I'm going to try to focus on the core issues both with this discussion, and with all similar spats you've found yourself in the past. I hope you're prepared to respond seriously and maturely.
There is a big difference between disliking something and being an ignorant redneck who has not the cultural background to understand it. What I noticed here is that people without the required cultural background dismiss entire artistic worlds while insulting other people who have the proper cultural background to understand these works of art.
Now, there is no such thing as objectve tastes, however, I find pretty easy to understand the people's reactions here to the movies they watch and why they like of dislike something.
Why? This is the core contradiction: when people dislike what you like, it's because they're ignorant rednecks. But you are apparently in a position to psychoanalyze what
they like and why. The insistence that you're fundamentally different from the people you disagree with is the source of 90% of the conflict you find yourself in.
Why don't people heap abuse on Zotis for jal90 for liking anime? Answer: they don't pretend people are ignorant for not being interested in it, and they don't claim some special mantle of perspective from which they can diagnose other people. They also don't make condescending assumptions about other people's motives or experiences.
So how can they dislike me and attack me personally if they don't know me?
They can't, but you have a bizarre definition of what constitutes a "personal attack." Earlier in this thread you listed examples of these attacks, and two of them were just people alluding to the fact that you liked anime.
I've seen this firsthand in the past: you once messaged me to complain that someone was attacking you, and you linked me to an example of someone criticizing a movie you liked. You even told me this felt like someone attacking your religion! This is just a basic failure of perspective: your taste in film is not a religion, and it's not an assault on you as a person if someone says they don't like it. You will continue to have unproductive, bitter arguments and suffer disproportionate emotional turmoil as long as you erroneously conflate these things.
And if they can't attack you personally without knowing you, then how can you presume to know them by generalizing that they are "ignorant rednecks"? They have heard just as much of your thought process and experiences as you have of theirs, so how are you in a position to know them, but they aren't in a position to know you?
I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again because it continues to be the best summary of all these fights: this is a simple lack of empathy. You give extraordinary weight to your own feelings when in conflict, and almost none to others'. You take for granted your ability to know others and judge their motives, but are terribly offended if someone dares to do the same to you.
This is the kind of thing people usually have drilled out of them as children. We all start off thinking we are the center of the universe, and that our own feelings are more important and powerful than anyone else's. Over time we learn that other people are just as complicated and nuanced as we are, and that their feelings matter just as much.
...disliking some element of American culture (like when I criticized that mediocre ethnic American comedy Fargo back in 2013 or just now in this thread when I criticized some mediocre Hollywood blockbuster).
So...why can't they claim that you disliked it because of your "cultural ignorance"? Because you lived in some other part of the U.S. for a short period of time before watching it? Have you lived in North Dakota?
This is a clear example of what I was just talking about
: other people's negative opinions of something are blown up into culture-wide condemnations that tell you everything you need to know about them, but your own are ascribed subtlety and nuance and apparently don't tell anyone anything about who you are.
Its simply wrong to attack someone personally because he did not like the same movie as you did to the same degree.
Agreed. But it's not wrong to criticize someone who explains their disagreements by assuming the other person must be ignorant, or who is thin-skinned towards criticism of their favorite films or shows.
The idea that people criticize you just for the things you like is a total fiction. They criticize you for the way you respond to them. For example, I haven't dismissed anime at all, and here you are, calling me an ignorant redneck racist xenophobe.
Well, you are also a redneck and a xenophobe. This was clear back in January 2013, when you claimed its ok to just watch Hollywood and nothing else because all the talent for making movies is concentrated in the US. This is plain false and plain racist, specially because you did no actual research in actually knowing anything besides American movies, you "proof" for that statement was that "well, Del Toro is a foreigner and he works for Hollywood therefore all competent foreigner movie directors work for Hollywood". What pathetic excuse for such tremendously arrogant statement.
If I'd said that, it would be arrogant. But I didn't. Here's what I said:
Filmmaking is a collaborative process, so it has to gravitate towards where the money, labor, and expertise is. Lots of foreign filmmakers come here to make their movies. Lots of good ideas and talented people come here to contribute to the industry. What does it really even matter how the film is produced or distributed, anyway? I mean, Guillermo del Toro's from Mexico, but he makes "American" films, in the sense that they're largely made and financed here.
Nowhere there, or in any of the posts that followed, did I say anything close to "all competent foreigner movie directors work for Hollywood." Nor did I say it was okay to "just watch Hollywood and nothing else" (in fact, I said the opposite: "I'd certainly encourage people to try lots of different types of foreign films."). So what's arrogant is both misremembering this exchange
and not having the self-awareness to wonder if maybe your memory was too convenient to be accurate. How much of this cultural martyrdom stuff is based on distorted memories, I wonder?
You also seem to have no sense of scale with words like "xenophobic" and "racist." Literally nothing about claiming that foreign talent gravitates towards Hollywood is either of those things. It'd certainly be inaccurate to say that all foreign filmmaking talent ends up there (or even most), but that still wouldn't be racist.
you ignorant computer programmer who has no awareness of your ethnic biases in the first place.
What on earth does me being a programmer have to do with anything? This really isn't any different than attaching someone's nationality to an insult ("Brazilian masturbator," to use your example) in that the only point seems to be to take what is a substantive criticism, and try to make it feel personal. There's no reason to do this that isn't blatantly immature.