It’s not often that I transform an entertainment/Hollywood headline into a pitch for Convention of States, but today is one of those days.
The latest entry in the mercilessly prolonged death spiral known as “Star Wars,” the Leslye Headland-directed “The Acolyte,” is unpopular amongst fans—to put it mildly. If you’ve been on the internet anytime since the show was released two weeks ago, you probably know what I’m talking about: the whole of the online world hates this show. Like, they don’t just dislike it. They despise it with a passion. This, they say, marks “the day Star Wars finally died.”
As one fan said, “The Acolyte might be the final nail in the coffin for long-time fans, leaving us with a lingering sadness and a fear that Star Wars may never recover from this low point.”
Of course, to recap, Disney-era “Star Wars” has not always been popular amongst fans. Far from it. Dogged by obligatory “woke” tributes to the DEI god and the unfortunate Hollywood penchant for milking every lucrative franchise on the spinoff-churning assembly line, the once-beloved saga has suffered more misses than hits lately. The first two seasons of “The Mandalorian” were good. “Andor” was excellent, truly unmissable. Besides that, the rest—“The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Mandalorian 3, “Ahsoka,” and now, seemingly, “The Acolyte,”—have existed somewhere on the spectrum between mediocre and utter trash—a poor return for the combined $1 billion Disney has spent on these shows. But I digress.
My point is that if, by now, fans are frustrated with the franchise, we can hardly blame them for it. And yet, that is exactly what Disney and the media have done. What’s worse, every time we don’t like one of their shows, they lecture us. They demonize us. They call us hateful, transphobic, and racist.
All because we don’t like their shows.
Over the weekend, as “The Acolyte’s” Rotten Tomatoes score plummeted, Forbes published the following headline: “The Acolyte’s 15% Audience Score Is Embarrassing, For The Audience Scorers.” You got that, right? We, the fans, should be embarrassed because we don’t enjoy what our Disney overlords feed us. Rather than lament Disney’s embarrassingly bad filmmaking—they preach to us. “At a certain point, this is just absurd, and it says a lot more about the viewers than it does the quality of the show itself,” maintained writer Paul Tassi.
Then came the predictable shut-up-and-watch-the-show-you-filthy-racist rebuke: “Why is this happening?” Tassi inquired. “There is absolutely a racial and gender component to this,” he answered, adding that the “whole situation is a parody of the modern toxic fanbase of the series.”
Give me a break.
And to be clear, this isn’t some one-off, out-of-the-blue article. For instance: “The ‘Star Wars’ fanbase really seems to be the most kind of toxic at the moment,” said “Mission Impossible” star Simon Pegg in 2022. In advance of the new show, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy complained, “I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.” “Star Wars fans are so ungrateful,” Fandomwire added in a headline—as if we are expected to give thanks for shows we don’t want to watch.
Listen, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of the galaxy far, far away, or not. It doesn’t matter how you feel about “The Acolyte.” These down-on-the-fans headlines expose a pervasive elitist mindset that permeates the media and companies like Disney. It is not an exaggeration to say that they hate you. They really do think you’re unintelligent and backward.
So much for “the customer is always right”!
Once upon a time, businesses, at least the good ones, made every effort to please their clientele. Now, we have totally flipped that model. Today, fans tell businesses exactly what they want, the businesses refuse to give it to them, and then lecture them when they’re inadequately “grateful.”
But what does this have to do with Convention of States? Well, the internet has debated “The Acolyte” rather heatedly for the past two weeks now, largely because the more the media doubles down about blaming the fans, the more outraged people become.
Everyday Americans are sick and tired of living under an elitist mindset of control. They’ve had enough of being mocked, dismissed, or talked down to whenever they raise their concerns about woke entertainment or intrusive regulations, targeting everything from ceiling fans to gas stoves. The media may accuse us of “overreacting” to these “slight” matters, but maybe we respond that way because we’re losing our voice.
It’s time to reclaim control from the elites—and that’s precisely what Convention of States is doing. Our nation was never intended to be governed by aristocrats who shift blame to us when their policies and programs fail. If "We the People" intend to uphold the American tradition of self-governance, we must utilize Article V of the Constitution to send our Washington and media chieftains packing.
Join the nationwide grassroots movement seeking to decentralize power in America when you sign the Convention of States petition below.
The elitist mindset EXPOSED in this one headline
Published in Blog on June 17, 2024 by Jakob Fay