Supergirl and the REAL problem with entertainment discourse…

I want to be fully transparent — I’m not here to talk about the merits of the Supergirl movie, good or bad. That’s not something I’m interested in doing anymore. What I want to discuss is the cultural discourse surrounding it, because there’s a component that I don’t think gets discussed enough.
Before the movie came out, people with early access were sharing their views. Some picked up on things the cast and crew were saying. And when those views came from people they dislike — folks like Gary from Nerdrotic — they immediately moved to invalidate them. Then the movie releases, and now you’ve got critic reviews from outlets like Variety calling it one of the worst comic book movies they can remember. And that gets to stand as legitimate. I’m not saying that viewpoint is irrelevant — agree or disagree, that’s fine. What I’m pointing out is the inconsistency.
It boils down to two things. One, they believe they have a monopoly on the truth, especially in creative endeavors. They get to dictate whether something is good or bad on their own terms — but the moment it comes from someone they dislike, it’s automatically invalidated. Two, they don’t want to share hobbies with people they dislike, which is why they write everything those people do off immediately. The truth is not contingent on whether you like the person saying it.
This gets more aggressive lately because people are realizing they can no longer dictate how everyone should feel about a given medium. This is part of why the age of mass appeal is over. There are too many options — not just independent creators, but the critic class itself has fundamentally changed. People don’t have to go to Variety anymore. They have reviewers they trust on YouTube and social media who’ve built sizable followings. You don’t have to agree with them, but writing them off because of social or political reasons is a grave mistake.
Listen to what people are actually saying. Someone like Gary articulates his views very precisely, and he absolutely talks about things he enjoys. You’re free to disagree 100%. But you have to come to terms with two things — you don’t have a monopoly on the truth, and you’re inevitably going to share hobbies with people you disagree with. That used to be core to nerd culture. If you want real discourse back, you have to accept that people will reach different conclusions on the same material. That’s okay. Just listen.