On fandom

The Neil Peart article has seemed to draw a fair amount of response. And many folks seemed eager to weigh in on which artists' fans annoy them. Reading Neil Peart's comment section has made me ponder the nature of fandom and why certain artists' fans might seem annoying. And one of the best reasons I have come up with is that all fans, on a certain level, are annoying.

I realize that this is an extremely broad statement. And potentially off-putting, as everyone is a fan of something. I am a fan of the Atlanta Braves, the Georgia Bulldogs, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and milkshakes, just to name a few. Every person reading this is a fan of some sports team, some recording artist, some television program, some thing.

But, having copped to fandom myself and acknowledged that it is universal, I think that there are enough annoying fans of all stripes out there that we should consider the nature of fandom- and why I believe that the entire concept of fandom breeds annoying people.

For starters, consider the origins of the word. The word "fan" is derived from "fanatic." And in common usage, the word fanatic is rarely ever used as a compliment. Its synonyms, as listed on dictionary.com, include zealot, bigot, hothead, and militant. Not terms one would want to self-apply.

We must also consider the traits encompassed by fanaticism. Fanaticism is a completely irrational state. A fanatic is completely unreceptive to criticism or counterarguments. As Winston Churchill put it, "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

These "fanatic" traits are present among fans of sports teams. A football team's roster can be (and often is) comprised entirely of deplorable human beings, but its fans will still cheer for them on Saturdays. Consider the Georgia fans who spent this off-season cracking jokes on talk radio about Florida's team discipline problems; these yahoos seemed to have conveniently forgotten about all of the guys in red and black who themselves were recently given the opportunity to check out the back of a police car. Similarly, it doesn't matter to Patriots' fans that their team was recently caught in a cheating scandal; they still root for victories and angrily dismiss those who dwell on the whole imbroglio. And remember, there are people who still cheer for Barry Bonds.

Sadly, these "fanatic" traits are definitely present among supporters of political parties. In this country, we seem to have reached a point where people "cheer" for their political party, regardless of whether or not the party has earned their cheers. I know plenty of people who seem to root for certain outcomes in political races with no regard for the issues, in the exact same way they would hope that the Cowboys will beat the Redskins on Monday night. It doesn't matter to these people whether their political party "deserves" to win, or whether their political party has talent or a good game plan. The political party is their team. And you always hope your team beats the snot out of the other guy.

And finally, these "fanatic" traits are also present among people who are fans of particular recording artists or musical genres. Whenever you reach a state of extreme and irrational support for a musician, you lose the ability to differentiate between the good from the bad, the worthwhile from the insignificant, the real from the fake. And what's more, you become "annoying."

In other words, to analyze an example from my colleague's recent post, Doors fans may be annoying. But not because there is something inherently wrong with them or the music they are fans of. Rather, I believe Doors fans seem annoying because they irrationally support Jim Morrison, even though I believe that his artistic output does not warrant the level of hero-worship he is given. (This seemed to be a common thread of the comments section- the fans generally identified as the most annoying were fans of artists who received more support or acclaim than they "deserve.")

In the same way, fans of anything can be annoying, when their support becomes irrational, exclusionary, and obsessively zealous.

Especially when the fans in question root for the Yankees.