AAP: The Cause
I used to have a long page of counters against all Anti-Pokémon arguments I had ever heard of. Now I'm starting to feel it was a bit hypocritical of me, and rather missing the point.
I really don't care whether you like Pokémon or not. It is pointless to debate about it, and I'm not even really defending Pokémon itself anymore. I can't go around trying to argue that the Pokémon games are good. You might very well believe they are the worst video games you have ever played. What right to I have to tell you otherwise?
However, what I am defending is my right to like it.
There are Pokémon haters who simply don't like it for one reason or another and it does not bother them whether other people like Pokémon. I do not have anything against this sort of Pokémon hater, which mercifully constitutes the great majority of them. You have your opinion and I have mine. I'm not trying to convince you to like Pokémon here.
There are also Pokémon haters who seem to direct their hate towards Pokémon fans more than Pokémon itself, perhaps mocking them, flaming them or whatever else. Thankfully, they are few - just like there are few Pokémon fans who behave that way. They usually don't really argue their hate for Pokémon, nonetheless, and spend more of their time trying to bully those who like it than to actually convince them they shouldn't. The only thing I have to say to them is the link to Stop the Flaming, which of course won't change anything, but it's my opinion on the subject anyway.
But then there are Pokémon haters who believe that liking Pokémon makes Pokémon fans in some way worse people: the ones who honestly believe for example that Pokémon is bad influence on children or that a teenager who likes Pokémon must be retarded or immature, and argue this on websites to spread the Anti-Pokémon propaganda and persuade people not to like Pokémon. It's those Pokémon haters that my Anti-Anti-Pokémon section is devoted against. Essentially it is not about why people ought to like Pokémon, but about why it is not true that people ought to dislike it, or essentially that their dislike of Pokémon is not the Right Thing but simply their personal opinion.
Now, I am well aware that Pokémon haters are not particularly likely to be the ones reading my Anti-Anti-Pokémon sections, and essentially they aren't written for Pokémon haters although I do accommodate the possibility. If I were treating this more humourously, I would name the section "Self-Help for the Insecure Pokémon Fan", because essentially that is what it is: a collection of articles about why you are not a loser/immature/alone/a devil worshipper if you like Pokémon.
It makes the many embarrassed Pokémon fans in hiding feel better about themselves, and essentially, that is the reason this section exists.
Page last modified August 02 2007 at 19:14 GMT
