- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 959
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- 28
So once again we're seeing the forums on fire because another all-time great, wildly popular fighter lost. And we're seeing two separate camps here: one camp blindly making excuses for Fedor, and another camp suggesting that Fedor was never any good, and made his career using PEDs and crushing cans. People from each camp push one another to the extremes, and it prevents reasonable discussion about a fighter's performance, or about an entire career.
As I was responding to specific people repeating the same lines over and over again, I found myself thinking again about this sort of behavior in other areas of life. So, go with me here.
It reminds me a lot of Douglas Murray's criticisms of how dialogue concerning Islam and Muslim migrants into Europe is going. The "pro-migrant" movement insisted that it is the duty of Europeans to welcome as many migrants from Africa and the Middle East as possible. The moment the inevitable problems started to occur, as predicted by anyone with even a modicum of common sense, the "pro-migrant" side denounced anyone who opposed the migration as being racist, "far right" bigots. In essence, they attempted to demonize one side in order to shut down the debate. The natural response to this is to tend to the extreme in the opposite direction: all Muslims need to get out of Europe, they're all a danger to our way of life, and there is a vast white-genocidal conspiracy afoot.
In the video gaming industry, thinking back on GamerGate, there were (and are) legitimate concerns about ethics in game journalism, as there are in every other type of journalism you can think of. We're social creatures, we always look after those within our circle. At a certain point, some percentage of us will always go a bit too far and take advantage of structures in place to unfairly benefit our own side -- especially in an age where everything is being highly politicized. A mature dialogue could have and should have taken place. Instead, one side immediately dismissed the other as being hateful, racist, homophobic, transphobic, "far-right trolls," and that other side reacted in the extreme to the opposite direction.
In professional sports, there are (or were) reasonable explanations for why a certain fighter or a certain team lost. And sometimes there are fluke occurrences. Nobody is perfect, and no perfect run can last forever. BJ Penn, Shogun, Fedor, CroCop, Jones, Chuck, Wanderlei... they're all warriors, and they've all had stories careers for a reason.
When a Fedor hater insists that Fedor was never any good, that he only fought cans, or that Fedor only ever won because of PEDs, it creates the perception that you're trying to bash a fighter's legacy for a selfish reason. When a Fedor fan insists that if only one small variable was different, Fedor would starch the entire UFC heavyweight division in 2017, it creates the perception of them being out of touch with reality. In both cases, you're creating an extreme reaction in the other direction.
Instead of hoping to get a couple of valueless "Likes" on your comment, take a step back and try to focus on the actual variables relevant to the fight -- or to the fighter in question's career. And talk about that. And stop being assholes to each other.
Make Sherdog great again, etc.
As I was responding to specific people repeating the same lines over and over again, I found myself thinking again about this sort of behavior in other areas of life. So, go with me here.
It reminds me a lot of Douglas Murray's criticisms of how dialogue concerning Islam and Muslim migrants into Europe is going. The "pro-migrant" movement insisted that it is the duty of Europeans to welcome as many migrants from Africa and the Middle East as possible. The moment the inevitable problems started to occur, as predicted by anyone with even a modicum of common sense, the "pro-migrant" side denounced anyone who opposed the migration as being racist, "far right" bigots. In essence, they attempted to demonize one side in order to shut down the debate. The natural response to this is to tend to the extreme in the opposite direction: all Muslims need to get out of Europe, they're all a danger to our way of life, and there is a vast white-genocidal conspiracy afoot.
In the video gaming industry, thinking back on GamerGate, there were (and are) legitimate concerns about ethics in game journalism, as there are in every other type of journalism you can think of. We're social creatures, we always look after those within our circle. At a certain point, some percentage of us will always go a bit too far and take advantage of structures in place to unfairly benefit our own side -- especially in an age where everything is being highly politicized. A mature dialogue could have and should have taken place. Instead, one side immediately dismissed the other as being hateful, racist, homophobic, transphobic, "far-right trolls," and that other side reacted in the extreme to the opposite direction.
In professional sports, there are (or were) reasonable explanations for why a certain fighter or a certain team lost. And sometimes there are fluke occurrences. Nobody is perfect, and no perfect run can last forever. BJ Penn, Shogun, Fedor, CroCop, Jones, Chuck, Wanderlei... they're all warriors, and they've all had stories careers for a reason.
When a Fedor hater insists that Fedor was never any good, that he only fought cans, or that Fedor only ever won because of PEDs, it creates the perception that you're trying to bash a fighter's legacy for a selfish reason. When a Fedor fan insists that if only one small variable was different, Fedor would starch the entire UFC heavyweight division in 2017, it creates the perception of them being out of touch with reality. In both cases, you're creating an extreme reaction in the other direction.
Instead of hoping to get a couple of valueless "Likes" on your comment, take a step back and try to focus on the actual variables relevant to the fight -- or to the fighter in question's career. And talk about that. And stop being assholes to each other.
Make Sherdog great again, etc.
