The real reason
It is six months since Brian announced he joined Parler and the fan backlash. Unfortunately, there is some lingering resentment. And while people can do what they wish, those grudges struck a nerve. At first, I thought it was because of the hypocrisy of fighting hate with hate. However, as I look deeper, I realize the whole political landscape and the feelings of exclusion as American conservatives anger me. This just highlighted to me. The right is constantly called out justly or unjustly, but the left gets unquestioned currency for their stupid and some cases, extreme ideas,
I understood better than critics and experts.
. As someone more aligned with Brian’s view, I understood the possible reason he joined. Many people joined because of inconsistent censorship on the major platforms. Facebook and Twitter have a tarnished reputation in the eyes of those who fell victim to their blind algorithms unjustly. Even the Twitter CEO admitted to inconsistent censorship of I had a big back and forth with a marketer who should have understood this better than me. However, it just shows that experts can be out of touch with the feelings of the public.
I was more concerned with the emotional impact on me and others .
.I was more concerned with hyper-offense and its effect on me as an empathetic person. I ultimately left Twitter altogether because of it the first time. The whole thing left me conflicted. He could possibly have been the things that people accused him of. The lack of acknowledgment made it worse. Even ordinary people can hide who they are. Knowing that Brian is not as visible a some of his groupmate, it would be easy for him to do that. But as time went on, I was not buying it. The height of this was apparent when someone fan attacked noncontroversial Howie for sending Brian a birthday wish. Then they have to attack him on AJ’s video hyping the Christmas album. Speaking of AJ, I am not trying to cancel him because of his different social and political views. In fact, I am wondering how he feels about Biden’s performance now after hyping Biden as a savior.
The Objects Of Offense are still around One has changed
Parler is back with a different outlook as Trump was rejected for demanding his critics on the platform be silenced. Former CEO. It seemed legitimate enough for Apple to reinstate it in their appl store. It also appears Brian’s profile is no longer there either by choice or not. So I wonder if these people will have the will e able to let go because the objects of their offense are still around. It also looks one of the objects of their offense has changed. Brian is still a Backstreet boy, for better or worse. You will see him at a concert or event even if you choose to ignore him; what will you do then.
It seemed more like perception than reality at times.
I wonder if it was someone they knew personally, would they have been as offended. I had friends that joined, but I knew them well enough to know they were not hateful. However, I would have advised them not to participate after the controversy. , The media speculation fueled the fire, especially over the timing of Kevin’s Q-Anon article posts. I realize Kevin doesn’t seem like the type to play social media games, especially in light of how directly he confronted AJ over his addiction. However, I am sure they could have worked out as both family and groupmates.
It showed me that business gossip is more harmful than personal gossip because we have a deep parasocial connection to these people when we really don’t know them. I thought Brian might have been hiding something as ordinary can conceal part of them are. The lack of acknowledgment made it worse. The so-called accountability can turn into anger which saw one Twitter user account. Another made a death threat against him and the whole family that she ignored when another Twitter user and I called her out on it.
After seeing how it turned out, I realized my reactions were irrational, like the reaction of so many others, even on the pro side. In the end, nothing I feared actually happened. The fans did not get their expected public chastisement or even rejection. I am pretty sure they worked this out privately. And given the intensity of some of the reactions, that was probably for the best.
For more on my initial reaction, please see the LiveJournal entries B-Rok and a Hard Place and How I tripped over the rock of offense.
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Yeah I did! But I’m busy with school and lazy as hell, so I haven’t really posted anything to it. I’ve been writing a couple of entries, including a rather spirited defense of Brian and conservative celebrities in general. I hope I regain my motivation to write soon!
Well I look forward to reading them . Bottom line I want to enjoy the group without needless baggage. I
When you publish that Brian post feel free link to this post I will gladly approve the pingback.
Hey, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and I just wanted to thank you for this extremely reasonable take on the Brian situation. Brian’s not my favourite Backstreet Boy, but geez louise the controversy around him was just so overblown. I’m not American and while I didn’t like the guy Brian voted for, I don’t think Brian himself is representative of the extreme portion of that group. He seems like an affable dude and I doubt he or his family are inherently bad people for the way they think or whom they vote for.
I’m glad that the Boys chose to keep quiet about this controversy and let it blow over. As angry as I am at the fans who continue to hold this grudge against Brian, I know that any of the Boys commenting on it publicly will probably add more fuel to the fire. I’m just gonna assume that the Boys settled their differences in private (as did the Backstreet Wives considering that Rochelle and Leighanne had a tiff about this too).
If it helps to assuage your fears, AJ managed to get Brian on his Something Messed Up podcast and he spoke very well of Brian, commenting that the two of them managed to get closer during quarantine. The two other hosts (AJ’s friends) seemed to like Brian as well so I’m hoping this is a good sign that everything got smoothened out in private.
Thank you for the comments and your readership. Brian just ain’t cool that’s why he is so controversial, politics aside. Fans have basically been shamed for not being the overt sex symbol, especially on fan-made cruise videos. He was not made for the current celebrity culture. He admitted he didn’t join necessarily for the fame part but the love of performance. The HAnd I can see that is true. I wrote listened to and wrote about the podcast episode. The post is entitled Brian Gets Pretty Messed Up. The podcast title is Pretty Messed Up hence the post title.
Right, I get that feeling as well. Brian seems so out of place considering that he is still openly religious and conservative in a world where basically every celebrity is expected to be openly left-wing and largely secular (I mean that kinda happened to Kevin). But I guess this makes me respect Brian even more for being true to himself rather than pandering to whatever is current (not saying that Kevin is bad for the way he went, or the other boys for that matter). I just hope that the fans eventually realise that they should respect Brian for who he is, rather than trying to change him to what they think he should be.
Yeah I just realised that LMAO, I totally missed it. Must have slipped my mind.
Well I am ideologically opposite from AJ and I never saw the need to attack him that way Because my side has been the victim of it and regarding certain issues no one would ever listen no matter how winsomely I stated it.
Same here. I don’t agree with AJ despite nominally being on the same side as him, but I don’t think he is a bad person either way. Actually all the boys seem like decent people.
Did you start blog? becaunothing is posted? You can use staging page to launch it while you work on it. I like the premise