Zepy Used Translation Attack…It’s INEFFECTIVE!
Because the usual tricks of human communication are all ineffective against fandumb.
Fandumb is a part of fandom; but is fandumb a necessary and inalienable aspect of it? What the hell is fandumb anyways?
Fandumb, like “Slice of Life,” is a term that is both a metaphor of what it describes and a play on words. So I’ll let you figure out what it means and how to apply the term.
Going back to the main point–why is fandumb so widespread in the anime scene? I think much like fansubbing and Adult Swim, anime-branded fandumb (I guess this includes manga/game/jmusic/weeaboo related ones to a degree too) is part and parcel with a decentralized, liberated scheme of information distribution and generation. Unlike Japan, in the US (and likewise applicable to rest of the west; not so sure about Asia though) there’s a general disregard for authority when it comes to a personal experience. As much as we may appeal through authority when we argue on the intarwebs or evaluate “is there going to be another season of Haruhi,” fans in general think and act however they see fit. A big difference here versus in Japan is that anime fandom is new; there are few, if any, real authority for it in the English language. There has been and still are effort for aspiring media personalities to leverage their “otaku” know-how, but in my own experience very few of them actually know all that much. What’s worse, sometimes they are just outright wrong. It also doesn’t help that anime got popular as the kind of fandom you find on the internet, and the combined effect is a dropping of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio. In other words, each social circle on the internet became its own authority, agreeing and disagreeing without regards to the overall, world-wide (or even, in applicable matters, the Japanese consensus) discourse on the subject matter. It’s not to say who is right or wrong; but there’s a lot of useless and wrong information out there that doesn’t further the overall enlightenment or the productivity of fans.
And this is also why fandumb is the most unforgivable. In as much I personally subscribe to a different paradigm regarding noise on the internet (people express as a means to an end), and often times it’s not to further the discourse of, say, “the problem with the US anime industry” but to actually express their frustration with the terrible state of disrepair and disregard of federal copyright law as applied to the everyday man and woman, for example. (Or more often, they are just really bored at work and are getting away with what they can.) There are limits to this. When you have false information disguised as genuine stuff, that’s really bad.
So yeah, at least we know there’s a good excuse for it. However it still doesn’t excuse individuals from both spewing nonsense and reading and believing it.
Personally, the bigger struggle is to learn how to deal with people who spew misinformation and heed no correction. On the internet, the veracity of your claims and opinions is just one of the myriad of factors that draws traffic and audience to your soapbox. Getting plugged into the right blog networks or site-networking sites is much more effective at driving traffic, for example. Again, I think that’s more because people are looking for an experience rather than the truth, more often than not. Many of us will gladly humor a funny or powerful written piece even if it’s just outrageously wrong or simply because you love to hate it. But out of the many, some people actually believe it, and that’s the sad part.
Candy-wrapped blog posts with razor blades! Readers beware! WTB skepticism on things people read on the internet!
And this is why martial law sounds so appealing to some people.
Appears to be a problem with Americans. Not that much of a problem here apparently, I AM SO RESPECTED LOL.
singapore runs a tight ship! none of this individual rights nonsense!
I read 3/4 of this assuming it had to do with fandubbing thanks to your cryptic ass.
^^^^ a prime example, in the wild!
Well, fandumb can’t really be avoided…even on my end, I have corrected the noise that comes with translation whenever I can though. That’s mostly it. I MAKE SURE I RUN A TIGHT SHIP THOUGH.
That’s also why I try to make posts where I feel like I sorta know something about what I’m talking about. I don’t want to sound like I’m talking out of my ass, nor would I want to lead others astray from my nonsense.
Language barriers have a lot to do with it I think, and the fact that it’s harder to fact check because of them. A lotta people can just say whatever the hell they feel like because they know nobody’s going to call them on it.
… There’s not much that can be done about this problem. It’s one of those “ignore it for your own sanity’s sake”-types.
Every day, I kinda wish America was more like Singapore. If we’re gonna give up our rights, mise well get an incorruptible, transparent, meritocratic government out of it, amirite?
talking out of your ass is not a problem as long as people know you are talking out of your ass; it’s ok to guess and make assumptions as long as they are clearly guesses and assumptions.
and yes, ginga is right that language is a big problem and it makes some of us more prone to it.
The irony is, fandumb is even worse in Singapore.
It just doesn’t get out. After all, what no one knows won’t hurt them… … … much.
Why would it be worse? Fandumb in the US is probably equally bad.