Comics legend Alan Moore calls out 'reflexive belligerence' of pop culture fandom: 'Fan attitudes have toxified the world'

GamesComics legend Alan Moore calls out ‘reflexive belligerence’ of pop culture fandom: ‘Fan attitudes have toxified the world’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 6: Portrait of English comic book writer Alan Moore, taken on September 6, 2013. Moore is often considered the finest writer in the comics medium, and is best known for his graphic novels Watchmen and V For Vendetta. (Photo by Kevin Nixon/SFX Magazine/Future via Getty Images)

Alan Moore, widely regarded as one of the best and most influential comic book writers in the world, has penned a treatise inThe Guardianon the rise of “fandom” in popular media and beyond, warning that while it can be “a productive force for good,” it has a tendency to toxify into “a grotesque blight that poisons the society surrounding it with its mean-spirited obsessions and ridiculous, unearned sense of entitlement.”

The damning critique didn’t go over super-well with some people at the time, particularly fans of superhero movies, as you might imagine. But it forms a foundation for his new essay, in which Moore takes a closer look at the nature of fandom and the ways it’s changed since his early days to be older, more affluent, and firmly in the grip of nostalgia. That increase in age and status may explain the commensurate jump in a sense of privilege, he continued, and along with that “its tendency to carp and cavil rather than contribute or create.”

“I speak only of comics fandom here, but have gained the impression that this reflexive belligerence—most usually from middle-aged white male conservatives—is now a part of many fan communities,” Moore wrote. “My 14-year-old grandson tells me older Pokémon aficionados can display the same febrile disgruntlement.”

Of course, that sort of thing is also very visible in the world of videogames, which is rife with campaigns, largely on social media, against anyone who dares challenge stereotypical “gamer” supremacy, built on memories and ideas that took hold in early puberty. It can be seen in the “tidal wave of hate and abuse” inflicted on the developers of Dustborn, or the ire directed against games likeSuicide SquadandConcord, which went far beyond any reasonable or acceptable level of criticism.

It’s not universal: Some fandoms are “entirely benign,” made up of people with shared interests who enjoy supporting their hobbies. But that “febrile disgruntlement,” as Moore put it (a phrase I absolutely intend to steal), of toxic fans leaches into the real world, polluting the cultural waters that surround us, and the net result is that “our culture has become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in.”

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“We may endure largely misogynist crusades such asGamergateorComicsgatefrom those who think ‘gate’ means ‘conspiracy,’ and that Nixon’s disgrace was predicated on a plot involving water, but this is hardly the full extent to which fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics,” Moore wrote, indicating a more than passing familiarity with game industry history.

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