It’s happened again. A firestorm has been ignited. Armond White had the audacity to dislike Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which probably didn’t surprise you. What did is that his pull quote on Rotten Tomatoes dubbed the Potter series “the dullest franchise in the history of movie franchises.” Now, we all know Armond doesn’t really believe that; he just said it to piss y’all off. And did he ever! As of this writing, there are over 200 comments on his review, calling him names like “racist troll” and “ignorant prick,” rallying for his banishment from the Rotten Tomatoes website, and even demanding that he commit suicide. You folks sure do despise this guy. That’s why I need to make something perfectly clear: if you loathe White’s antics, it is not his fault, it is yours.
Let me take a second to backtrack in case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with our subject. Armond White is the film critic for the New York Press, but his work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, and Slate, among others. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics and a three-time chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. In other words, he’s got an admirable pedigree. That said, White has openly been dismissive of online film critics (for which he can go screw himself, really). He also has contempt for sites like Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic, which aggregate individual opinions into a consensus. White is bitter about the fact that the days when a single critic could make or break a film have passed. That’s his problem; the world changes, and you can either jump on that train or get run over by it. White’s response has been to try to derail the train by intentionally taking a contrarian opinion on virtually every movie that comes out, just to stir things up. He wrote that Resident Evil: Afterlife was better than Avatar, and that Jonah Hex was preferable to Toy Story 3. He praised Dance Flick, Transformers 2, and Death Race, while panning There Will Be Blood, The Social Network, and The Wrestler. White’s point is valid: consensus has replaced individual opinion, and today’s online film community attacks anyone who dares go against the popular consensus. My problem with White is not that he chooses to take an uncommon stance – we used to have to do that in college speech classes – but that he isn’t honest about why he’s doing it. He should just publicly acknowledge that he’s trying to foster debate and leave it at that.
Here’s what I’m saying: you Armond White haters know this. Before a big movie is even released, you anticipate his opinion on message boards and on Twitter. Guessing which films he’ll like and which he’ll decimate has become a popular online sport (albeit one akin to shooting fish in a barrel, thanks to his predictability). Then, when he ultimately posts his review, you all launch into the personal/professional attacks. You spew out missives on your websites or on the comments page of Rotten Tomatoes. Most notably, you play right into his hands.
That’s right…White has been keeping this charade up for several years now, because you guys keep feeding into it. He wants to piss people off. That’s his whole reason for doing it. So when he sees the vitriol directed at him for simply expressing an unpopular opinion, it reinforces his idea that he’s right. Do you know what people do when they think they’re right? They start to feel morally superior, and they keep their behavior right up!
If you’ve ever played a slot machine, you may know that the odds of winning big money are small. However, periodically you win a few bucks. Slot machines are designed to give you little morsels of success every once in a while so you keep playing. If you popped in a $50 bill and promptly lost every cent, you’d walk away and never come back. You need that feeling of making a dent in things. That’s called “reinforcement.” Anything a person does repeatedly, he/she does because something positively reinforced whatever it was he/she did. “Flaming” Armond White on Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, or anywhere simply reinforces his behavior. He succeeds in his goal. You are literally letting him win.
Bottom line: if you hate Armond White, think he’s a troll, and get consumed with rage every time he defiantly takes an unpopular stance, then simply stop reinforcing him. Stop calling him a troll, stop calling for Rotten Tomatoes to banish him, and for pete’s sake, stop demanding that he kill himself. Take away the reinforcement and his fun will evaporate. It really is that easy.
This is especially true for you Harry Potter fans (and make no mistake, I’m one of you). Who gives a shit if White calls it the dullest franchise in history? The vast majority of critics loved the series, and it made a gajillion dollars at the box office, proving that audiences loved it too. Our point of view is by far the dominant one. Let the bitter old man stand off to the side and bitch about the kids on his lawn. Who cares about him?
You could even do the opposite, which is to read and – sit down for this – actually consider what he has to say. No, he’s probably not being honest but, for better or worse, he backs his ideas up. Sometimes hearing a different point of view can be fun. You don’t have to agree with it. Just be open to another perspective. Doing this will also help your cause, because it’ll take the steam right out of White’s argument.
What happens next is up to you, Armond White haters. If you really want the guy to go away, that power is in your hands. Just please stop whining and moaning about it. It makes you sound like Armond White…well, never mind.
Agree with this 100% This is something I’ve commented on in the past on twitter. Thanks for posting this. I plan on passing it on.