The RationalWiki Editor
Jan. 15th, 2019 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI love how nobody thinks twice about including Sonic the Hedgehog in a lineup of classic Nintendo characters these days. It’s like an enemies-to-bros fanfic arc in mascot form.
https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/173329671862/prokopetz-prokopetz-i-love-how-nobody-thinks
I don't know anything about Sonic or Shadow, but "RationalWiki Editor" is totally a character type. I've spent a fair amount time on various gaming forums exchanging questions and answers about Japanese mobile games and Zelda speedruns, and I'm constantly crossing paths with people like this. They'll be intelligent and articulate and knowledgeable and witty, but then you'll see them making a bunch of posts on another board vigorously defending, like, eugenics.
A representative example of the "RationalWiki Editor" is Eliezer Yudkowsky, the LessWrong guy who wrote a 660,000k fanfic called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (I will not link to it, but it has its own page on Wikipedia, because of course it does). The Methods of Rationality, which is mainly about the intersection of magic with politics and science, seemed interesting when it first began serialization in 2010, but it gradually devolved into a platform for charming opinions such as "gender discrimination doesn't exist because of Social Darwinism."
Between one thing and another, I've also known a few people like this in real life, and I think it's fair to say that their particular brand of sociopathic charm is not limited to the internet. They are super creepy in real life as well, and the most disturbing thing about them is that it's not always easy to see their damage if you either don't know them that well or don't know the warning signs. Honestly though, there's so much gaslighting that people who are not male are subjected to on a daily basis (like, "there's nothing wrong, you're just overreacting") that it can be difficult to trust your instincts about these people even if you do know them well and can see the warning signs clearly.
I mention this because I'm beginning to suspect that maybe David J. Prokopetz himself might be a softer version of the "RationalWiki Editor" archetype: the "Woke Liberal Male" who doesn't really like women all that much. This is a dude who respects and appreciates smart and strong and independent women; but, when one of these smart and strong and independent women writes fanfic about Shadow the Hedgehog or Magus from Chrono Trigger or one of the edgelords from Kingdom Hearts, that's ridiculous and disgusting because it's, idk, anti-feminist.
But who knows. Maybe there's nothing wrong, and I'm just overreacting. Gaslighting aside, that does indeed happen, but a lovely side effect of being exposed to constant atmospheric sexism that sometimes you just can't tell. I personally hope Prokopetz isn't an asshole, because I really like his blog. It's also admittedly a weird experience to read someone's blog backwards, which can result in what seems like reverse character development.
For what it's worth, I think the fantasy of romancing a Byronic antihero is that he secretly worships you instead of secretly worshiping Ayn Rand; it's not "you can change him," but rather that he was a secret feminist/queer rights activist all along and just needed the right person to come along and rescue him from the high and lonely tower of the patriarchy.
https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/173329671862/prokopetz-prokopetz-i-love-how-nobody-thinks
Shadow isn’t anybody’s current boyfriend. Shadow is the hedgehog equivalent of the guy you dated for like six months back in high school and then didn’t hear from for ten years, and when you finally make contact again you find out that they’re a full-time RationalWiki editor on probation for a vehicular assault conviction stemming from ramming their Prius into a Dairy Queen drivethru kiosk in a bizarre road rage incident, and you’re like wow, bullet dodged.
I don't know anything about Sonic or Shadow, but "RationalWiki Editor" is totally a character type. I've spent a fair amount time on various gaming forums exchanging questions and answers about Japanese mobile games and Zelda speedruns, and I'm constantly crossing paths with people like this. They'll be intelligent and articulate and knowledgeable and witty, but then you'll see them making a bunch of posts on another board vigorously defending, like, eugenics.
A representative example of the "RationalWiki Editor" is Eliezer Yudkowsky, the LessWrong guy who wrote a 660,000k fanfic called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (I will not link to it, but it has its own page on Wikipedia, because of course it does). The Methods of Rationality, which is mainly about the intersection of magic with politics and science, seemed interesting when it first began serialization in 2010, but it gradually devolved into a platform for charming opinions such as "gender discrimination doesn't exist because of Social Darwinism."
Between one thing and another, I've also known a few people like this in real life, and I think it's fair to say that their particular brand of sociopathic charm is not limited to the internet. They are super creepy in real life as well, and the most disturbing thing about them is that it's not always easy to see their damage if you either don't know them that well or don't know the warning signs. Honestly though, there's so much gaslighting that people who are not male are subjected to on a daily basis (like, "there's nothing wrong, you're just overreacting") that it can be difficult to trust your instincts about these people even if you do know them well and can see the warning signs clearly.
I mention this because I'm beginning to suspect that maybe David J. Prokopetz himself might be a softer version of the "RationalWiki Editor" archetype: the "Woke Liberal Male" who doesn't really like women all that much. This is a dude who respects and appreciates smart and strong and independent women; but, when one of these smart and strong and independent women writes fanfic about Shadow the Hedgehog or Magus from Chrono Trigger or one of the edgelords from Kingdom Hearts, that's ridiculous and disgusting because it's, idk, anti-feminist.
But who knows. Maybe there's nothing wrong, and I'm just overreacting. Gaslighting aside, that does indeed happen, but a lovely side effect of being exposed to constant atmospheric sexism that sometimes you just can't tell. I personally hope Prokopetz isn't an asshole, because I really like his blog. It's also admittedly a weird experience to read someone's blog backwards, which can result in what seems like reverse character development.
For what it's worth, I think the fantasy of romancing a Byronic antihero is that he secretly worships you instead of secretly worshiping Ayn Rand; it's not "you can change him," but rather that he was a secret feminist/queer rights activist all along and just needed the right person to come along and rescue him from the high and lonely tower of the patriarchy.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-17 02:44 am (UTC)