Think For YOURSELF!

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m a nobody. I have a very small following, I’m a comic and novel writer who will be happy when he breaks into four-digit book sales, and I do all of it from home as a disabled veteran. I’m also a huge comic nerd and a massive cinephile.

That said, I’m so tired of the influencer/reviewer community and their outsized influence on the success or failure of TV series, movies, games, comic books, and so much more. I don’t begrudge them their right or their hard work in creating content people enjoy. They deserve credit for building audiences and entertaining folks.

What I do have a problem with is how many of them manufacture drama or push agendas just to keep the subscriptions rolling. On the flip side, you have the paid fraudsters who positively review every project like it’s the next Maltese Falcon. Even worse are the reviewers who nurse personal or political grudges against specific talents, directors, or studios and let those biases color every single take they deliver.

What began as a populist counter to corporate entertainment media has morphed into a diverse collection of grifters, rage-baiters, agenda-pushers, and malcontents with a few genuine reviewers mixed in.

Even more concerning is that we, the public who consume this content, have ceded our free will to them. People are so eager to be on the “same side” as their favorite podcast host or X influencer that they’ll automatically adopt their recommendations (good or bad). It’s almost Orwellian in its scope and effectiveness. Many no longer decide for themselves whether they’ll see a movie or play a game. They just wait for someone they’ve never met to tell them what to think.

I get it,  your tastes may generally align with your favorite host. But who knows what you might discover if you just take a chance on something that genuinely piques your interest? I’m an old fart and I own it, but this old fart strongly believes no one should let others control their opinions the way I see so many doing today.

Go out, experience life, try new things, consume media. You’re going to hate some of it, love some of it, and be pleasantly surprised by stuff that comes straight out of left field. Don’t let someone else dictate what you do or do not like. Tell those people to go pound sand. Take reviewers’ opinions under advisement, but nothing more.

I’m old enough to remember when critics said Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was the worst piece of tripe imaginable and that Star Wars was destined for failure. Thanks, we took your opinion under advisement, and history proved you wrong.

Cheers from this old fart!

by David “Nem” Howard

*Ai Disclosure: The main image includes AI-assisted artwork reviewed by Comic Crusaders before publication.