MSP36 LICENCE TO SURF

Is Star Wars undermining the Internet? Has hate speech undermined the mainstream? Could a licence to surf could bring us back from the Dark Side? It’s time to Mattsplain.

Excerpt:
Masculine inferiority. It’s something that Kulturpop’s Matt Armitage has been accused of all his life. But until last week, he thought it was just him. Now, the massed ranks of Star Wars Ultras have broken cover to try and force their views, Empire-like, across the Internet.

Confused? You will be. It’s time to Mattsplain.

The fanboys should be happy today: we’re talking about Star Wars.
•Less happy than you might imagine.
•The fan boys very much in our crosshairs this week, as well as is everyone else who thinks the Internet is the sole preserve of their point of view.
•Everyone knows that the Internet is reserved for my point of view.
•And when that POV is interrupted, I have to conjure up these 20 minutes sermons to bring everyone to heel.

You’re really full of yourself, aren’t you?
•I’m happy to see that your holiday has improved your mood.
•And people call me uncle angry.
•I am full of myself. But that’s not what I’m trying to do here.
•I’m just trying to prove a point. Everyone thinks the Internet is for them and that anyone who dares to disagree with their opinion is attacking them.
•Or rather, threatening that little piece of the Internet they call their own.

And what does Star Wars have to do with any of this?
•I’m not sure if you caught this because you been away.
•And I’m not sure how long this post has been going around.
•It’s a manifesto purporting to be from The fans of Star Wars, asking Disney to stop its campaign of perverting the franchise to further a socio-political agenda of inclusion that promotes masculine inferiority.

Yeah I saw it…
•I’m not quite sure how having strong female characters equates to masculine inferiority.
•Also not quite sure how promoting different sexes genders and races upsets anyone in a fictional universe populated by creatures like Jabba the Hut, a cross between a slug and a lump of faecal matter that somehow manages to be more disgusting and offensive than either.
•I consider myself to be a Star Wars fan, and I happen to like where the franchise is headed.
•Anyone who is flabbergasted by Luke Skywalker’s transition to cantankerous old goat, obviously hasn’t met a lot of old people and thinks that they really are like the old duffers in the Werthers Originals commercials.

You’re definitely going to be like Luke. You don’t even have to get much older.
•Oi. Respect please.
•People might be wondering what relevance this has as a topic for our show.

I think our listeners gave up trying to connect your dots a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
•Bonus Star Wars points.
•We’ve heard a lot of talk of the last few months about how the Internet is being weaponised by countries and companies with an agenda.
•But we can’t blame what’s happening online entirely on external actors and agents.
•You have people like the guys who put together the Star Wars memorandum, and I’m guessing are mainly white males.
•And quick note to those guys: Star Wars is a global franchise, when you look at the population of our planet and I’m guessing the population of the wider universe. The majority of those people aren’t white or male or probably even human.