Why is elitism frowned upon?

@Ymir_The_Viking I don't think elitists are attacking people for liking things but more to the fact many people are calling generic shows masterpieces which dilutes the whole conversation. Assholes are needed in the world. :)

and? i don't see a problem thinking the shows you loved and meant something to you are a masterpieces as long as you don't compared to other animes and calling them mid, i think the world would be a better places if people are more nicer to each other?

@Ymir_The_Viking Nothing really wrong with that there just needs to be some kind of quality control is all I am saying. Personally I think the world would be a better place if people were just more honest with themselves.

@Ymir_The_Viking I don't think elitists are attacking people for liking things but more to the fact many people are calling generic shows masterpieces which dilutes the whole conversation. Assholes are needed in the world. :)

I think @Sukamii and @BilboBaggins365 (and others, but I liked these responses the most) put it really well. Elitism isn't just criticism. It's an act of posturing oneself as elite by being dismissive or insulting to others with different, or even just common, opinions/tastes. Elitism doesn't mean truly elite, rather it's the act of role playing as a common stereotype of the elite. Usually, particularly in modern online discourse, this takes the form of inflammatory contrarianism.

The truly "elite" (if that position ACTUALLY exists in the anime consumption realm) are rarely branded as such. Usually more specific and positive terms are used: thoughtful, insightful, smart, etc. These people are generally going to be sharing their perspectives for the sake of good conversation, not as a means to hoist their own status. The latter ulterior motive is where elitism is stemming from, and why it is considered negative.


No, I don't think you have it in you. You're a wannabe elitist, but you thankfully spend too much time navel gazing to be a senseless jerk about your own opinions, and your own desire for status seems to be more rooted in a desire for connection and belonging than a need for respect and authority. You just seem to struggle to properly navigate the difference between those two positions, and have ended up being a sort of wannabe-elitist, which is unfortunate.

You'd likely be one of the aformentioned insightful types if you weren't so preoccupied with yourself and just talked about anime instead of how your tastes reflect on you.

Define "talked about anime".
Are there any threads you can use as an example of that (Preferably mine).

They really aren't lol. The only case where an "asshole" could be useful is to defend other people from other assholes, which wouldn't be needed if they didn't exist. If someone wants to call something I don't like a masterpiece, then i just know that we differ there, and if we have nothing in common, I just move to someone who does. I don't need to insult someone over that lol. That's incredibly childish.....which is a common behavior in most "fandom" spaces.

@thewiru I mean talking about the content of anime. You've said you have trouble interpreting shows, or something along those lines, though, so idk. But if you could put your feelings about a show into words. that'd probably be more engaging and better for finding commonality with your peers than what you currently do.

Granted, I do like a lot of the thoughts you share regarding the industry, but again you mostly frame those as personal "soul searching" for you to better understand your place, and people unsurprisingly find thet fairly narcissistic after a while.

@valico
I think I mentioned it on other threads, but there's very few ways to do that on AD, and I don't see any current thread where I could do that.
I've done that in blogposts here, in my reviews here, in some Series Discussions, also. Outside MAL, I tweet about it.

That's why I'm asking for examples, because otherwise you're asking me for the impossible, since even if I wanted to make a thread comparing how different anime tackle something it would be removed for being "xx vs yy", it happened to me before.

@thewiru You've never mentioned any particular discussion you want to have in the first place. You have said yourself you don't start conversations well, and just want to participate in others' instead. So I'm not convinced the roadblocks you've mentioned even matter because you're not trying to kick off that type of discussion anyways. Maybe your apprehension and fear of getting a topic shut down is unfounded and you should just let it happen instead of stopping yourself before trying.

I'd be surprised if a topic genuinely presenting a comparative discussion between two anime series appoach to something would get shut down unless you actually were instigating some kind of flame war in the original post.

This entire site is an elitism breeding ground and most people have no self awareness here. Why do you need to point out to the world that you've watched 500-1000 anime? You all quite enjoy seeing that number go up.

Without elitism. Anime fandom just becomes a shonen circlejerk. You can see it on certain reddits where dudes just watch algorithm anime.

get that little hamster wheel spinning, dude. you can't really complain that nobody wants to talk about anime when you yourself have nothing to say on the matter either.

@BilboBaggins365 By 'assholes' I meant being bluntly honest not insulting people. So that anime discussions wont become diluted by overhype and people trying to pass off their personal taste as some kind of objective marker of quality, which I see many people do online.

@Azulmagia88 You can be blunt, and also be respectful. I am quite blunt with my opinions on media. I will tell you I hate x or love x, and I am not going to apologize for those opinions....but I always keep it about the media itself. I don't try to elevate myself as a person or downgrade another.

Anime discussions are going to be enhanced or diluted by the quality of the participants, not by their "taste". I have had great conversations with people whose opinions I can't understand, and I have had terrible ones with people who share everything I like. IDC how bad a series is, there is someone out there that can at least make a compelling argument for why they enjoy it, even if I disagree with it. Overhyped, underhyped IDC what show it is, the discussion around it can be good depending on the person. Taste matters the least in terms of actually having a good conversation about media online. It just can help, since the quality of discussion itself is often not great.

@valico
I told you: I'm a car without the keys.
I work perfectly, but you'll hate to hot-wire me first.

Question: Am I considered an elitist?