Are fandoms religion substitutes?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Some of the more egregiously idiotic people on Tumblr and/or the bird app would submit that religion is a fandom substitute.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Maybe, but it's a pale imitation at best so long as they don't subject thousands of children to abuse or behead those who disagree with them.

The average Tumblr or Twitter discourse over fandom topics might surprise you, then.

DO NOT INTERACT IF YOU LIKE IRREDEEMABLE MEDIA LIKE [RANDOM MID-2010S KIDS' CARTOON I'VE NEVER HEARD OF]

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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?

I did it for r/judaism and topics Reddit Jews are interested in include:

• Israel
• New York City
• Mood disorders
• Books
• Crocheting
• Women's fashion
• Military affairs

For good measure, I threw in r/buddhism and got:

• Sam Harris
• Northern California
• Polyamory
• Hallucinogenic drugs
• Veganism
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Skiing

I don't think the racial or immigration-status demographics of Reddit's Buddhist contingent will be particularly mysterious to anyone given these overlaps.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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]

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.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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?

Not as such, but I'd imagine Reddit Star Trek fandom is a male-dominated space in general, and in my experience most Trekkies who are receptive to DS9's religious themes are women.