mocking them, people are taking their legitimate ideas less and less seriously. "Feminism" has become a toxic label for people who agree with the goals of "real" feminism because of the extremist elements, and anti-feminism is gaining in popularity as a result. Anti-racism seems to be headed down the same road, and that could have truly unfortunate effects.

These are legitimate concerns.

[Eternal_Freedom]

And this is why I avoid Twitter. Every I hear anything about it, it's something fucking stupid like this. What's the damn point of it anyways?

[Kingmaker]

The problem with these trolls is that it's difficult to tell them apart from the genuine racists. Leaving no option but to treat them identically to how you treat people spouting racist garbage that they actually believe.

Indeed, and my recommendation for either is that you ignore them.

If they're trolls, condemning them is letting them win, because they're trolls and if they made you mad, they've already won. This is more or less self-evident.

If they're the genuine article, condemning is letting them win, because they're a marginal group with a persecution complex and by giving them attention you vindicate their feelings and encourage them to shout louder.

Whereas if you ignore them, the trolls go off to do something else and the fringe racists get to stew in their own irrelevance.

the number of false positives increases

Should be noted: churning up a lot of false positives is bad for being taken seriously, since it makes people suspect that either your detector is bullshit and lacks predictive power or than the phenomenon you're claiming to detect is barely distinguishable from random noise.

[Starglider]

We're starting to see this with the more outspoken Social Justice movements. When everyone from South Park to My Little fucking Pony is mocking them, people are taking their legitimate ideas less and less seriously.

Nearly all popular movements have a lunatic fringe that deserves to be mocked. For legitimate and progressive movements they are the minority. For something like Men's Rights unfortuantely the situation is the opposite, i.e. the 'sane fringe' that don't deserve to be mocked are the minority. Obviously there are some completely regressive movements e.g. assorted fundamentalists that deserve nothing but mockery.

"Feminism" has become a toxic label for people who agree with the goals of "real" feminism because of the extremist elements, and anti-feminism is gaining in popularity as a result. Anti-racism seems to be headed down the same road, and that could have truly unfortunate effects.

Feminism is still making strong progress in most parts of the world and this trend does not look likely to reverse as long as there are serious problems remaining to be addressed. Muzzling criticism of extremist elements, to try and prevent any criticism by association, would be much more harmful in the long run than correctly identifying and rejecting misconstrued and overzealous thinking. For example the recent conflict between trans-exclusionary radical feminism and the trans-inclusive mainstream (well, it is mainstream now) was a debate that absolutely had to happen and should not have been (and probably couldn't have been) swept under the rug.

I personally engage in some light mockery of 'SJW' type thinking when it departs from logic and sanity into ivory tower philosophical masturbation or a game of hopelessly inconsistent, holier-than-thou buzzword bingo. This is healthy to the extent that it is an entertaining way to point out when people's focus has drifted from real problems, facts and solutions to esoteric concerns of ideological correctness and purity.

[Zaune]

This is healthy to the extent that it is an entertaining way to point out when people's focus has drifted from real problems, facts and solutions to esoteric concerns of ideological correctness and purity.

Not to mention the fact that actual disabled or other minority individuals tend to have a sense of proportion and don't get anywhere near as offended as the more extreme SJW caricatures...

Some day I'm going to get around to buying this t-shirt and walk around Camden Market with a doctor's note confirming my autism diagnosis just to see how many hipsters I can annoy.

Anyway, to return at least vaguely to the topic at hand, who else here is boycotting Episode 7 on the grounds that the prequels were a bit shit and we don't trust George Lucas not to cock this up as well?

[The Romulan Republic]

Lucas has little if any influence over the outcome of this film. He's not writing, he's not directing, and he doesn't even fucking own it any more. You are aware that the entire catalyst for this happening was him selling to Disney, aren't you?

[Kingmaker]

Anyway, to return at least vaguely to the topic at hand, who else here is boycotting Episode 7 on the grounds that the prequels were a bit shit and we don't trust George Lucas not to cock this up as well?

I'm not sure it counts as a boycott if you don't see a movie because you think it won't be any good.

[Zaune]

Lucas has little if any influence over the outcome of this film. He's not writing, he's not directing, and he doesn't even fucking own it any more. You are aware that the entire catalyst for this happening was him selling to Disney, aren't you?

I knew he wasn't directing, but I had an idea he was still involved in some other capacity. I haven't really been following developments with the film, to be honest; I guess I'm afraid to get my hopes up.

[The Romulan Republic]

Lucas has little if any influence over the outcome of this film. He's not writing, he's not directing, and he doesn't even fucking own it any more. You are aware that the entire catalyst for this happening was him selling to Disney, aren't you?

I knew he wasn't directing, but I had an idea he was still involved in some other capacity. I haven't really been following developments with the film, to be honest; I guess I'm afraid to get my hopes up.

I believe I heard that he had some role as well, but he's certainly not calling all the shots.

For what its worth, IMDB lists the writers as Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, and George Lucas, with Lucas credited only for characters.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/ful ... cl_sm#cast

[Lord Revan]

I think the correct title for Lucas is "Creative Consultant" so depending on rest of the production team he could have major influence or next to no influence.

[Adam Reynolds]

Some day I'm going to get around to buying this t-shirt and walk around Camden Market with a doctor's note confirming my autism diagnosis just to see how many hipsters I can annoy.

As someone else who has that diagnosis I found that shirt hilarious. Though I am really closer to Asperger's, but was officially diagnosed after the switch to Autism Spectrum with the DSM change.

Anyway, to return at least vaguely to the topic at hand, who else here is boycotting Episode 7 on the grounds that the prequels were a bit shit and we don't trust George Lucas not to cock this up as well?

As far as I know, Lucas has almost nothing to do with it. Most of the concern I have seen is about JJ Abrams skills as a writer and director.

The most I heard was that Lucas had some rough outlines that were used initially, but that the majority of that has been thrown out. One story goes that Abrams and Lawrence Kasden(who wrote The Empire Strikes Back), majorly rewrote the story after Harrison Ford's injury pushed back the shooting schedule.

I knew he wasn't directing, but I had an idea he was still involved in some other capacity. I haven't really been following developments with the film, to be honest; I guess I'm afraid to get my hopes up.

If you are even remotely a Star Wars fan, watch the new trailer:

I believe I heard that he had some role as well, but he's certainly not calling all the shots.

For what its worth, IMDB lists the writers as Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, and George Lucas, with Lucas credited only for characters.

That indicates that he likely wrote next to nothing. The character credit is because he created the OT characters that are appearing.

[Zaune]

Okay. Maybe if it gets good reviews.

[TheFeniX]

The only thing that could make me boycott a Star Wars film is no John Williams. He's getting older, so the faster these movies come out, the better. I would also say an animated Star Wars, but Clone Wars was pretty damned good, so that went out the windows years ago.

Even some of the stupid shit that I've seen really can't turn me away. Mr. Evil McBadguy Sith dude that looks like some kid LARPing a Star Wars game and the lightsaber hilt can't do it. Look, I get Lightsabers not having a guard is dumb. But finally seeing a lightsaber with one shows how fucking terrible it looks. And that new Sith guy looks more like he belongs in the Trench Coat Mafia than leading Imperial Remnants.

Whatever, it's a Star Wars product not shit out by EA Games, please take my money.