Sometimes, People Confuse Me

 

A fellow player on PonyTown started bullying me for being a Casper fan.

    So, I was at the PonyTown docks tonight as Casper McFadden, delivering snacks to people in game as I usually do, when this user with an -ahem- clownlike skin approached me and started talking about how Casper is an orphan, how 'no one likes him' and how they thought the fandom was dying out. As you might already be guessing, I found this to be very confusing. I did ask this person why they were doing this and they declined to answer the question. So I am left to speculate and wonder. They were extremely focused on Casper being an orphan. They kept saying "Orphan" over and over, to most of the things I said, as if spitting the truth about the character in my face was somehow supposed to be hurtful or an insult. When that seemed to be failing to work well in their favor, they briefly moved on to saying that no one likes him and that the fandom was dying out. Which is where this really started not making any sense to me. If you're going to make a claim in front of me, such as "no one likes ____", please be prepared to back it up with evidence to prove your point. Because, in this case, I happen to know for a fact that a lot of people do like Casper, myself included. If no one liked him, he would not have survived into my childhood or my parents' childhoods, nor even my grandmother's childhood. Also, trying to claim that the fandom is dying out left me almost wondering if this person even really knew who Casper was to begin with. I mean, you don't survive for 85 years and get as many iterations as he does if you're goin' out.

 

    I just do not understand people who swoop in and start picking on someone just for a fandom that they are into, especially if they are coming in with claims or accusations that have no evidence or foundation. Considering how they approached me and how their comments were clearly written to attempt to get a rise out of me, I think I can assume that this person wanted to enjoy having my attention, wanted to enjoy getting my goat, so to speak. Behavior like this is often a cry for attention, though that realization still does not really explain what just happened, in my view. If a person craves attention, why not just walk up to someone and say hello, start a friendly conversation? Why be mean? I mean, if you make a friend, that's someone that's going to stick around for far longer to give more of the needed social attention, but if you treat them unkindly, they are definitely not going to want to stick around. This kind of energy would be better used, with evidence, to go up against someone who has actually done something wrong or shown signs of being into something that actually causes harm either to themselves or to others. Maybe it's because my brain is not wired to gain serotonin from upsetting others, but I just fail to understand this kind of behavior in general. This is not the first time it has happened to me, nor, I am sure, will it be the last. I just fail to see the point of it. In my experience, kindness and friendliness yields far better and more lasting social rewards for everyone involved. Perhaps that is why I am a Casper fan. He seems to be a ghost that understands that to a degree.