Rian Johnson, the writer/director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, took to Twitter to say that he’s “done with this disingenuous bullshit” after Kelly Marie Tran quit Instagram supposedly due to harassment and abuse from Internet trolls.
OK, let’s make this perfectly clear. Harassing and abusing someone on social media, or in any medium, is not on. That also goes for actors who might have appeared in a film you didn’t like much. I understand that people had problems with Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and making your opinion heard on social media or telling your friends what you thought of the movie, good or bad, is also fine. However, people cross the line when they start verbally attacking other people online about it.
Kelly Marie Tran played Rose Tico in The Last Jedi and many people had gripes with her character. This lead to her having to endure personal attacks on social media, which ended up in her feeling the need to delete her Instagram account. This should not happen and the movie’s director, Rian Johnson, has made his opinions on the matter very clear on Twitter.
Basically, Johnson has had it with these Internet trolls, as have I. “On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I’ve met lots of real fellow SW fans. We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect. We’re the VAST majority, we’re having fun & doing just fine,” wrote Johnson.
On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I’ve met lots of real fellow SW fans. We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect. We’re the VAST majority, we’re having fun & doing just fine. https://t.co/yhcShg5vdJ
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
That probably should have been the end of it. Johnson’s comment was to the point and in my opinion, correct. However, these things have a habit of escalating, and that’s what happened when one user replied: “Critique and showing dislike against something is ‘trolling’? Good tactic. Whatever makes you sleep at night.”
This was the last straw for Johnson, and he responded: “Done with this disingenuous bullshit. You know the difference between not liking a movie and hatefully harassing a woman so bad she has to get off social media. And you know which of those two we’re talking about here.”
Done with this disingenuous bullshit. You know the difference between not liking a movie and hatefully harassing a woman so bad she has to get off social media. And you know which of those two we’re talking about here.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
Interestingly enough, the user has since deleted his comment, which can only be a good thing. He was drowned out by the tidal wave of support for Rian and Tran. As I said before, you have a right not to enjoy a movie and say so publically, but you have no right to make things personal and attack individuals about it. In the end, it’s only a movie. Let’s keep it that way.
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