I think I've mentioned it before, but one of my best friends and his wife have a vintage store where they sell comic books, toys, or any memorabilia from 70s - 90s. Sometimes they work small local conventions and ask me to help which is a great way to make a few bucks for the day and chat with fans because I have been turned off by a lot of the major cons.
The best thing about working these conventions is getting to know the different vendors and I usually go around and buy comics for myself before everything starts and towards the end when it gets slow. Anyway, I stopped by this one booth where a guy was selling old sci-fi/fantasy books and looked to be in his early to mid 80s. He was reading one of Heinlein's books and I told him that was one of my favorite authors and he really perked up and we talked sci-fi for about an hour. He used to run a book store and once his wife passed away he did the small conventions for fun and as a way to get out of the house.
Before leaving he gave me some Heinlein books for free as well as a big stack of 50s pulp books (bad shape but still readable) for free and said us Heinlein fans need to stick together. I love talking to actual sci-fi fans or any real fan of the hobbies/IP's that have been destroyed and demonized. Modern sci-fi companies would see him as an evil old white male while giving another hugo or nebula to a worthless hack like Jemison or whatever author has the correct talking points.
It used to be on my bucket list to attend at least one San Diego con but some old timers told me they stopped caring about nerds or comic book fans a very long time ago. An old friend of mine recently sent me some pictures from cons we went to like 15 years ago and there were some pictures of me with booth babes (which I think have been banned). But back then the panels were actually for the fans and not some BS diversity lecture.
As an arch-pessimist, I have to acknowledge that there's a lot of good that you can see when you look for the good.
Yes. I’ve learned that a lot in life.
This is why we fail.
We CAN NOT abandon culture. We have to engage with it, and take the hits on the chin as they come. We have to openly defend culture and tell everyone else to piss off in order to re-moralize it. Games, Sci-Fi, Music, whatever. As we get older, we lose our focus on this stuff, but it's where the pinko's are doing the most damage to the children.
That’s true. I used to debate in forums but it felt pointless. I guess if I went the San Diego con and asked the panels some honest questions. Like asking the showrunners of rings of power why they lied and said they respected Tolkien or ask Kathleen Kennedy about her stupid source material comment
The problem is that you're going to have to take the hits when they come, and also figure out how to cause cognitive dissonance in Leftists by avoiding their pre-arranged talking points.
The figure-heads are always going to virtue signal, but you have to still publicly show some resistance by interrogating the narratives publicly and promoting dissonance. You'll get a nasty lecture and told that you're a terrorist, but it's because they can't allow for dissent, and you're just gonna have to eat some hits in protecting your hobby.
The giant conventions are run by the same company and feel like the same one with a different theme. You can still find fun conventions if you look for smaller stuff. I made several vendor friends that way.
We're still here, but they try to use their overwhelming media presence to hide that, while preaching how evil and everywhere we are to justify their own crimes. The problem is, when the internet started to take off, the places for us were sold by those hosting them and those us from those days never found a new spot.
True. It sucks because there were a lot of cool forums back in the day. I was on some Star Wars forums and followed some sites and the speed at which they became shills astounding when Disney took over. Same with gaming
Did you go to Anime Matsuri last year? The owner of that is trying hard to avoid getting cancelled without bending the knee. I assume you knew about it since you follow Nerdrotic. :)
I’ve heard of it but didn’t go. I know I need to support those who don’t bend the knee. I live in the Dallas/Ft worth area and went to the fan expo last year but missed seeing the FNT crew
Great point.