Its a massive assumption that because you’ve seen something and think it’s great that most other people have too. Even if most people have and there are only 10-20% of posters who haven’t, is it still fair to spoil things for them. I think when the majority start ignoring the effects of their decisions on the minority we end up in a sticky place.
It isn’t really fair to expect a new person to the forums to have watched the sum total of all film, book and TV, because as people who have watched and seen these things we retain the right to toss out spoilers at will. “Where have you been? You really should have seen X by now, it’s your own fault if I spoil it for you.” Well thats a form of condescension and intellectual arrogance.
I disagree with this, intensely. Then again, I am condescending and intellectually arrogant, so ... there's that!
Look, this recent and modern preoccupation with "spoilers" isn't particularly productive. Where does it end?
"Oh, don't worry. Jesus will eventually come back!"
"Rosebud is a sled."
"When Luke and Leia kiss, that's got some major icky vibes!"
"The shark doesn't win in Jaws."
"Anthony Perkins is his own mom!"
Sure. As a matter of basic courtesy, when a show or movie is just released, you should avoid discussing spoilers. I think that this issue has become imore important as so many shows and movies rely on M. Night-style "revelations" or "shocks" or "twists" in order to generate interest as opposed to just having ... you know, good plots!
But seriously- this didn't used to (and shouldn't) be that big of a deal. I had heard about the chest-busting scene long before I saw Alien; it didn't ruin the movie for me because the power of the movie isn't in the twist.
There are certain things that can genuinely be ruined by a spoiler-
Sixth Sense might be an example. But if something can be totally ruined by knowing one thing about the plot ...
it probably wasn't that good to begin with.
So, yeah, the burden shouldn't be on other people to constantly police what they are saying just on the off-chance that someone, somewhere, hasn't yet sampled the particular media and will scream SPOILERS!
It's true that no one can watch, read, and consume everything. That doesn't mean that everyone else is stopped from discussing it.
Guess what- Thanos snapped his fingers, people died. And then they came back. If you don't know that by now, I can't help you. In addition, not knowing and being able to talk about some things makes it impossible to discuss other things- how can you talk about post-Endgame MCU events without a knowledge of Endgame?