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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9555079" data-attributes="member: 7023840">...I don't know that I agree with this as phrased. Look, I've written words. SO MANY WORDS .... about problematic faves, or how to interact with works when you've learned that the creator of the work has done bad things, or how to reconcile the good feelings you have about D&D with the knowledge that D&D contains things that aren't great (and was written by people that didn't always have good views).But I've also written words. SO MANY WORDS ... about why we need to re-examine popular narratives that take hold about people; for example, I've written about why Lorraine Williams, while hardly perfect, was not deserving of the vitriol directed towards her.Which means I have good news! I am not writing another giant essay in this thread. But I am going to say the following:1. Parasocial relationships are a helluva drug. 2. You don't really know other people, even the ones you do know. And the ones you only know from their works or their PR images or a brief interaction? No, you absolutely do not know them. 3. Just like some people have certain "good" images that are not true, others can have "bad" images that aren't true either. Narratives get created- both because narratives are easy to tell, and because our brains want to create them. But people aren't narratives. They are messy, and complicated, and contradictory.4. In addition, people can, and do, change depending on circumstances and over time.In a perfect world, more people would understand that when it comes to people we don't actually know ... we don't actually know them. And for famous people, there is a whole industry devoted to building them up AND tearing them down (I assume you've been following the Lively-Baldoni battle, which has exposed how there are firms devoted to pushing good and bad narratives in media and through astroturfing about celebrities). There are some genuinely good people that are celebrities. There are some genuinely bad people. But most of them are just people- with good and bad.</blockquote>

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