The Fandom Menace

The Fandom Menace are an amorphous collection of right-wing trolls, reactionaries, and grifters that target popular media, mainly those associated with nerd/geek subcultures. It is essentially a new name for the same old shitstorms previously known as Gamergate and "Comicsgate".
Participants engage in review bombing and coordinated social media attacks against creators and other fans who take offense at their reactionary views. They frequently initiate attacks on women, people of color, and LGBT people. They use Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites to engage in often racist and misogynistic attacks. 
The Fandom Menace is usually described as a textbook example of a toxic fan culture.The Fandom Menace: How backlash to the Star Wars prequel created a toxic fan culture by James Cooray Smith, archived from The New Statesman, 7 June 2021.Lynn Zubernis, How Fandom Turns Toxic: We can no longer ignore "cancer cells," trolls, or arrogant advocates. Psychology Today, 16 July 2022.LordDraconia, The Fandom Menace: How Toxicity Dissuades Newcomers. The Game of Nerds, 9 June 2022.Tyler Roberts, The Fandom Menace: Injecting Hate & Fear Across Pop Culture (pt. 1). The GWW, 19 December 2021.Matt Miller, The Year Star Wars Fans Finally Ruined Star Wars. Archived from Esquire, 13 December 2018.Aaron Couch, From 'Justice League' to 'Star Wars,' Studios Reckon With "Toxic" Fandom. Archived from The Hollywood Reporter, 31 March 2021.Cynthia Vinney, What Are Toxic Fandoms? Very Well Mind, 28 November 2023.Alan Moore, ‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump. The Guardian, 26 October 2024.
Toxic right wing trolling of entertainment media is not restricted to Disney and Marvel properties. In 2023, the BBC series Doctor Who faced criticism from anti-"woke" fans when an alien is asked for its pronouns.Jacob Dressler, ‘Doctor Who’ Faces Backlash For Asking Alien Its Pronouns. Screengeek, 6 December 2023.
==Antecedents==
===Gamergate===
===Comicsgate===
Comicsgate was a campaign, similar to Gamergate, in opposition to perceived "forced diversity" and progressivism in the content of North American superhero comic books and the kinds of creators who work in the industry.Rachael Krishna, There’s An Online Harassment Campaign Underway Against People Advocating For Diversity In Comics. Buzzfeed News, 22 March 2018. The movement was described as part of the alt-right movement and part harassment campaign, which targets women, people of color, and LGBT individuals in the comic book industry whose goal is to "combat SJW control of popular media". They are reminiscent of Gamergate in terms of tactics, their excessive focus on Marvel's Iron Man character and how the group acted as a catalyst in the firing of comic book writer in 2018. Comicsgate is essentially Gamergate for comics instead of games, a campaign created by and for alt-right grifters.Noah Berlatsky, The Comicsgate movement isn’t defending free speech. It’s suppressing it. Archived from The Washington Post, 13 September 2018.Eric Francisco, Comicsgate Is Gamergate's Next Horrible Evolution. Archived from Inverse, 9 February 2018. 
The most prominent talking heads in the movement were conservative comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver and Richard C. Meyer, who runs a YouTube and Twitter blatherfest called "Diversity and Comics" (now known as "Comics MATTER w/Ya Boi Zack").Asher Elbein, #Comicsgate: How an Anti-Diversity Harassment Campaign in Comics Got Ugly — and Profitable. The Daily Beast, 2 April 2018.Comics MATTER w/Ya Boi Zack, the re-branded version of "Diversity and Comics" on YouTube.
==Members==
===Leaders===
*Geeks And Gamers/DDay Cobra (Jeremy Griggs), an American high school dropout turned YouTuber whose channel focused on various forms of media, including movies, television and videogames. Originally started out as more objective in his reviews before devolving into far-right ideology after the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
*Ethan Van Sciver, a once popular, but now disgraced comic book artist known for illustrating and/or drawing covers primarily for DC and Marvel Comics and a central figure in the Comicsgate campaign. Van Sciver has since stopped working within the mainstream comic book industry and now devotes most of his time collaborating with far right figures to create comics. He obsessively uses Twitter and his Youtube channel to shit out deranged smears against various female comics creators/journalists with liberal or progressive beliefs, such as and ‘This stuff all sucks’: Gail Simone Responds to Ethan Van Sciver. Comics Beat, 29 September 2018.
*RK Outpost (Ryan Kinel), an American YouTuber that became prominent after making daily videos berating Star Wars and Marvel for their perceived "wokeness" and alleged agenda against straight white males like himself. 
*Nerdrotic (Gary Beuchler), former comic shop owner and convicted felon, allegedly for selling methamphetamines to minors, turned far-right YouTuber. Claims credit for the "M-She-U" insult against Marvel movies. Hosts the weekly "Friday Night Tights" livestream which is attended by many of the Fandom Menace figures and has featured controversial figures as guests, including far right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes (who was intoxicated and proceeded to expose himself and urinate on camera during his appearance) and former US Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.Nerdrotic has the most interesting backstory. Geeks and Gamers, 8 May 2021.
===Troops===
*Computing Forever (Dave Cullen), an Irish YouTube talker and conspiracy theorist who holds reactionary and ultra-nationalist views
*Bounding Into Comics (John F. Trent), a right wing webshite that reports on comic culture, comic books and entertainment in general; the webshite has been identified as associated with alt-right harassment trolls since at least 2018Bounding Into Comics, Media Bias/Fact Check.Abraham Josephine Riesman, Comicsgate Is a Nightmare Tearing Comics Fandom Apart — So What Happens Next? Vulture, 29 August 2018.Bounding Into Comics Joins the Satanic Panic. Attack of the six foot tranny, 9 August 2022.
*Bowlestrek, a Twitter troll and YouTuber who foams and froths about and "SJWs"
*Itchy Bacca, owner of a blog called "Disney Star Wars is Dumb"
*Cosmic Book News (Matt McGloin), a less successful version of Bounding Into Comics that has been around since 2008About Us (Staff). Archived from Cosmic Book News, 2024.
*The Critical Drinker (William "Will" Jordan), a Scottish YouTuber, and author with almost 2 million subscribers
*Yellow Flash, a Canadian YouTuber that makes videos ranting about "wokeness" in comics and movies
*That Umbrella Guy, an American YouTuber sharing the same qualities (or the lack of them) of the others mentioned
==Activities==
 is an actress who starred in the 2017 film . After the film's release, Tran was attacked by right-wing trolls over the internet in a targeted harassment campaign spearheaded by The Fandom Menace. After a wave of harassment and abuse, Tran removed all posts from her Instagram account without explanation. After an outpouring of support, Tran spoke out in a piece for The New York Times in August 2018:
In 2019, an inflammatory fake tweet originated attributed to science fiction writer The obvious fake was promoted by several right-wing media sources, including Bounding Into Comics, which attacked Wong mercilessly and peddled hate to their fans. After the obvious fake was revealed by more reputable sources, Bounding Into Comics was forced to make a retraction.Anthony Gramuglia, Right-Wingers Tried to Take Down Author Alyssa Wong With a Fake Tweet. Why? The Mary Sue, 26 August 2019.
 another Star Wars actress, was bombarded with racist messages on social media in 2022.Tom Tapp, Ewan McGregor Addresses Racist Messages Sent To ‘Obi-Wan’ Costar Moses Ingram: “We Stand With Moses. We Love Moses” – Update. Deadline, 31 May 2022.
==In conclusion==
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Alt-right
Category:Antifeminism
Category:Cartoons and comics
Category:Censorship
Category:Fascism
Category:Gamergate
Category:Homophobia
Category:Internet
Category:Media
Category:Neo-Nazism
Category:Racism
Category:Sexism
Category:Social justice
Category:Transphobia
Category:Trolls