IDW called on to fire Sitterson for tweet

IDW publishing called on to fire Sitterson for tweet

I’ll go into the backstory only briefly, because we’ve seen this a zillion times in different walks of life.

If you want a more in-depth recounting on the latest person to get in trouble on twitter, you can google- Aubrey Sitterson 9-11 tweet

Aubrey Sitterson who does work for Comic book publisher IDW posts these tweets.

Predictably, all hell breaks loose. Stores, fan clubs and fans call for him to be fired.

I have just a few things to say here, because I am on both sides and neither side of this.

1-  First…it’s not that clever, or insightful, it’s not anything I haven’t seen almost word for word every year from someone online on 9-11. For that matter, I see the same type post after every single such memorial or event were everyone changes their FB logo to some “I support blah blah blah”.

Are such acts of support vapid? Yes and no.  Yes, in the sense that yeah…they care enough to post on FB and that’s about it,and in two weeks they’ll be shedding online crocodile tears for some other thing they weren’t anywhere near .  No, in the sense of we don’t know what’s in their heart and…what’s the harm?  Really Aubery…what is the f*cking harm?  “How does in impinge on men like us?”  Maybe not every single person posting about 9-11 lost someone, but maybe they are hoping that their posts are uplifting to someone that has.  You know…some people do do that, Aubrey…use their time online to be uplifting.  Not you..and certainly not me…and maybe we are both correct in it being vapid, but maybe also we are just both too cynical.  Personally, these days I take my cynicism to find the bright side of things. In this case, at least they aren’t posting pictures of someone else’s comic book.

Also, he is battling what he perceives as vapidness, by being vapid.  So, you can’t post about it unless you lost someone or lived there? How about if you lost someone who was in the armed forces later as a result? I was moving to Orlando that month…the tourist driven Disney economy fell off the table and I ended up working at a Mexican restaurant, does that count as being affected? How about every person who has to go through a groping to get on a plane now or have had their rights encroached on for 16 years? are they suitably “affected”? What about everyone living hand to mouth who were harmed when the price of gas and heating oil went through the roof just before winter?  I know New Yorkers think that N.Y. is the only U.S. city that matters , but  how about everyone in other major cities with possible targets, who were terrified for months? How about the entire city of Chicago with it’s own prime target, the Sears Tower, which was only 3 minutes from the closest airport runway? It’s mayor, after being briefed by the Feds, directed the DPW to literally destroy the runways of that airport to prevent it from being a target…that tells residents of Chicago something about his briefing , and what it tells them is pretty damn scary.  Can they post?  Or can ONLY people who personally had someone die, or lived in N.Y. city that very day get to post?…and the other 284 million Americans should shut up? What about the percentage of that 284 million who donated money, blood, clothing ect to the Red Cross and the dozens of charities the popped up for the victims?  Where you telling them to mind their own business on Sept.12th? I doubt it.

There are people out there who are genuinely able the feel epiphany for others ( not me), and 16 years later there really isn’t a sh*t ton they can or should be doing about that event other than making note of it.  So they post a little something and it’s cathartic (not for me).

Either way…their posting about it hurts no one.  To reiterate what I said earlier…bitching about people fake caring about tragedy online is Soooooo 2012.  and frankly…pretty sh*tty (which is why I fight the urge to post something similar every single time the internet bands together to feel bad about something.  I get the shakes sometimes resisting, like an alcoholic in front of a bottle of booze)

Also, this is particularly stupid if you do work for the comic book version of G.I.Joe.  What do you think that audience is?  Maybe readers that lean more patriotic than your average reader…probably a large percentage of Gen X-ers, nostalgic for a cartoon they liked as a kid. GenX was just getting their lives going when 9-11 happened, and thus the generation the most affected by it.   AND y’think maybe it, being a comic book about the military, might have a few active and retired military readers? maybe?  That’s your audience, patriotic types, Gen xers, and military people.  Don’t like it? then what the f*ck are you doing writing for that book? Go write for some comic book that has a like minded politically charged audience to begin with.  THEN you could take your opinion that you feel everyone must know, and insert it into the story. If you are a writer and you don’t insert your opinion it into a story…that should tell you something.  It should tell you, that even you on some level, know that no one what’s to hear it, or gives a sh*t.

This was just dumb.  Maybe he’s trying to get fired. Who knows.

Should he have been fired for the tweet? No, because this is 2017 and people should grow the hell up and realize that not everyone agrees with them AND that creative types are often terrible human beings. It is true, I deal with them for a living and am one of them.  It may come with the territory in the sense that creatives types have way of viewing the world differently than everyone else, they do things most other people cannot do, and are constantly told they are great because of these two things. That all has an effect.

Now, in days past, you’d never know if a creative type was a dreadful person or not, especially in the comic book industry because all you knew was what they wrote or what they drew and maybe saw an interview somewhere.  Go back to that.  Why torture yourself following these people on a daily basis? No good can come of it, every last one will eventually say something online that ruins their work for you.  Just…look away, and read their comics.  Easy.  You don’t need to know what they are like or think about anything, they aren’t your senator…they are just people who are paid to make things that entertain you. If you follow some human being online and you find out that human being doesn’t agree with you, and get pissed off… that’s your problem not his. He didn’t put a gun to anyone’s head and tell them to follow him on twitter.

Some of you have gotten into online arguments with your own family, that you grew up with, in the last 6 months about politics.  You think the odds of you getting along with some writer you never met are good?  Don’t like the guys opinion? Don’t follow him.  As long as he’s not inserting that opinion into his stories…what the F*ck does it have to do with the comic book he writes that you, 30 seconds before logging onto twitter, really enjoyed??  Nothing…it has nothing to do with it.

Stop ruining things for yourself.

Should he have been fired? part 2- I’d fire him.  IDW is a comic book publisher. They are running a business, they don’t have time for this bullsh*t.  They sell books.  Stores and fans buy the books. if the stores and fans don’t want to buy this guy’s books because he was dope on twitter…It’s not their job to protect his free speech.  They ain’t the NY Times, and he wasn’t blowing the lid on Watergate. They are a comic book publisher and he is a writer who made a ill advised tweet on 9-11.  and this isn’t the first time he pissed off a large group of comic book buyers and this isn’t year one of the world having twitter.  I’d fire him on the basis of it being so colossally foolish as to tweet that and because it isn’t the first time, and he doesn’t seem like he’s getting any wiser any time soon.

And now IDW is stuck in the middle of some sh*tstorm between the left and the right, because people who wanted to defend him and his indefensibly sh*tty comment sussed out some of the larger complainers and pointed out they are right wing…when really it has nothing to do with right or left in as much as it has to do with people who are so dead inside that they can’t see the good in anything and people who are not dead inside (I would be in the first group…).  But left vs right it is, and stuck in the middle is IDW and why? because of a book they published? no. Because of something they said? no. because of something they had any control over? no.  Because some guy they hired to write a comic book doesn’t give a crap how his tweets affect the sales of the book he is on and told 284 million U.S. citizens to shut up.

Twitter and twitter sh*tstorms are not new…and they are easy to avoid.  You know what I post on twitter?  Ads, and pictures… the end. You know why? because I know I am a dreadful human being, I have a dry wit, and none of that goes over well in 157 characters on twitter and no good can come of me posting anything else.  I’d have replaced him the same day…quickly and quietly, before this got the traction it has.  Internet sh*tstorms are much like actual hurricanes.  You can’t know for sure what direction they will take or how much damage they will do, or how long they will last…but it can’t hurt you if you get the f*ck out of the way.

“sooo…you agree with him but you don’t and you don’t think he should be fired, but you would fire him….?”

…yes. Look, all you need to take away from this whole thing is this-

Stay off of twitter…everybody.  It never leaves you feeling better than you did before you logged in.

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When Douglas is not here, he and his work can be found at www.arseniclullaby.com

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