[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Except that no, we don't. The innocent should never be held responsible for the actions of the guilty. Are there fans who send death threats and the like? Yes. But that doesn't mean that you or I or the vast majority of viewers do and as such we should not be held in contempt.

Late reply, dunno if I should do this, but I want to post what I think. While there are certain actions that are more blatantly terrible, like sending death threats, in general, I feel that being innocent doesn't necessarily mean they're better/faultless or have the moral high ground. Though this isn't necessarily about fandom actions. There can be those that have an innocent status due to them never getting caught/exposed, or have people defend them if they're liked enough, or if said actions have been normalized, thus it's not seen as wrong, or if one actually holds similarly twisted views, but doesn't act on it due to fear rather than principle.

About holding innocents responsible, I quite often see people in fanbases who do that, but those are seen as fine as it's socially acceptable, like those who harass fans who do powerscaling or like a show they refer to for toxic fanbase due to the toxic experiences they get from them. There are also those who hold that the public figure said toxic fanbase are fans of, and blame them for said fandom's actions, despite the public figure not necessarily being in control of their actions (individual's actions are something out of one's control). And those aren't viewed as guilty by others (so, innocent status), but can get supported, due to the feeling that they deserve said treatment (lowkey a prejudice).

This is a smaller scale, compared to well-intentioned extremist villains who paint themselves as the agents of long overdue change, but these kinds of fans can also justify themselves in a similar way to them (and there are fans who defend said villains). They don't see their action as "harassment" but as "heroics". They deem their actions as, at the very least, a "necessary evil" that they "must" carry out; like exaggerating a creator's behavior online or their art in order to paint them as in the right for "standing up to the big, bad showrunner", seeing death threats as just blowing off steam and not something that could send somebody struggling over the edge.