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By David Futrelle
The movie review-aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes has made some changes to its website that will prevent angry trolls from talking shit about movies none of them have seen, removing the ability of anyone but professional critics to review movies that aren’t out yet and shutting a feature that allowed users to report whether or not they want to see a movie that’s about to come out.
It was clearly a response to an organized downvoting campaign against Marvel and Disney’s upcoming Captain Marvel movie, which has angered the internet’s angriest men because it features a woman — Brie Larson — in the titular role. Trolls had apparently managed to push the film’s “want to see” rating down to 27% before the feature was disabled.
As Collider points out, this is hardly the first time angry dudes have tried to tank a movie at the box office with mass downvotes.
Over the last couple of years, it’s become commonplace for “fans” who have yet to see a movie to enact a negging campaign designed to bring down the film’s audience scores prior to release. The Ghostbusters “fans” did this by downvoting the trailer for Paul Feige’s female-led reboot [and] Marvel Studios “fans” intentionally tried to tank the Rotten Tomatoes score of Black Panther … .
Naturally, the trolls are pissed, and many have taken to Twitter to denounce Rotten Tomatoes for allegedly taking away the First Amendment rights of ordinary, hard-working Americans by preventing them from crapping on a movie they haven’t seen on one privately-owned website:
Indeed, the critics charge, the Rotten Tomatoites are apparently destroying democracy itself.
But what else would one expect from the gang of beta cuck feminazi fascist assholes who run Rotten Tomatoes?
According to this self-described Jordan Peterson fan, the “fucking fascist dictators” at Rotten Tomatoes have taken away his right to tell the world that he wants to see a different movie, although he has in fact told the world this in the very tweet in question:
The powers that be at Rotten Tomatoes are apparently a rather unique breed of Nazis in that they are also liberals:
They are also, apparently, fascists who hate white men. (Which would be sort of a new twist for fascism, I have to say.)
This fellow, with a Covington Kid avatar and zero followers, is also very much concerned about the rights of white men:
As is this fellow with nine followers:
And this lovely fellow with five followers and an Elon Musk avatar:
Evidently Rotten Tomatoes is not only racist against whites but also racist against everyone who isn’t white:
The brave free speech defenders made sure that their own personal free speech was filled with all the right angry internet dude buzzwords:
Other commenters leaned heavily on the slurs:
Some even made up their own slur just for the occasion, combining the name of the actress playing Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) with the old favorite “retard.”
Some of the criticism got weirdly specific. For example, these critics are angry that the people running Rotten Tomatoes are evidently too enthusiastic about performing oral sex:
As a result of Rotten Tomatoes’ actions, at least two white MALE asses will not be attending the movie.
This white man, thinking ahead, apparently plans to boycott a completely different Marvel movie coming out later this year:
Meanwhile, the same people who insisted they didn’t organize the mass-downvoting of Captain Marvel have evidently decided to organize a mass-upvoting of the movie Alita: Battle Angel — I guess to prove that angry manbabies don’t hate all superhero movies centered around women, at least not if the women in question have weird huge cgi-ed anime eyes.
So far these newly minted Alita superfans have pushed the Rotten Tomatoes audience score rating for that film up to 94% — a considerable improvement from the 59% score from critics.
So sad that these thoughtful critics and their assorted sockpuppets have been denied their sacred right to voice their opinions about a movie none of them have ever seen, at least on one particular site out of the gazillions of sites on the internet that would like its audience rating scores to actually reflect the views of the audience and not of angry mobs of woman-with-normal-eyes-hating trolls. I can only hope that free speech somehow manages to survive this assault.
I don’t understand. Why are people who don’t want to see a movie not allowed to say so publicly?
Regarding the concept of free speech in American law, I believe (given I’m neither a lawyer nor an historian but based on what little I’ve read) the main impetus behind it would have been religious considerations. Many of the original colonists would have been fleeing religious persecution in England, particularly persecution of the kind that required one to be a member of the established Church of England to hold particular kinds of political office. While the laws that required one to be a member of the CofE to hold office originally dated back to the times of Henry VIII and the break with the Roman Catholic Church (basically as a kind of loyalty test), they were used later against the Puritans and other dissenting Protestant sects. This is why the First Amendment explicitly prohibits the establishment of a religion or religious tests to hold office in the United States– the citizens of the colonies that became the USA explicitly didn’t want this kind of setup in their new republic.
The commitment to free speech arose out of the same background; that is, when the Founding Fathers and their contemporaries talked about free speech, they generally meant religious free speech. While some of the original colonies were extremely doctrinaire on religious matters, others were noted for being more welcoming to all faiths, and it would have been noted that the more prosperous colonies tended to be the ones with more open attitudes towards religious toleration. I suspect that this– that is, that free speech was good for business– helped sway things as much as high-falutin’ Enlightenment ideals in the end.
The thing, too, that the FREEZE PEACH fetishists usually overlook when they start shrieking about the First Amendment– apart from the obvious one that it is only binding on the Congress of the USA and doesn’t apply to private entities– is that freedom of speech isn’t an absolute right anyway, and never was in the history of the United States or any other nation. No-one’s right to free speech entitles them to libel or slander someone else, for example. The United States itself has passed various Sedition Acts during its history during times of war or unrest that has placed restrictions on its citizens’ speech to various extents. There is the whole “yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre” argument. And so on.
One related thing I’ve seen reported online recently is the rise of so-called “First Amendment auditors” — people who approach law-enforcement personnel and deliberately antagonise them, then film the results! In these times of increasing militarisation of law-enforcement, not to mention increasing authoritarian overreach, this strikes me as extremely foolish.
@Cat Mara, I enjoyed those droll webcomics so much! Thanks for sharing!
@Cat Mara, those vignettes caused a temporary realignment of my facial structure signifying a pleasing emotional state, and I crave a continuing supply.
@Katamount, Gaebolga, Herbert West:
Is it possible they just think “anime character=Japanese woman=submissive,” regardless of anything the character actually says and does on-screen?
Or to put it more bluntly, Alita meets their standards for wank fodder, so they’re happy to ignore the actual plot?
OT: At least they’re not even hiding why they like the Electoral College anymore?
Let it be noted that he was calling in from his home in Florida.
I’m surprised LePage has a home in Florida. I recall a while back that he was complaining about his governor’s salary, which is $70,000. (Not bad, but the lowest in the country by a pretty wide margin.)
Educate yourself on the FACTS. I know, it’s not as clickbaity, but the FACT is what was changed was a POLL.. There was a button saying “Want to See” and other saying “Not Interested”. There was also a ‘leave a comment’ section that was deleted.
When this change was made, approximately 45K people had pressed the “Not Interested” button, giving the 27% rating of ‘Want to See” for the Captain Marvel movie. Now, only the button “Want to See” is available, so only positive feedback on if a movie is getting pre-release hype is an option.
This setup served RT for about 20 years, and was changed overnight when Captain Marvel reached only 27% of respondants wanted to see the movie. The former Disney exec VP that now runs Fandango said the change had nothing to do with Captain Marvel’s score. I’m sure it was just a coincidence on the timing… lol.
@Cat Mara, those were great!
@Ceo
I’m sure that had nothing to do with the brigading of the film for blatantly transparent reasons.
You can leave a comment on the film you don’t want to see after it has opened. Doesn’t seem to harsh.
I did not know that 27% was the magic number when things changed! Like, this secret cabal was all “ehhh, our want to see is at 28%, I guess that’s fine” and when it hit 27 they went
And then cut it off.
I’m going to present an alternative story. Perhaps they saw yet another film getting brigaded by a group of whiny boys, and were like “okay enough is enough, let’s just fix this problem.”
Y’all couldn’t play nice with the toys, and now no one gets to play. So, thanks for that.
I just want to let you guys know I did get jessie new litter box. one closer to the ground and he’s still trying to figure out if he likes it or not. the old one had a cover on it, which I think he liked it better but he is using it. I am still taking him to the vet but the shorter litter box does seem to be a lot easier for him. So thank y’all for the advice.
@Moggie
Facisim sounds like a word that an incel who thinks their face is undatable might coin.
Heh, “ceo” is the Irish word for “fog”. Seems an appropriate ‘nym for someone blowing smoke.
@ REI Malebario,
Yes. Yes they do.
I’ve gotta thank the MRAs, though. /s I would NEVER have gone to see Fury Road (as I’m not a fan of explosion-y action movies), EXCEPT that it pissed the MRAs off so much that I figured I had to go see it. And then I loved it so much I recommended it to a bunch of my other friends (also not usually fans of action movies), who also loved it. So hey, MRAs, yay you…? Success? Or something? It’d be interesting to know how many people have gone to see these movies simply because the MRAs put up such a fuss against them.
I haven’t figured out how I can effectively cosplay Furiosa though, in hijab. ?
Hmm…
Lainy, I also have older kitties, and one of them has also had some pooping outside the box problems in the last few months. We cut a hole in the side of the litter box to ease his trip in and out, and that seems to have helped. I hope the lower walls are helpful to your kitty too. Wishing them all the snuggles.
@Ceo
Speaking of facts… you see any ads, broseph? Your clicks aren’t worth anything here.
Lol at the troll here.
It would be a waste of energy to engage.
sez contractjack: “I don’t understand. Why are people who don’t want to see a movie not allowed to say so publicly?”
That’s funny; it doesn’t appear as if any of those people who don’t want to see Captain Marvel have had even the slightest, most miniscule amount of trouble whatsoever saying so publicly. Tell me: What color is the sky on your home planet?
@Cat Mara my facial muscles have contracted in a configuration pertaining to the expression of extreme amusement in my species (though often pertaining to the expression of aggression in many other species including those most closely related to my own)
it is most disconcerting
thank you
[Source]
@Gaebolga:
I’m not familiar with the source material, but I watched the video below a year ago (warning: spoilers), which convinced me that I need to see it (happening this weekend). It’s much as you say. He talks at length about the “born sexy yesterday” trope, how, at first blush, it might seem like Alita leans heavily on that trope, how this might make it appeal to creeps looking for an exceptional waifu… and how the manga actually subverts and rebuts that. He makes the manga sound really inspirational and nuanced, but it surely wouldn’t be surprising if some dudes who have watched the trailer don’t see beyond “attractive young fembot who is talented but naive and needs a man to teach her about the world”.
Strap up in post-apocalyptic survival gear and a cyborg arm and a hijab made of appropriate materials?
Vishavjit Singh manages fine as a turbaned Captain America, I can’t imagine a hijabi Furiosa would have any issues with recognition.
Rabid Rabbit,
It’s so revealing isn’t it? Abolishing the electoral college would not take away the votes of white people. It would mean every person’s vote counts the same, no matter where in the country they live. Apparently hurting white people = taking away the disproportionate power their votes have. It’s almost like we “SJW” types are correct in saying that white privilege exists and a whole lot of white people will do anything to hang on to it.
@Lainy
That’s good to hear!