Been unseasonably cold in Vancouver. Good thing we’ve been able to heat our condo with fake cyber rage.
— Stephen Amell (@amellywood) September 18, 2015
Stephen Amell actually hasn’t taken a break from social media. The other day, he said he was stepping away from social media because he believed the best thing he can do in the middle of a controversy is step away. Totally fair. That makes sense. Cool off then come back, right? But just today, he tweeted a passive aggressive comment about the criticisms against him, calling those comments “fake cyber rage.”
The dismissive nature of that comment aside, I think for the sake of trying to find an axiom, some common ground so we can move on in this conversation, we should clarify something.
What I (and the rest of the TMS crew) want to make clear is this: we never wrote off Amell as a hopeless cause. We wanted to show how disappointed we were that someone we still believe to be a great person said something that just wasn’t all too great. Our own Sam Riedel said it well in a Facebook comment:
We didn’t intend to create the impression that we were “writing off” Amell as a “lost cause.” Very few people in this world, if any, are truly devoid of humanity. Sure, we’re disappointed with his comments, but we absolutely understand the point he was trying to make. That point just happened to boil down to “not all Texans,” and that’s a flawed defense that we feel is worth breaking down.
… we’re in the business of talking about things good, bad, and in between, and he said some stuff that we believe is important to highlight and critique. Amell ended up being a high-profile intro to comments a lot of other people were making, and giving that kind of perspective on social issues as they relate to nerdery is our fundamental goal here at TMS.
To break down the “not all Texans” portion: it’s the same thing as when someone brings up the argument of #NotAllMen. Suddenly, the conversation changes to how great men (in this instance, Texans) are instead of allowing people the space to discuss those that aren’t. You see how that’s problematic?
That’s what we’re trying to point out is wrong with what Amell tweeted. He was defending and talking about a group of people that really didn’t need defense, and the problem is thus: this gets in the way of talking about the actual problems.
Those problems get to stay problems while everyone talks about how good things are. Isn’t that what we don’t want?
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