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{{trope}}
Examples of [[Misaimed Fandom]] for historical figures and characters in various works
* [[Che Guevara]], Marxist revolutionary. Criticisms of the guy himself aside, there is something hypocritical about using a communist leader's image to sell t-shirts to privileged middle-class kids. (That those privileged middle-class kids like to buy these in the first place seems to suggest that they either don't realize how hypocritical it is, don't care, or some combination of the two.) [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame|Their approval would probably fill him with shame.]] An article from [[The Other Wiki]] on Che Guevara merchandise lists a variety of criticisms of it [[wikipedia:Che Guevara in popular culture#Criticism|here,]] from both pro-Che ''and'' anti-Che perspectives.
** Missing the point a little less, there are committed anti-capitalists who nonetheless [[Did Not Do the Research]]; many Anarchists and Trotskyists idolize Che despite his having fought to establish a regime both parties decry (as "statist" and "Stalinist", respectively) -- not to mention that he famously had Anarchists and Trotskyists ''shot''.
** Che was also infamous for massacreing gay people and minorities. So whenever disadvantaged minority groups use his image as a rallying icon... *sigh*
** Numerous rock musicians have sported the aforementioned tee shirts, and it's common to see people wearing them at concerts. Guevara himself disdained rock music (regarding it as an "Imperialist" form of artistic expression) and banned it from Cuba under the threat of imprisonment. Or worse.
** For that matter, Che is not his name (it's Ernesto). It's a nickname based on a [[Verbal Tic]], if he'd been Canadian we'd be calling him [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Eh Guevara]].
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_18606_8-historic-symbols-that-mean-opposite-what-you-think.html
* [http://www.venganza.org/ Pastafarianism] originated out of an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education that parodied the idea of teaching Creationism as a science. However, once it gained notoriety, it developed its own [[Misaimed Fandom]] as atheists came out of the woodwork, praising the open letter's contents as a [[Take That]] to ''religion in general''--which grew even more prevalent when Richard Dawkins considered the letter a ''valid anti-theological argument''. The argument is simply "you can't prove a negative", as in "you can't prove the FSM doesn't exist/didn't create the universe", in response to those who claim that the lack of proof of God's non-existence is evidence for his existence. [[wikipedia:
** Ultimately, Pastafarianism's creator subverted this trope: Although he had originally professed that he had nothing against religion, he [[Sure Why Not|embraced his atheist fans]] and catered to their desires. Now that Pastafarianism is a [[The War On Straw|Straw Religion]] with the message that "[[Belief Makes You Stupid]]," it's attracted its fair share of ''serious'' followers.
*** And, recently has started recruiting clergymen. For just $20 USD anyone can be legally ordained as a minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
** There are many other parody religions such as the [[wikipedia:Church of the SubGenius|Church of the Subgenius]] and [[wikipedia:Discordianism|Discordianism]] as well.
** It's not that their major argument was "You can't prove a negative." though it was a small part of it. They were against the "Teach the controversy" idiocy. Then you wouldn't be teaching science and christian creationism, but also pastafarianism, scientology, hindu creationism, the [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Great Green Arkleseizure]], ad nauseum, until nothing ever gets taught.
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* [[Mary Sue]] has a misaimed hatedom and a fandom, believe it or not. One of the most widespread usage of the term "[[Mary Sue]]" is to complain about a protagonist or character they don't like, as well as "They are cliche" and a tool to attack the author. <ref>Yeah, some people don't take criticisms of mary sues too seriously, but one ''really'' shouldn't neglect how many people throw the term around merely as [[Flame Bait]]</ref> The term "[[Mary Sue]]" has begun to lose almost all meaning to some people, partly ''because'' of term abuse.
** [[Common Mary Sue Traits]] should be mentioned; because many people assume that it's merely ''because'' of those traits that make a character a [[Mary Sue]] and avert them by making them look as boring as possible and turning them into an [[Anti-Sue]], or immediately dismissing someone as having even one or two of those [[Common Mary Sue Traits]] as a [[Mary Sue]], without even ''acknowledging'' that those are ''not'' the sole determinant of a [[Mary Sue]]. Many Litmus exams out there also have a tedndency to pretty much list character traits the person who wrote the test ''doesn't like'' and wants to eliminate from fiction by listing it as a [[Mary Sue]] trait.
*** Tellingly, the actual [[Trope Namer]] from "[[
** And then there are those people who, because of he constant misuse of the term, misunderstand [[Mary Sue]] as a slur against strong female characters and attempt to reclaim it. Basically, people should be proud to call their characters Mary Sues.
* KFC attempted a ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' related promotion, the "Frak Pak Sweepstakes". Considering what the word "frak" is a substitute for, this got a bit of attention from the fanbase, albeit not for the intended reasons.
** What's worse is what they did when they realised their mistake: they dropped "Pak" and replaced "Frak" with "[http://www.toplessrobot.com/fraklogos.jpg Can't-Say-That-Word-On-Television]{{Dead link}}". So it became ''literally'' a "fuck pak". Way to go, KFC.
* [[Poe's Law]]: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."
* There is an anthropological theory called "Culture of Poverty," that basically says poor people by virtue of their position in society don't have the skills needed to advance in class, nor real opportunities to get them. This has frequently been misconstrued as blaming the victim instead of what it actually is, which is a statement that the poor should be given more educational opportunities and assistance.
* There are a number of historical/pseudo-historical groups that suffer from this to a greater or lesser degree, often to extreme levels of [[Fan Dumb]]. Ninja, Pirates and Druids come to mind, with fictional versions all but taking over the little-known reality in the eyes of popular culture, but almost any group probably fits into the spectrum somewhere.
* Ugly example: ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' was an anti-Semitic propaganda-tract written to discredit anti-royalist movements, depicting them as the gullible puppets of [[Conspiracy Theories|evil Jewish bankers]]. Frequently quoted by Nazis, both original and neo-, even though its pro-royalist stance is no more compatible with fascism than with any other recent political system.
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* Even though nothing vaguely resembling their ideologies appeared in the mythology, many Neo-Nazis have hijacked Norse paganism as a vehicle for their beliefs, which has also on occasion led to persecution of neopagans out of misunderstanding.
* A major reason for the "[[All Girls Want Bad Boys|chicks dig assholes]]" meme on the Internet, at least in those sad few corners where it's still taken seriously.
* Karl Marx would be banging his head at the usage of "Marxism" as well as "socialism", "communism", and other terms like "fascist", "totalitarianism" and "Nazi" being used interchangably.
** Marx, in 1883, saw where interpretation of his works were headed even in his own time, and said, "If that is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist."
*** The comment is actually ironic, referring to a French group that had appropriated Marx's name called the Marxiste. That's why the original quote was in French despite the fact that Marx was German and wrote primarily in German, English and Greek. Later when the Marxiste were forgotten (and the word came to refer to Marxists in general) conservative commentators started reading it as a catch-all dismissal of Marxists or Marxism.
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* One of the [[British Political System|Labour Party]]'s attempts to persuade the British people that Tory leader David Cameron wasn't a good choice in the 2010 general election was to [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8601781.stm depict him as] [[Life On Mars|Gene Hunt]], with a slogan saying he'd [[Ashes to Ashes|pull Britain back to the '80s]]. Conservatives [[Insult Backfire|loved the poster depicting their leader as a popular, political correctness-hating]] [[Memetic Badass]], congratulated Labour and promptly made their own version.
* Herbert Spencer, who coined the term "survival of the fittest" (no, it wasn't Darwin who said it) seemed to miss the point of Darwin's theories. Herbert Spencer rejoiced when Darwin came up with his theory of natural selection, because he took it to mean that rich people were simply "the fittest" and there is nothing wrong with the oppression of the poor since their plight shows that they are obviously just not fit enough. Thank goodness his attempts to stuff Darwin's theories into sociological theory were unsuccessful.
* [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s poem [https://web.archive.org/web/20080303213645/http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_disciple.htm "The Disciple"] describes how this happens to religious teachings as soon as the original teacher is gone.
* Quality control on some art sites quickly devolves into this, especially when it stops being "This isn't that good, I won't take it" to "I don't like the artist, so I won't accept this".
* Erwin Schrodinger concocted his "Schrodinger's Cat" thought-experiment in 1935, purely to hang a lampshade on the failings of the 'Copenhagen interpretation' version of quantum mechanics. Physicists who advocate this paradigm tend to portray his model as a serious metaphor for quantum states, rather than a critique of how the Copenhagen interpretation was inconsistent with, and irrelevant to, classical physics.
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** Depends when and where you're using it. Deadpan Snarkery can be very endearing to many people, as it shows that you have a sharp wit and good sense of humor. So it depends on the situation.
** It's best to go heavier on the deadpan and lighter on the snark; even so-so material can be funny if it can be delivered with a straight face, but too much acerbic snarkiness just makes one look like a smug asshole.
** Likewise, people try to replicate a couple characters who happen to be jerks such as ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. Never mind that in the case of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', you would ''not'' want to work with him and you would not want to work for him, either. And in the case of internet critics like ''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'', ''[[The Nostalgia Critic]]'' or ''[[The Nostalgia Chick]]'', they are characters that are ''intended'' to be pathetic masochists.
*** Video game critics like [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] and the ones mentioned above usually slam video games of their flaws to the extreme because that is a part of their character. Somehow, many people take nearly everything that is said at face value and use the nearly cartoonish criticisms as the basis on why no one should play a certain game. Just take a look at many user
** Similar to the deadpan snarkery, criticism and critiquing in general seems to have taken a direction at jerkassery. The rise of harsh critics that judge the skill of others like [[American Idol|Simon Cowell]] and [[Hell's Kitchen|Gordon Ramsey]] have given people the wrong idea on how to critique others. The shows with the harsh critics are used on people who think they are talented when they are actually horrible and are ripped apart by the harsh judges. The same critics can also be seen giving advice to people who have potential and can be pretty heartwarming at times. However, nearly everyone believes that slamming someone's work to pieces without saying anything positive or even offering advice on how to improve is the way to get people to improve when it would actually either get the person to ignore them or completely give up on what they were working on because they feel no one actually likes what they did.
* There are a lot of people who keep adding [[Justifying Edit]]s to the [[Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male]] page to explain why a particular incident isn't "really" rape or shouldn't count.
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* Similarly, there are a few people who like to claim any vague similarity to something else is [[Plagiarism]], usually in regards to a work they dislike.
* Anime is now forever tainted in eyes of many of the survivors (and their direct descendants) of Japanese atrocities in WWII in the Philippines. Why? Because anime is popular in the Philippines and has caused an upsurge in Japanophilia. Problem is, some of these self-declared Japanophiles go too much to one extreme and downplay Japanese atrocities in WWII as exaggerations or fabrications by Americans, and sometimes say that it would've been great that [[Imperial Japan]] had won since the Philippines would have been part of it. Understandably this horrifies and enrages the aforementioned survivors, as well as fans who aren't that extreme and don't want to get lumped in with said [[Misaimed Fandom]].
** What makes these freaks especially stupid is that anime as we know it wouldn't exist without the sweeping cultural changes wrought by Japan's defeat. In the quintessential [[Alternate History]] where the Axis wins, [[Osamu Tezuka]] spent his life as a medic in a field hospital & guys like [[Hideaki Anno]] and [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] were probably drafted into the military and promptly shot dead by native resistance fighters in some forsaken bamboo jungle.
* There is a branch of Social Darwinism based off ideas in Richard Dawkins' book ''The Selfish Gene''. When he found out about it he added a forward to later editions specifically refuting it.
** The original idea of natural selection [[Social Darwinist|had its fair share of misaimed fandom at it, too]]. In the past it was used as an excuse by racists to subjugate the people they were against.
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** It goes both ways: some people support various pro-Western dictators. Granted, it isn't so common today, but was much more so during the [[Cold War]].
** A lot of support for both pro-and-anti-American dictatorships comes with heavy doses of [[Enemy Mine]].
* Barry Goldwater, while often hailed today as a leader of modern conservatism, was actually quite liberal in many regards, especially on social issues. His ideology was less conservative and more libertarian, however many of his views seemed quite extreme back in the [[The Sixties|1960s]] when he was running for President of the United States. He said numerous things that seemed too out of the mainstream, and this ultimately ended in his landslide defeat to [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1964. However, later in life when the [[Ronald Reagan]] conservatives and religious fundamentalists dominated the Republican Party and treated Goldwater as a hero to the right-wing, Goldwater stated that today's Republican Party is not the same as it was in the 60s and [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame|he was ashamed to be part of such an extreme political party]].
** Several of Goldwater's lesser-known political positions are that he approved of gays in the military, wanted to legalize medical marijuana, and was in favor of abortion.
** Of particular note in this regard is that in her youth, Hillary Clinton was a 'Goldwater Girl'.
* Some people say something to the effect of "Yeah, [[Benito Mussolini]] did a lot of bad things, but he also made the trains run on time." (They actually didn't.)
* Yes, it's still rape if the victim gets off. Really, [[Humans Are Morons|it's sad this has to be here]].
* Around this wiki. Sorry fans, but a character [[Die for Our Ship|being in the way of your preferred couple]] only makes them a [[The Scrappy|Scrappy]] in ''your'' head. Actual scrappies need general fan consensus in order to earn that moniker.
* The Nazis and their admiration for [[Frederick the Great]] and [[Otto
* The "Nintendo Seal of Quality". There have been people saying that Nintendo should bring it back...despite that you can name a hundred [[So Bad
** For god's sake, [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNESBoxart.jpg look at the bottom right]. Yep. That's the seal.
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