It is strange times we live in when the reboot of the movie Ghostbusters has engendered diametrically opposed factions on the internet, complete with zealots, bad actors and a media incapable of understanding the conflict.
A good portion of the war is happening on Reddit, where r/ghostbusters and r/movies are predominantly anti-reboot, while the users at r/moviescirclejerk are firmly pro-reboot. A user from r/moviescirclejerk ventured over to r/ghostbusters to make a troll post, parodying the sentiments of some of the Ghostheads upset with what some perceived as politically biased positive reviews.
Ok, so obviously the reviews aren’t as bad as we had hoped. So what more can we do at this point to make sure that the public knows it’s terrible so that it bombs? from ghostbusters
Users on r/ghostbusters almost immediately pushed back at the poster for being a whiny baby, and not long after that figured out he was a troll by looking at Better_Butter321‘s post history (something easily done on Reddit by the way).
But journalists couldn’t be bothered to take this easy step to identify the troll. Instead, various publications used the post to denigrate those in the anti-reboot camp.
The BBC, Metro, AV Club, The Mary Sue (of course) and The Revelist to name a few, all used this comment as evidence of delusion among reboot haters. None of these sites have issued corrections or even thought to look into the validity of the post.
R/moviescirclejerk is now reveling at the stupidity of the mainstream media and a successful trolling of the anti-reboot faction.
But I guess writing about Reddit doesn’t carry the same strict standards of truth. Who cares amirite? You’re just defaming a group of anonymous internet users to fit your narrative. Ghostbusters is the best movie ever. Feig is a revelation. Harold Ramis approves! Spend your paycheck on Ghostbusters tickets and refinance your mortgage. I don’t care.