Here at Opinion, we like to doomscroll as much as the next person. This week, we’ve put our writers’ chronic online-ness to the test. Inspired by a little covid-conscious lesbian bar in Massachusetts, our roundtable question of the day is: What is your favorite niche internet controversy?
Gianna Cassino (She/Her/Hers), Associate Opinion Editor: I absolutely adore the 13-year-old girl who riffed her way through “Feed the Birds” in her school production of Mary Poppins. She garnered a lot of unnecessary hate from Julie Andrews purists because she “wasn’t acting the song” and “over-sang.” In all honesty, who cares? You don’t go to middle school musicals for the character work; you go because you’re related to one of the children and maybe, just maybe, you’re lucky enough to be blown away by one kid belting their face off. This girl deserves her flowers — if you haven’t already, watch the Mary Poppins video and then watch her performance as Maria von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” While you’re at it, watch the Mary Poppins video a second time and really take it in. The birds were fed, and so was I.
Colin Hamilton (He/Him/His), Weekly Columnist: Though I’d be loath to call it my “favorite,” as I find the whole ordeal rather despicable, the “Patie Gonia” controversy is what comes to my mind. Patagonia, the clothing company known for its environmental activism, is suing drag queen and activist Pattie Gonia for one dollar, plus legal fees, after she filed a trademark to sell apparel and merchandise under her stage name. Both her stage name and branding are a clear rip off of the company, but she had received special permission to use both so long as it wasn’t for profit. Pattie Gonia broke this agreement and is now accusing the company of being both homophobic and anti-environmentalist. She notably waited until pride month to bring the lawsuit to public attention, weaponizing a marginalized community for an attempt at a social defense. The actual lawsuit had been filed several months prior. The whole thing is clear pink-washing and green-washing, and frankly, I’m shocked she’s gotten this far with it. Last I checked, Nike was suing her for similar business, so maybe it’s finally at a close. Hopefully.
Ayden Mirabella (He/Him/His), Contributor
I think the niche internet controversy that is my favorite is that Turkish Hearts of Iron Four players that are review bombing the game right now. It started after someone was banned from the HOI4 discord for having Kemal Ataturk as their profile picture. The discord apparently doesn’t allow profile pictures of controversial figures that don’t come from in-game sources. This has raised some controversy because in that discord there are apparently profile photos of Mussolini and other historical people, but since they come from in-game screenshots, it doesn’t violate rules. This controversy has sparked old tensions between Turkish people and Europeans. Online arguments have devolved into Constantinople, Vlad the III, the Siege of Vienna and so many other historic clashes.
Maddie Sparta (She/Her/Hers), Contributor: My personal favorite internet controversy is the story around the Hamilton blogger on Tumblr in 2017, HIVliving. In order to cement her status as an authority on the struggles with those who are HIV positive, she pretended to be a half-Chinese half-Pakistani Muslim living in India who was HIV positive. In reality, she was a white American college student. The reason she lied about all of this? To write her 170,000-word Hamilton fanfiction where Alexander Hamilton was living with HIV in the 1980s and feel no guilt about it. Seriously, watch one of the many video essays out there about this. I promise it’s not a waste of time (it definitely is).