All The Tropes Wiki Project, Part XXI

[GethN7]

Just checking, but the point of Poland Ball is that it parodies all these stereotypes, yes?

Actually reading the post indicates they've verged from parody into outright racism at least once, though that's pending further investigation. There's also this:

"writing "fan fiction" about countries or ethnicities in general - will be closed."

This part did bother and worry me slightly at first, though not for reasons similar to those stated in the thread review - and on that note, the OP of the thread then states that

"Fan fiction wikis where lands are divided into imaginary kingdoms or other sort of "fake" mapping is permitted in so long as the purpose of the content is to describe a clearly alternate and/or future universe and description of the country or its inhabitants do not fall under stereotypical or abusive depictions."

Despite this much-clearer-compare-to-the-first-one line, you still have replies from people crying about alternate history wikis being shut down in spite of the fact those would not meet deletion criteria. Whether FANDOM sticks to that word or not remains to be seen, but this gives off the impression of scaremongering - a very unwise move if one believes FANDOM to be an untrustworthy entity, as it muddies the facts.

Also, as much as I dislike FANDOM, that "exiled for wrongthink" statement seems it's like outright revising what actually happened with regards to an active flouting of clearly stated policy.

The issue here is a simple one: Stereotypes can be played for innocent humor, especially if the people from the countries in question are aware of the stereotypes and play them up because they can laugh at themselves. I'm American and find over-the-top parodies of Americanism (in the positive and even negative way) amusing because they are clear exaggerations. This can even be done as a form of legitimate political commentary and often are.

Case in point:



If you read up, Israel's actual immigration laws actually are like this Stonetoss comic:

https://lawoffice.org.il/en/israel-immigration-rules/

FYI, TV Tropes will not allow a page on Stonetoss because they think Stonetoss is a bigot, despite him using a stereotype (as shown above), to make a legitimate point about the irony of Israel's immigration laws. By FANDOM's new rule, you'd be unable to discuss this too. Both are banning discussion of things over an attempt to be politically correct and not offend people even if the offending content is legal speech that can be analyzed and troped.

What is really rubbing FANDOM users wrong here is that the more innocent stuff must die just to punish something that wasn't. Instead of calling out whoever stepped over the line from "poking fun in a good-natured way" into something worse and issue clear rules to make sure said communities never went that far again, they are saying even if it's a stereotype said country and its people are in on is clearly played for good-natured laughs, the people making the jokes in non-malicious harmless fun are just as bad as the actual bigots.

It's using a cannon to swat a fly. Besides, national stereotypes are legitimate tropes of all media, both for good or ill. If FANDOM says their mere mention is verboten (and trope wikis do have to cover their purpose and excerpt selected text from cultural stereotype fanfics to illustrate how they use their tropes, which would fall under their new mandate), then that means perfectly innocent people could be tossed out for not doing anything that was wrong until FANDOM up and flipped the table on them. It's a slippery slope, pure and simple.

And if you object to how I referred to my own situation, well, I'm not apologizing. Many of us who founded ATT showed similar respectful dissent but still planned to remain obedient to their wishes, but even respectful dissent got us banished from TV Tropes forever and things that they allowed until they offended certain political and social mores (or simple ad sponsor greed) getting the axe and punishing those who never crossed the line along with those that did in response is another thing TVT did. FANDOM is going down the same ugly road and it may drive many of their users into our arms soon, and I frankly have more sympathy for the good-faith users who get the axe despite years of loyal service and never putting a foot wrong until they offend the wrong person for nebulously explained reasons that are overbroad in scope, as happened to me and as is happening on FANDOM now.