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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.
@Valentin
Mine isn’t too bad to clean. I just scrub the parts with soapy water and run the pump in distilled vinegar to sanitize.
I love it when trolls show up to tell us to LEARN THE FACTS, then proceed to harp on about some inconsequential detail. Tell me, @ceo, does it matter if there’s a “want to see” button there still? Does changing from recording two metrics to one have any bearing here?
And I’ll actually take you at face value and give you the honest, real answer for why it’s happened now and not previously. They decided to do this now because they’ve been subject to a bunch of downvote-brigades and would rather pull the feature than let it happen again. In other words, they’re sick of your shit and have taken your toy away. They haven’t quite told you to go sit in time-out yet, but the spirit is there.
Or I guess you could propose that there’s some elaborate coordination between multiple entities all working in concert to silence the truth or something, but I’ll refer you to the principle of parsimony here. Ockham’s Razor for the pithy.
As for @Contract JACK, I get a giggle every time when a troll complains about being silenced – they often come in groups, as we’ve seen here.
Jack, Ceo; what you’re experiencing isn’t silencing. If you were being silenced, no one would reply to you at all. No one would know you’re there. No, you’re not experiencing silencing, you’re experiencing opposition.
Think long and hard about why they feel so similar to you, my ducks.
I am pleased and surprised to discover this site chose not to censor my comments. When they did not show up after 15 minutes, I assumed my dissenting views had been removed, as is typical for feminist and socialist blogs. You are fortunate that I chose to check again today; I seldom bother to do so.
Perhaps I will find a few open minds on this site, though my many prior experiences with socjus blogs does not leave me hopeful.
“What is preventing them from saying so publicly?”
@kupo: Please answer the question.
“Well, see, someone managed to get ahold of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution and, in big red sharpie, crossed out “right to free speech” and wrote in “right to wear yoga pants all the time.” It’s a tragedy, but it’s the law, you know?”
@viscera: Sarcasm, no matter how clever you believe yourself to be, is not an argument. Please answer the question.
Erroneously presupposes that your burblefroth deserves the dignity of being rebutted with an actual argument.
“Erroneously presupposes that your burblefroth deserves the dignity of being rebutted with an actual argument.”
@surplus to requirements: That is also not an argument.
@Contract JACK,
You can’t expect someone to respond if you don’t use their name. You know, the one on the screen, available for you to read to ensure that you type it correctly, or copy-and-paste? That one.
I assume you mean this question:
It’s been answered a few ways. Most bluntly: They are allowed to say so publicly. You and yours are free to say it as loud and long as you want.
Turns out that a privately-owned website isn’t public, though! It’s private. You know, private as in – private property, private company.
Though I mean if you’d like everything to be made public, welcome to the worker’s revolution my brother!
Kupo’s point is that the premise of your question — that people who don’t want to see the Captain Marvel movie aren’t allowed to publicly say that they don’t want to see the movie — is rather obviously complete bullshit. The Rotten Tomatoes website isn’t the only way to express one’s opinion about a movie, and the people behind the Rotten Tomatoes site certainly don’t have either the authority or ability to prevent anyone from saying things in public.
But you already know that, because you’re very obvious troll.
So, when did you stop beating your girlfriend, Contract JACK?
@Contract JACK:
Yes. That was obvious.
@Captain JACK:
Hmmm….
It’s almost as if Captain JACK is so thick-headed as to not be aware that everyone else here already knows the difference between form and content, and we expect readers to be intelligent enough to appreciate both at the same time.
Poor Captain JACK. The widdle snowflake so disappointed that people actually refuse to echo JACK’s opinions is the same widdle snowflake that barely recognizes hyperbole when it stomps his argument like Godzilla stomped Bambi.
Perhaps we could donate to a fund for remedial communications classes on Captain JACK’s behalf, because I care **so much** about JACK’s difficulties with interpersonal interactions. It would wound me **so deeply** if JACK had to be isolated forever because of a lack of basic skills necessary to human interactions.
Maybe if the comms classes don’t work out, someone could get JACK a cuddly pet sea urchin.
Well, the “ghostbusters” remake wasn’t very good, but it beats me why people would get upsex (I mistyped “upset”, but I kind of like this word!) about the sex of *fictional characters* in a *science fiction universe*.
P. S.
Isn’t (the original) “Star Wars” essentially Cinderella with the sexes reversed? Luke Skywalker is Cinderella, Obi-Wan Kenobi the fairy godmother, and Darth Vader the evil stepmother… sex change in fiction is as old as the ancient Greeks.
anSWeR ThE QUeSTiON OR I wILL bBE fOrceD to AsK YOu agAiN. YOu dONT WAnT tO MesS WItH mE, SsHeePLE!!1!!
@Kupo:
No, I haven’t, but that’s worth a try. Years ago, my cats used to enjoy drinking from my decorative tabletop fountains. Thanks.
Nothing. Nothing is preventing them from saying so publicly.
Only in exchange for yoga pants do I answer questions. Your question is short, but it is also particularly absurd, so I will require three pairs of yoga pants.
@Viscaria,
BUT! Those yoga pants must all have POCKETS!!!! *wild evil laughter*
You set an impossible task, @Bookworm in hijab. ?
By the way, your avatar is really cute and I love it.
LOOK!!!!
https://www.amazon.com/GYM-PEOPLE-Pockets-Control-Leggings/dp/B07HQCCDFC
@ bookworm in hijab
Ooh, I’d wear them. Solve my training dilemma of having to choose between tactical pants, with pockets, or compression wear so I don’t pull something.
@Contract JACK – You were in moderation, and only let out because the regulars like to bat around trolls. *shrug*
It can sometimes take your posts a little while to appear, there is a problem with the site that makes comments sort of show up a few minutes later. Often after the edit window has timed out, darn it all!
As to your question, I believe it has been answered, since you wrote something here on Captain Marvel. Seems your speech is free!
Here’s a question: Why do you think that one site removing a feature that people have often used to cheat results means that you no longer have free speech?
Are you open minded enough to see that someone removing an option on a private website is not a first amendment matter, since that deals solely with the US government limiting speech?
Now, perhaps you are going to argue about the slippery slope of deciding which ‘speech’ is allowed on large websites, and that is a real concern. After all, what news or websites someone reads will help shape their world outlook.
If that is your next argument, I’d like you to clearly explain how not being able to leave comments on a film *before it is released* and not being able to downvote it could have an impact on society? Especially since this site deals with films, which do have societal impact, but not in the same realm as say facebook, twitter, or news sites?
Eloo
I had never heard of Queen of Luna, so I searched her. She is amazing!
Dormousing_it
I don’t know why your cat beats up his water dish but cats can be selective about their water. Mine would spurn a clean bowl of water to go outside to lap up rain water from a puddle or a rusty can.
I have been leaning vegan these last few years and found the only nutrient we can’t get from plants is Vitamin B12.
B12 is produced by bacteria in the large intestine (below the part where it can be absorbed, so it is not available for absorption. This may be why many vegetarian animals eat their feces.)
The B12 bacteria are found in soil & water.
If your cat is not feeling well , it may crave “dirty” water because it wants the B12 bacteria.
For all their indignation about how badly treated straight, white dudes are treated, the way they slip in the “I’m a white man” line gives me the impression that deep down they believe the problem might be that people just haven’t realised they have white skin and a penis and if only they can make that clear enough people will listen because that makes them more important than anyone else, right? Right?
So what you’re saying is that you have certain expectations about how the world works and how people will behave, but when you actually bother to check your expectations against reality, they turn out to be wrong.
That might be something you’d want to keep in mind for the future.