My example was from around college with a Disney adult (I know) who was adamant that Pocahontas shouldn't be counted in the Disney princess line up.

That fixation set an alarm bell in my liberal brain, but I didn't want to think it was racism at the time. But the fixation on using technicalities (not technically a princess in the western monarchy sense) like in this case was just reaching to exclude a category of people in a way that was socially acceptable.

I can see that unbending view of rules and technicalities to be a red flag. The lack of willingness to take a personal stake in a topic and couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules has been a clear sign for me to watch out. I see it with boardgames too. The excessive rule-following clues me in to a lot of reactionary behavior.

What about the rest of you? What things turned out to be red flags like that?

Edit - Fast forward to present day and this person is no longer a friend and is big into Q, Trump, and covid denialism.

  • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Really hating The Last Jedi.

    I'm not just talking about not liking it or whatever. I mean it's now a part of your personality and still talking about how bad it is in 2021.

    • fuckwit [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      oh come on, since when did this site decide last jedi was a litmus test for leftist thought?

      It’s a garbage tier movie, it’s straight up sucks even compared to most star wars movies, pls cope

      • Alex_Jones [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I think the really suggests the intensity isn't directed at the quality of the movie, but the 'sjw' choices.

        I'll admit the movie isn't good, but people here can describe that in terms of worldbuilding and theme instead of calling Rey a Mary Sue.

      • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You ever been on /r/saltierthancrait? I was a pretty frequent user on that sub for the year or so after TLJ came out, because I didn't like the movie (or, frankly, most of the creative decisions Disney made with the franchise). But when I was there I spent at least a quarter of my time arguing with chuds who had elaborate conspiracy theories that proved feminism ruined Star Wars, or that Rian Johnson was some sort of freak who derived sick pleasure out of ruining Star Wars, or that Kathleen Kennedy/Rian Johnson/the Lucasfilm Story group all conspired together to ruin Star Wars because they hate white people.

        That sub is still active. There are still people who post there all the time. I did the sensible thing and wrote Star Wars off. I liked it for a long time, I have a lot of fond memories of Star Wars, but I don't think the new management are going to make the sort of creative decisions that would result in stuff I would enjoy. I liked the grand, sweeping tragedy. I feel like, underneath all the kid stuff and the Jungian bullshit, Star Wars was genuinely trying to say something. Even the prequels, as dogshit as those were, felt like a genuine artistic expression. And I just don't feel that in the post-Disney era. They feel like bland corporate products, like all major blockbuster franchises today. Maybe that's just me getting older, maybe movies were always bad and it's only my nostalgia that makes them seem meaningful. But it feels true.

        • duderium [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          A self-published writer I follow(ed) spent a lot of time there. I thought it was basically a place to hate Star Wars for libs. I enjoyed the first two sequel movies in the theaters but then came to understand that they weren’t really good. The last sequel movie I didn’t even enjoy in the theater. As problematic as they are, Solo and the one about the death star plans were actually probably better. Solo might have been the best if Disney hadn’t fired the directors.

      • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I'm not talking about not liking it. I mean where it's a part of your personality.

        As mentioned the /r/saltierthancrait subreddit and shit like that.

      • DickFuckarelli [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        TFW you know RotJ is kind of not great and it blows everything that came after it out of the water.

        Also, Rey's arc is horseshit and while there are things to like in TLJ, it's generally kind of fucking stupid - only to be topped by Rise of the Skywalker which was full blown WTF mixed with "I'm just going to turn off my brain" for 2 hours.

        Kathleen Kennedy should be fired just out of pure incompetence. It drives me nuts that she's so bad at her job, she makes chuds on youtube sound almost sane when they shit on her "wokeness" or whatever they go on about.

        TFA was alright.

        I've been drinking.

      • thoro [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's Citizen Kane compared to The Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones. It's still better than Revenge of the Sith for me too because whatever issues I have with TLJ, it still has competent dialogue, camerawork, editing, and pacing.

        ROS was the only prequel-level bad one for me. Atrocious pacing + bad video game/comic book tier plot.

        But I agree it's not some litmus test. I think it's fine and the hate is an overreaction, but I'm not a fan, personally.