Karl Puschmann: Toxic Star Wars Justice Warriors embrace dark side to spew misguided hate

Last week I wrote about Star Wars which is almost always a silly thing to do. It may be set in a galaxy far, far away but the dark side of the force is never far, far away.

After saying that the new Han Solo movie was good people rushed to tell me that no, this opinion was wrong. Which was nice of them. How else would I have known?

I'm not particularly sure when, but somewhere in this timeline people began to take this fictional galaxy of space wizards with magic glowy swords and spaceship-flying dogs way, way, way too seriously.

I like Star Wars, and I loved it when I was a kid, but it's not a religion - despite self-identifying as a Jedi on more than one Census over the years...

Even so, I'll happily agree the whole thing's dumber than a Bantha. And if it turns out that Wookiepieda or whatever says that, 'well, actually, Banthas are really smart creatures,' don't @ me because I don't care.

To me, Star Wars is dumb fun. And a big part of that dumb fun is discussing/arguing with pals about what parts are dumb, what parts are fun and the exact steps we'd take to fix these dumb parts to make them more fun.

These conversations were a lot more animated back in the prequel days on account of how gawdawful they were. But since Disney took over the big dumb stuff of Star Wars has shrunk considerably. Some are better than others but all the new Star Wars movies have been pretty good.

This doesn't sound like a particularly big call, but to a certain subsection of Star Wars fans it's an utterly outrageous thing to say, these childhood ruining movies are the devil and what am I talking about and I should shut the hell up.

These SWJWs - that's Star Wars Justice Warriors in case you're wondering - are out in force all over the internet. Loudly shouting at everyone who doesn't agree with their very serious concerns about these very stupid movies.

Their complaints are legion. Diversity is ruining Star Wars. Political correctness is ruining Star Wars. Women are ruining Star Wars. Directors are ruining Star Wars. Actors are ruining Star Wars. Disney is ruining Star Wars. Star Wars is ruining Star Wars.

What used to be fun fanboy jibber-jabber about unimportant nonsense has taken a sinister turn. Now co-ordinated troll campaigns target the actors and directors involved in these films. Rian Johnson, director of last year's excellent The Last Jedi estimated the SWJW trollbase at 10% of the franchise's fanbase.

He should know. He's had full hate campaigns targeted against him because they didn't like his movie. Just this week their sustained harassment of actress Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, led to her deleting her Instagram account and signing off from social media.

Daisy Ridley who stars as series hero Rey also deleted her account after trolls came after her for having the audacity to have the lead role in Star Wars movie but not being a white male. Her co-star John Boyega who is male but not white, got hounded by racist 'fans' online after The Force Awakens came out.

This is absolutely nuts. We're talking about movies here. And not even great movies! Good movies at best. I don't mean to discount the personal importance these films may have, or any deeper meaning they hold or connection people feel for them but for the love of Yoda grip, get a.

Have these saddo nerf-herders even see Star Wars? Did they miss the whole damn point?

When that little green prophet gave his famous monologue, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you," he may as well been talking directly to these vociferous, hateful 'fans'. Their crazy fears that white males are being sidelined clouding their judgement and leading directly to them spewing hate.

If you claim to love Star Wars but find yourself editing racist comments into a Wikipedia page or signing petitions to stop people of colour starring in these movies or tweeting abuse at the people making these films then, sorry, you're no longer a fan. You're just a giant asshole whose actions line up with those we actively root against when we watch these movies.

Really, the only thing ruining Star Wars is its fanbase. But if these big, dumb movies have taught me anything, it's that a slither of good tends to exist inside everyone No matter how deep down and buried it may be.

So use the force, trolls, and turn away from the dark side. It's not too late.