I’ve been umming and ahhing about whether or not to post this, but if I can’t speak freely on my own fricking website, I think I’ll explode, so I’m going to say it anyway.
I really, really don’t give a damn about any drama surrounding an individual behind a particular project. I’m not saying you have to feel the same way, but I do want to express that I find it continually tiresome and genuinely upsetting when I want to talk about something that I think is cool, but the first response is always “but [individual] worked on it, so it’s bad (and by extension you are bad for having anything positive to say about it)”.
I’m not going to talk about specific cases here, because even doing that has the potential to attract ire towards me, and that’s not what this post is about. What it is about is the sense of frustration I feel that the real people who worked on a project end up getting punished for the actions or behaviour of one individual — and, by extension, the attacks people who express enthusiasm for that project end up suffering also.
It is an unfortunate fact of capitalist life that in order to claw your way up to the top of the heap, you probably have to be a bit of a shithead. The way capitalism works, the way business works; you need to be a bit of a shithead in order to see success. You need to doggedly pursue the things you want to achieve, and you need to defend your commercial interests. This is true for pretty much all industries, whether it’s groceries, tech, publishing or whatever. I defy you to find any company out there with an executive suite that has never done anything you’re not a particular fan of, all in the name of either pursuing their goals or defending their commercial interests.
Trouble is, when the higher-ups at a company do something that is regarded as “bad” or “indefensible”, the real people who suffer are those who are just doing their job underneath. When one CEO behaves poorly, the people who are actually making the products that CEO’s company is known for end up getting punished for it. They could do an absolutely amazing job on whatever they worked on, but still get punished because their boss once did “A Bad Thing”, often several years ago.
This, unfortunately, spreads outwards. Because “(CEO = Bad) = (Company = Bad)”, anyone who then expresses an interest in or an enthusiasm for the products of Company gets yelled at by people who care more about the CEO than the company or the product. And that leaves people feeling like they simply can’t express their enjoyment of something they like just as a product, because of one thing the CEO did half a decade ago.
CEOs should, ideally, not do shit things. It would be lovely if we lived in a world where CEOs did not feel the need to do shit things, be it in the name of pursuing their goals or defending their interests. But we do not. And frankly, I am, I’m afraid, long past giving a shit.
I’ve seen too many pointless, unnecessary arguments and too many strained, even broken friendships over this sort of thing, and it just doesn’t matter. We live in a joyless enough world as it is; we should not be attacking one another over the things we choose to have fun with, so long as those things are not actively hurting someone. And in the specific instances I’m thinking about here, no-one is getting hurt except the folks who worked on them, and the people being attacked for daring to say something positive about them.
That’s all I’m going to say on the subject. I do not want an argument on this, I do not want anyone in the comments trying to tell me I’m wrong for feeling this way. I’m fed up and I’m annoyed, and I am absolutely not in the mood for someone to tell me I’m wrong for feeling that way. So if you’re gearing up to type a comment like that, zip it. I do not want to hear it.
Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.
Discover more from I'm Not Doctor Who
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
