Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

This is something I've thought on and off about for a couple weeks, and I wanted your thoughts on it. What do I mean, exactly?

Take the Rick & Morty Szechuan Sauce riots from a couple years back, for example. It was the fandom that caused the riots and acted immature about it, but should the creators of the show or even Adult Swim/Turner Broadcasting/WarnerMedia be held responsible for allowing such a thing to happen, or being partially responsible for even inspiring the fandom to do what they did? Or is it purely the fandom's fault for their inherit immaturity?

Really interested in seeing your thoughts on this.

The company has no control over the community, so I'd say no.

No. Never. Not at all.

Not even the fandoms should be held responsible, actually; each individual doing stupid stuff should be held responsible instead, a concept becoming increasingly lost as people indulge more and more in social gymnastics to erase individual responsibility as a concept nowadays, instead always looking to blame an entire group, concept or label thinking that that will make dealing with the problem any easier, despite always failing and doing the opposite in the long run.

No because it's just a joke that went too far. The initial riots were bad already but since it's social media, people have to out-irony each other for the sake of cringe comedy so you've got people like the pickle rick guy going crazy.

Also, nowhere in the show did they insight the turmoil or invoke fans to go out and pester the employees.

EDIT: the funniest thing of all is the pickle rick guy doesn't even watch rick and morty

The only times when the creator should be held responsible is if they are actively encouraging the negative behaviour.

Otherwise, they shouldn't be held accountable, as every individual involved in the mess is responsible for their own actions.

No unless theyre egging this behavior on themselves too.

Unless they’re directly gassing the community up then they shouldn’t be held responsible for the collective brain cell that’s a fandom doing dumb shit.

If they encourage such acts? You have a case there.
If they don't, or even go out of their way to condemn them? Definitely not liable for the actions of assholes.

Pretty much it. A company that eggs the behavior would have responsibility. One that just simply makes the product though? They don't have much beyond making sure at least people know what it contains and who it is appropriate for but aside from that. Same could apply to a fandom, neither should be held responsible unless they really do egg terrible behavior and the like.

The only ones who should be held responsible for bad actions are those who commit them, not the entirety of the fandoms to which they belong nor the companies whose products may have inspired the actions.

When a bunch of kids go apeshit over szechuan sauce it's not the fault of Rick & Morty, nor the collective of all Rick & Morty fans, just as much as school shootings cannot be blamed on video games or everyone who plays them.

Unless what they're doing is directly encouraging awful behavior, no. Some people are just bad apples.

This'll be an unpopular opinion but I believe that yes, companies/creatives should take some responsibility for the collective actions of their fandom. If you make a product which attracts and aggregates a certain type of person, and then that fanbase collectively does something bad, whoever created the product that allowed them to gather and form a group is at least partially to blame.

How sad and desperate do you have to be to hijack a thread talking about if companies should be held responsible for the more garbage members of their community (like you) just so you can advertise an RMT website?