Politics for a Tuesday

[pauraque_bk]

The best evidence suggests that LJ is much more liberal than the general population. My own election poll, primarily answered by fandom people, went even more overwhelmingly for Kerry. (I also asked only US citizens to participate; if I'd opened it up to everyone, I'm sure we'd've seen even more Kerry votes.)

Based on these polls, LJ fandom resembles a strongly Democratic-voting city, like Philadelphia or Washington, DC. That gels with my subjective experience of what the political views of online fans are like -- we're a big bunch of liberals. It feels much like my real life, and I live in Berkeley.

There are conservatives in fandom, of course, and they seem to be well aware they're in the minority, as the success of therightfangirl should attest.

So, my question of the day is: Why is online fandom so liberal? When this comes up, I usually hear variations on two different answers:


1. The internet as a whole is liberal.
We've already seen that LJ is liberal, and it seems to make sense that the internet would be, because so many internet users are sub/urban (or at least were in 1998). Then again, many users are also financially successful, which could indicate greater conservatism.

And there are online services that more accurately reflect the politics of the general population than LJ. AOL polls, for example, usually seem close(r) to national polls. I'm also reminded of that online newspaper poll on gay marriage some months back that we all encouraged each other to go vote in. It was a pretty even split. (But are conservatives better at organizing? Well, that's another topic.)

If there are any fandom oldbies listening, what were politics like before fandom got online?


2. It's the slash, baby.
Can this possibly be a major factor? Do conservatives really go looking for fanfic online, notice slash, and take their business elsewhere? Surely there are enough het and gen fandom outlets to make this a non-issue, except for the most savagely anti-gay individuals. (Ooh, has anyone polled the politics at the Sugar Quill?)

Or maybe it's the other way around. Are liberals attracted to fandom in greater numbers because of the gay-friendly atmosphere?


Responses from conservatives would be especially welcome.

Comments

Re: Here via Daily Snitch

[cleverthylacine]

I think the reason a lot of people think that (and no, I'm not one of them) is because various people who are very well-known members and staff of the Quill have made some public posts stating that certain kinds of fic shouldn't be written, shouldn't be posted, shouldn't exist not just at the Quill but at all.

When people come off as pro-censorship the knee-jerk reaction is that they're conservatives, even though most libertarian and moderate conservatives (such as moi) are very anti-censorship and the idea that chan should be censored, even though it doesn't hurt any actual kids, because they might glorify the idea or tempt people who are psychologically unbalanced, is really a liberal idea, just like the idea that pr0n is anti-female and should be suppressed as a feminist act. People forget that not all censorship is religiously motivated, and that the people who want to ban violent TV shows and things they feel are anti-woman are usually communitarian liberals.

Re: Here via Daily Snitch

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

and that the people who want to ban violent TV shows and things they feel are anti-woman are usually communitarian liberals.

This is very true. The notion that one can modify social behavior through education and entertainment is an extremely liberal idea. IMO, the conservatives that I know merely regard violent and/or sexual content in entertain as a sign of societal decadance that was caused by the liberal tendency to embrace minority values and treat them as if they were the equal of mainstream values.