Are fandoms religion substitutes?

[Samof94]

Quote from: stupid on June 15, 2021, 11:49:54 AMI'm not trying to generalize at all, but a lot of the more vocal atheists and agnostics I see online, especially on places like RedditThis is an observation about Reddit users as much as one about atheists and agnostics, and my suspicion is that it holds true for people of any creed who choose to be active on that platform. I don't think that religious people are any less likely to be interested in fandom culture once you account for age and a couple of other confounders. The interesting variation might be in which fandoms tend to attract different religious backgrounds. I thought it would be interesting to see which brands and "franchises" were most disproportionately followed by users of religious subreddits, so I checked. I'm sure that I missed a bunch  that I didn't recognize, and I'm not exactly sure which of these are the type to generate "fandoms" but here is what I found:r/atheism: The Walking Dead, Dr. Who, Rick and Morty, The Expanse, Stargate, Star Trek, Subarur/christianity: A Song of Ice and Fire, Breaking Bad, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, The Elder Scrolls, The Simsr/truechristian: Spiderman, Diablo, The Office, Lord of the Rings, Warhammerr/catholicism: Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Star Wars, The Sopranosr/islam: The Elder Scrolls, Spiderman, Tesla, Neon Genesis Evangelion, NarutoQuick post-script, as long as I'm writing this. The related subreddits for r/Christianity reveal a base of users who - in addition to religion - are more likely to be interested in topics such as:

• Conspiracy theories
• Jordan Peterson
• Right-wing and moderate politics
• Compulsive masturbation
• Mental health
• Music
• Marriage and dating

The list for r/atheism includes the follow topics:

• Left-wing politics
• Dislike of children
• Sexual identity and fetishes
• Dislike of law enforcement
• Guns
• Gaming
• Sam Harris

Didn't bother with the others but I'll note that "r/anime_titties" ranked highly for disproportionate overlap with both r/islam and r/catholicism.[/list]

Where’s Judaism?

[Samof94]

This is very indicative of Reddit and being O N L I N E though even Reddit isn't what it was a few years ago. If you do it for 'pro-life' you get;

Catholicism
Conservatism
Leftcantmeme
Steven Crowder
Progun
Walkaway movement.

Which is...choice. And as much as I have a visceral dislike of US Pro-Life idpol, I refuse to believe it's that bad.

It does have some interesting uses though, playing about with it, you also find a lot of overlap between LGBT reddits and neurodiversity reddits. Pagans like witches, cross stitching and dog training.

Humanism gives

Magic the Gathering
Jungian typology
Ex Jehovah's Witnesses
Anarchism
Wholesome gays

Which is quite the mixed bag!

On actual fandoms, Doctor Who links mostly to other fandoms. As does Star Trek. Drag Race less so, with a few make up subs but strongly to gay cis male subs.

Those “pro life” types aren’t really “pro life” at all. Especially the fringe movement that involves those who literally kill people to ”save the babies”

[Samof94]

This is very indicative of Reddit and being O N L I N E though even Reddit isn't what it was a few years ago. If you do it for 'pro-life' you get;

Catholicism
Conservatism
Leftcantmeme
Steven Crowder
Progun
Walkaway movement.

Which is...choice. And as much as I have a visceral dislike of US Pro-Life idpol, I refuse to believe it's that bad.

It does have some interesting uses though, playing about with it, you also find a lot of overlap between LGBT reddits and neurodiversity reddits. Pagans like witches, cross stitching and dog training.

Humanism gives

Magic the Gathering
Jungian typology
Ex Jehovah's Witnesses
Anarchism
Wholesome gays

Which is quite the mixed bag!

On actual fandoms, Doctor Who links mostly to other fandoms. As does Star Trek. Drag Race less so, with a few make up subs but strongly to gay cis male subs.

Those “pro life” types aren’t really “pro life” at all. Especially the fringe movement that involves those who literally kill people to ”save the babies”

That's what I meant. Some platforms seem representative of groups and interests (skewed young) while at the same time hosting some groups that aren't actually representative of that group as a whole. Tumblr was the same way. And Twitter will be now and forever!

Like someone who thinks Castro was good for Cuba?

[Samof94]

Quote from: Averroës Nix on June 15, 2021, 10:56:08 PMDidn't bother with the others but I'll note that "r/anime_titties" ranked highly for disproportionate overlap with both r/islam and r/catholicism.

r/anime_titties has been for quite a while a subreddit about geopolitics hilariously enough.

Speaking of which, I ran some of the individual Star Trek shows and there's a VERY strong correlation between r/DeepSpaceNine and r/geopolitics, unsurprisingly given DS9's themes and emphases. There's also some overlap with antireligious subreddits, which is dismaying but unsurprising given the demographics of Reddit and how much straight male Trekkies tend to dislike Kira Nerys, DS9's most religious character.

Neckbeard atheists?

[Samof94]

In some cases, yes, but things like “wellness culture” are better examples.

There's a strange and uniquely postmodern-capitalist quasi-spirituality to Gwyneth Paltrow selling people "jade eggs" to use for vaginal weightlifting, certainly, and the way that it mystifies the feminine reproductive system as a whole. It's an odd synthesis of primordial taboo, neoliberal feminism, and simple ostentatious celebrity greed, that pairs well with other westernized and commodified takes on yoga and such in the mind of the culturally alienated middle-aged suburbanite.

Dr Oz appeals to that crowd too. It is even worse as he’s a licensed medical professional.