The Last Jedi incites a negative reaction from fans because it is, in many ways, an affront to the culture of internet theorizing that surrounds beloved franchises. But AITA isn’t just a forum of absurd humans with absurd conundrums. AITA is happy to have it. I (26 f) recently got engaged to my fiance (36 m). The best art — the best multimillion-dollar blockbusters — strives to be new, bold, different, and challenging, rather than appeasing. And can it actually help make people better? The Ringer is a pretty popular podcast network with a lot of online fans, but this subreddit is deserted and inactive. “I wasn’t freaking Gandhi, but I was OK. Yet for some reason, your restaurant was completely different... why?” I felt as though I needed to defend my restaurant so I didn’t immediately apologize and found myself constantly saying “it is what it is”. We often think of the kinds of dilemmas on AITA as something for an advice columnist or therapist to weigh in on, but the question of who is right and who is wrong—even when it comes to something like “AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?”—is something moral philosophers, religions, and individuals have been trying to answer since the beginning of human society. Dianna and others seem less interested in the overall judgment of whether or not they’re the asshole than the reasons behind it. Posts regularly get picked up on other parts of Reddit, various online publications report on the ones that go viral, and a popular Twitter account (which has 420,000 followers and counting) reposts a curated selection of them. Bill Simmons is one of the biggest personalities in the sports media game. Ten Early 2021 Streaming Movie Recommendations, ‘The Watch’ Mailbag: Late Night After Trump, the Ongoing Streaming Services Battle, and What Makes a Successful TV Show, The Delayed Movies of 2020, Ranked by Their Trailers, I Miss the Movies James Cameron Made Before He Got Obsessed With the Ocean, ‘The Terminator’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Shea Serrano, The Massive Cultural Impact of ‘Black Panther’ and the Late Chadwick Boseman’s Legacy. (Condiments were disqualified from contention.) Destiny in Star Wars is no longer synonymous with the Skywalker bloodline, and the Jedi way isn’t inherently good, or beneficial, to the galaxy. Then a few days passed, and she told me that she wanted to go to a strip flub with a few friends. Lucasfilm/Reddit/Ringer illustration Rian Johnson was behind the camera for one of the best episodes of television ever made, Breaking Bad ’s “Ozymandias.” The centerpiece of … (Many organizations that work with domestic violence survivors believe that even though the number of DV reports has gone down over the past few months, incidents are on the rise for women and children worldwide.) …, She has been single for quite some time and recently tried to start dating again. “It begrudges doing small acts of kindness because apparently no one owes anyone anything,” she says. Someone asks a question about an interpersonal conflict, and readers weigh in about whether the poster was in the right or in the wrong and why. In fact, it came right out and told people not to care about the groundwork laid by the decades of earlier Star Wars movies: As the perpetually gloomy icon Kylo Ren says, “Let the past die. Even people who we would call truly evil generally tend to think of themselves as good people.”, Gray finds it fascinating that those who post on AITA are, at least in theory, willing to admit that they might be in the wrong. She thinks others can change, too. The Ringer CEO Bill Simmons in 2015 Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair This story is part of a group of stories called . It’s full of our worst and most embarrassing or challenging moments. The best the moderators feel they can do is warn posters what to expect when telling their stories. The purchase builds on its prior deals … But sometimes we’re wrong about what that is or just don’t know the answers. If she can take her years in a bad relationship and use them to help someone, she says, “I’m going to feel a little bit better about my experience and having gone through that.”, Martin has concerns about some of the views expressed on AITA, and she’s seen it at its worst as an ungenerous and hard-hearted place. In the TV show The Good Place, a sitcom about a motley crew of bad people in the afterlife, the main character, Eleanor Shellstrop, often talks about how there shouldn’t just be a Bad Place and a Good Place, but something in between. Even in 2013, before people threw around terms like “cancel culture,” he worried about backlash to having the wrong opinion. It’s a conflict rooted in creative vision, and who deserves to own it. Posters often report that they get harassed in private messages, enduring everything from name-calling to death threats. Content ©2020 The Ringer All Rights Reserved, How “Am I the Asshole?” Created a Medium Place on the Internet, AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?”. There was an outpouring of criticism on Reddit, while Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score currently sits at a paltry 56 percent approval, a stark contrast to the near-universal praise by critics. But the moderation team has come up with ways to make the subreddit better (or sometimes just more fun). Now with Marc Gasol and Dennis Schröder in the mix, the champs’ starting lineup is far and away the best in the NBA. The customer did let the host know that they do have a peanut allergy, which was noted on their tab. It’s addictive. It’s always surprising when posting on the internet changes someone for the better, yet the most interesting thing about AITA isn’t that it makes (some) posters better people—it’s that perhaps the readers are becoming better, too. A young guy's only option to erase a really bad debt is … He knew how he felt about the issue, but acknowledged that he didn’t know anything about what it felt like to be a woman in an office in the United States. I told her she should get more realistic when it comes to her dating standards. Am I the asshole for defending my restaurant? “We thought maybe we’d be a place where you can bury your head in the sand and have an escape.”. Not surprising, however, was the fact that some fans didn’t take to Johnson’s bold new direction. I obviously said hell no, as i viewed that as pretty much cheating. Some of us are lucky enough to have friends and family who can play that role. On sites like Reddit, these speculative conversations — even if they’re as silly as Jar Jar Binks being a Sith Lord, which has more than 8,000 comments — grow like weeds, and through outsized passion and conviction on behalf of the participants, they become as important as the TV show or movie that inspired them. “This was before people used the term ‘mansplaining,’ but I was essentially asking the question, ‘Am I mansplaining?’” Beaulac says. In 2013, Beaulac says the only response he got to his question was, “You’re kinda right, I guess.” Afterward, Beaulac debated whether or not to keep the subreddit alive, whether other people might have questions like his own. Vicious comments have to be removed regularly, and users get suspended or banned every day for breaking rules. “Our self-concept is tied up with being moral people. Seven years later, it’s become a platform where millions of people discuss good, bad, and everything in between. That said, it’s not all moral improvement and helpful advice on AITA. Sometime after humans gained adequate food stores and physical security, we began to reflect on the right way to live. Should he have held his tongue? Can Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. “The risk was that it would further the stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities as the brunt of jokes rather than the teller of jokes,” said Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver. Because Johnson’s choices were made with the biggest movie franchise on the planet, it caused an earthquake. The most important of those rules is “Be Civil”—without it, AITA might feel like the rest of the internet instead of being a respite from it. I later found a negative review of the restaurant mishap on yelp. While she has a lot of things going for her most guys don’t want to date single moms. Though the reaction was a mild one, we comp’d their whole meal. “As for what makes it possible for some people to change and more difficult or less likely for others is a question for your psychologist rather than your philosopher,” Scanlon says. One of those ways is by adding rules. The Force Awakens and director J.J. Abrams — who, it should be noted, made his name with the show that practically birthed this culture, Lost — invited feverish speculation by shrouding Rey’s parentage and Snoke’s origin story in ambiguity. “That all depends on the person using it.” Like any hobby or way people spend their time, “it can offer an opportunity for growth if you make that your aim.”. In theory, anyone who posts on AITA is open to change. It's happening on Reddit. At first, commenting on these posts feels like watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians, only if it were broadcast live and you could anonymously text any of the characters when you thought they were right or had done something appalling. Every time Dianna has posted, she’s felt like she was in the right but had people in her life telling her she was an awful person or that “family is family.” She couldn’t help but doubt herself. It’s also a place for growth: Sometimes posters return to talk about how their lives changed—almost always for the better—because of the advice they got from thousands of anonymous strangers. I also mentioned that me and my fiance were going have a harry potter/doctor who theme to the wedding and that we wanted to get married at universal (at one of the hotels). Three of them are writers. It’s a place where accountability actually exists, even if only in the form of branding someone right or wrong in one absurd situation. Instead of focusing on the brutality of the murder, as you might expect, Johnson’s camera lingers on the anguished expression of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White. “Philosophy of the kind that I practice starts from normally being puzzled about something,” Scanlon says. She doesn’t judge this impulse; it’s what brought her to AITA in the first place. “As a person who has spent 50 years doing that as a profession,” Scanlon says, “I can tell you it’s not fun to discover your mistakes.”, “A large part of my experience as a human being has been one of walking around feeling kind of helpless and confused,” says Jennifer Martin, 40, who started reading and commenting on AITA regularly about a year ago. I am a restaurant manager for an Asian fusion restaurant, and some of our dishes do indeed contain peanuts. While some posts on AITA are more entertaining than educational, actually engaging and muddling through what is right and wrong—and why—might be good for us. Shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men are at their core examinations of whether the main characters are good people whose actions are justified. Weiss end the saga the way they want, or should they try to outsmart their fans, who have become hyper-aware and vigilant after a couple deadly weddings? Socrates argued that people always seek to do what they think is good. Kill it, if you have to.” But again, this is Johnson’s forte; he’s a master of subversion. (This, too, seems like it could be a very popular subreddit.) Spotify announced the acquisition of The Ringer, a media company with a fledgling podcast operation. A fourth black writer has been hired to cover the N.F.L. Beaulac, a photographer and dog rescuer in his early 40s, began AITA in 2013 as a way to figure out whether he was wrong in a debate with female coworkers about the temperature in their office. “I don’t know whether they’re the best way. Could Snoke be Darth Plagueis, the former master of Emperor Palpatine? But we won’t win Nobel Peace Prizes or save 2.4 million babies with our plasma, either. Though the gap between critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes is probably a bit exaggerated — CinemaScore, which is a more reliable aggregator of fan reaction, still gave The Last Jedi high marks with an “A” rating — no doubt there is a visible backlash to this movie. A subreddit is allowed to have up to 15 rules; since the team added a “No COVID posts” edict earlier this year, AITA now has 14. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Giannis May Be the Next Shaq, but He Needs a Kobe in Crunch Time, To break through their postseason wall, the Bucks may be better off limiting their two-time MVP’s role in crucial moments, Everything You Need to Know About ‘The Last Jedi’, ‘Star Wars’ News Roundup: ‘Solo’ Could Be in Trouble, Mark Hamill Apologizes, and #CarrieOnForever, The ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Exit Survey, The End of Dumpuary? Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. It took less than a year to get to 2 million. Perhaps base instincts to judge and shame and feel superior are what bring many people to AITA, but that’s not always what keeps them coming back. He thought it might be fun to pick through interpersonal conflicts with “a couple thousand people who liked chatting about moral philosophy without having a degree in it.”. Lifestyle. The conflict between the core fans’ expectations and the reality presented to them isn’t just a Star Wars problem, but a problem for all franchises. The Ringer ( 2,468 ) IMDb 5.8 1 h 34 min 2005 X-Ray PG-13 An office screwball pretends to be a mentally-challenged athlete in order to 'fix' the Special Olympics in this raucous comedy. The Ringer has six black editorial staff members out of about 90 employees, according to the union. Scanlon, author of What We Owe to Each Other (a text referenced in The Good Place). “I couldn’t help myself and just instantly replied ‘Bitties,’” the dad wrote. Another central rule of AITA is that there must be an interpersonal conflict involved, and the poster has to make it clear why they might be “the asshole” in the situation. “I think that I’m in the right,” the mom wrote, “but I want to see what you all think.” The forum quickly branded her an asshole, and over the course of a few updates, an interesting thing happened. Now she’s there because she wants to help people work out problems they can’t solve on their own. “It’s human nature to want to participate and make a judgment and feel superior to the person that is being an asshole.”, Unlike on the subreddit itself, where the point of commenting is that the poster will see it, most people commenting on Twitter assume that their judgments and quips will be read only by other people on Twitter. One way AITA posters have unwittingly expanded their audience is through Twitter, where the account @AITA_reddit regularly posts a curated selection of stories from the forum. 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