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Vocal Minority
Adjusted to represent viewer perception!
"One bad apple spoils the whole bunch."
— Commonly used idiom when it comes to a person's perception of a group upon seeing its Vocal Minority.
When it comes to fans of certain things, there are many people who are sane, down-to-earth individuals; individuals who understand that if they talk about a subject, and the other person's not interested, they'll stop talking about it. These people know how to keep their hobbies under control; how to differentiate between reality and their interests.
Unfortunately, these people never show up on the news. That's because Weird Is Interesting - Like any other program on television, the news has to be interesting or else people won't watch it. (Not to mention on how the media can be notorious in exploiting the trouble makers and overall embarrassments to their hobby/profession every chance they get, and the occasional Manipulative Editing. While any good people like that get a mention infrequently, if ever.) Why talk to an individual who works in an office, who occasionally picks up a copy of Spider-Man, when you can talk to the 300-pound guy who spent $7000 on his exact replica of a Scarecrow costume? Why speak with one of the female fans; after all, girls who read comics? Those don't exist, right?
The problem is that because only the weirdos get interviewed, this causes non-fans to believe they're all like that; that all comic fans are clones of the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons for example. This is also the main reason why people would hate something just because of its fanbase. It's like the old saying: "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". Not to mention on how the more Vocal a Vocal Minority can be, the more Demonization it gets, regardless of whether the other side is just as bad if not worse. So be careful if you demonize them because in the end, if you're not careful, all you'll end up doing is giving them a reason to deem themselves a "victim". (Regardless of whether or not they actually deserve it.)
Not just limited to Comic Books, this phenomenon extends to other hobbyists, other groups and races as well. Although there can be odd immunities: compare how your average American treats a guy in a Spock costume versus how he treats a guy with his face painted the team colors.
Sadly, there is a tendency for many of the Vocal Minority to seek position of power in their groups making matters much worse. Although it makes sense: the guy who cares the most about a topic is probably going to get a leadership position because he knows the most and is around a lot.
Pandering to the Base is when the Vocal Minority gets preferential treatment over the rest of the fans. Contrast with Silent Majority. See also Stop Being Stereotypical.
Examples:
General
Any time a form of other media (books, comics, etc.) gets adapted into a movie or TV show, Box Office and TV Ratings would suggest that a good number of people enjoy them, but you wouldn't know it from the screeching "THE BOOK IS BETTER/THE MOVIE IS CRAP" people that fill up message boards. One particular example, Legend of the Seeker. Reportedly, Terry Goodkind's fans are so furious (and loud) about the way the series adapted the Sword of Truth, quite a few fans believe that it left the studio afraid to advertise it and ultimately caused the show's cancellation.
Often enough just about any given online fandom of any show/movie/game/comic (even if the franchise in question seems to be popular in general) is being considered a "Vocal Minority". Heck, it's been said that something is niche if its online fanbase seem to be the only fanbase it has. Not to mention on how just because something has quite the online fanbase does not always mean it's actually successful. Final Fantasy VII seems to be the exception than the rule when it comes to how popular something can be because of the online fanbase. (Even though nowadays it has a load of Hype Backlash over the years because of that but that's a different story.) But in all fairness online fanbases can quite often end up as a Periphery Demographic (especially if it's for a franchise that was marketed towards certain markets such as Children.) Not to mention that online Message boards can be highly known for certain things such as Unpleasable Fanbase and Fan Dumb (which is often seen in great detail when Message Boards do get mentioned in the media at all such as X-Play for example).
The whole "Internet Nerd" demograph that is often stereotyped as teenage to 30-something men are often seen in this light. It's almost sad how pathetically socially inept shy guys are one of the more positive stereotypes of "Nerds". Not to mention how its been said how "Out of Touch" people in message boards can be about how "Real People".
There are also many out there in cyberland who refuse to acknowledge that there are actually...*gasp*...girls on the Internet!
And even more shockingly, girls who aren't on the Internet to provide you with porn!
Most (if not all) fandoms are not an Unpleasable Fanbase. Many are satisfied by what the artists make. Unfortunately since the unpleasable fans can get so vocal, it has been really tough for artists to be able to receive fan input.
Anime fans. Most of them are not Wapanese/Weeaboos who speak gratuitous Japanese, squint their eyes, flash V signs, spend all day munching pocky and talk about how Japan is the greatest civilization that has ever or will ever exist while weeping openly at not being born Japanese. In fact, there are anime fans who don't even know what a weeaboo is, and weaboos are treated with the contempt of axe murderers.
Japanese voice actors. Japan has just as many "Bad voice actors" as every other country does - even Japanese people often think some of the dub voices are better because they sound more "Natural". 'Course nowadays, after people see more anime than just a handful, they begin to assume most Japanese women sound like they inhaled helium, while most men seem to actually be voiced by text-to-speech programs, with a few children and unique voices in between the loads of helium and male voice.exe.
Turn it Up to Eleven if it's American voice actors (and also for the same reasons). Many Subbing vs. Dubbing debates get pretty heated because of this.
Gundam also has its fair share, usually many fans can respect that people like different AUs. But damn there are some pretty fierce anti-any not UC, there's also the Gundam SEED bashers.
Some people are quite amazed to learn that anime with a Yaoi Fangirl following are not automatically hardcore gay sex festivals with zero story whatsoever. Even if an anime does include a lot of cute guys and tease with the Ho Yay, the ones that actually feature out-and-out homosexuality are few and far between and are still marketed as niche titles (just like Hentai). However, the fangirls are very loud, which tends to make non-fans pre-judge such series without giving them a fair chance.
Axis Powers Hetalia actually has many, many reasonable, intelligent fans who respect history. It's juts a pity that the dumbass who's only in it for the fanservice and views the series as "lol, genocide" and/or uses the characters for Misplaced Nationalism has become the stereotype.
This view of shippers even seems to be entering the mainstream consciousness, perhaps for the first time ever, due to the whole "Team Edward vs Team Jacob" thing. Although most people may only see it as being about "Crazy fangirls" and not realize the shipping aspect.
This is even true amongst certain ships. Most Harry/Hermione shippers are nice, normal, reasonable people who deal with Ron and Ginny by pairing them off with, say Padma or Susan Bones or Lavender and Draco or Dean or * insert Ravenclaw here* . However, a small minority of H/Hr shippers - Harmonians - are utterly convinced of their ship's canonicity and vilify Ginny, Ron and sometimes the entire Weasley family.
iCarly has a vocal minority in the Sam/Freddie 'Seddie' ship. They also have a Harmonian style sub-group known as the Seddie Warriors. Who are just as convinced that Seddie is end game and that Carly (who is part of the Creddie ship with Freddie) is a huge bitch Mary Sue worst character ever and deserves death. There have been two major episodes involving Seddie and one with Creddie. The Creddie episode is the highest rated episode for the entire show, whilst the most recently involving Seddie wasn't even the highest rated episode for it's season, making Seddie the minority when the ratings are compared.
Despite the actual shippers being a huge minority of the overall viewership at most a few thousand out of 12 million+ the show can rate, the hardcore Sam/Freddie Seddie ship is the biggest inside the fandom itself. Which means it's a Vocal Minority who believe they are a representation of a majority of all the fans the show has.
Avatar: The Last Airbender gets a lot of flack for its shipping; even the creators have gotten in on the teasing. That said, most members of the infamous Zutara ship are pretty calm and rational. Its only those few yelling about how "ITS STILL CANNON" and that Tenzin was only from a one-night stand between Aang and Katara that are making things painful.
Yaoi fangirls. While most of them are just girls who happen to like the idea of two men together, there's a whole section who... have their slash goggles on a bit too tightly, so to speak. And even the ones that do are probably doing it for the uncomfortable reactions, both in-story and out. The majority of them aren't even squeeing, perverted lunatics who try to make guys make out for no apparent reason and like to beat up innocents with paddles.
Trekkies, due in large part to the documentary of the same name.
Actually, the documentary did a lot to dispell that. Yeah, the fans profiled were extreme, but none of them were creepy and the followup documentaries illustrate that A) American treatment of Trekkies is the exception instead of the rule, and B) that most rabid thirteen year old boys grow up to be stable, intelligent, well-adjusted people.
Not all Supernatural fangirls are vile, screaming pre-teens who bitch at every single female character. Even the ones who ship Wincest do it for fun, want to watch the show and usually just want the wank to be gone. Instead, everyone gets a bad reputation because of a obsessive people.
Not all Supernatural fans are even girls. Two cool guys kicking ass in a classic hotrod with a trunk full of guns, to a classic rock soundtrack. What's for a guy not to like? In fact, when the CW decided to laser in on the teen girl demographic, fans wondered if Supernatural would survive because they didn't think it appealed to women enough (in the way that 90210 or Gossip Girl did.)
Similar goes with Doctor Who fans. Most enjoy the show, but the few that dislike something tend to scream it from the heavens. One example is the character of River Song. In a poll about favorite "Nu Who" characters, River placed highly (in the top 10 out of 100.) However, if you only looked at the message boards, you would think that Who fans see her as nothing less than Satan.
Babylon 5: Most Fiverslove, or at the very least accept, the romance between John Sheridan and Delenn. But there's a vocal few who vehemently hate it, and make a tremendous amount of noise about their feelings.
Michael Jackson fandom definitely has one of these. Winnowing it down, there are plenty of people who enjoy his music... then there are those who also like his character... then those who think he's honest (i.e. only had two nose surgeries etc.)... and then those who either think he faked his death or, more commonly, was some divine perfect being driven to death by the forces of eeeeeevil. This last group is about the only one seen in the media (especially in any comments section for any article about him) as they tirelessly work to convince everybody else of his perfection and absolute innocence. Jimmy Kimmel Live spoofed such fans with "Jake Byrd" (Anthony Barbieri), who mingled with real Jackson fans outside the courthouse during his 2004-05 child molestation trial; he subsequently became a recurring character who devotes his life to sticking up for "defenseless" celebrities in trouble (i.e., Paris Hilton, O.J. Simpson).
Elvis fans. To look at the media, you'd think there are only two kinds: impersonators and fat women from the Deep South. (By the way, "Elvis Impersonators" prefer to be called "Elvis tribute artists".)
Vinyl fans regarding music. The way the media talks about it, you'd think that the vast majority of music listeners owned record players even to this day. But vinyl fans are only a minority among music listeners, yet their fans are very vocal about it.
Apparently, having a deviantART account is one of the many sufficient requirements to qualify someone as a weeaboo. As a matter of fact, some people seem to join for the sole purpose of making fun of the site claiming the only people on deviantART are Attention Whores, weeaboos who do 'crappy anime art', or emo kids who post crappy poetry, and a bunch of people who simply post porn. There are then countless journals and stamps expressing dissatisfaction with the site, usually complaining about one of these or all of them. If it's a journal it will usually end with a "Leaving DA forever" note. Truth is, 90% of this stuff would fade into obscurity if not for the excessive amount of people complaining about these.
Aspergers and stuff like ADHD are one of the most notable examples. While it's not exactly a fandom... most people with Aspergers are actually NOT like what media tells you, or even what the internet tells you. And especially not like the people in real life who say the disorders are made-up.
Not all of Cartoon Brew's articles are whine-fests on the current state of the animation industry, but rather informative dedications to some very talented indie animators, animation history, and amazing animated shorts both old and new.
Not all fans of The Nostalgia Critic are creepy, obsessive, clingy jackasses who want to keep him in their basement or brag loudly that we just see him as fap fodder. We swear to Santa Christ.
Goodreads, a social networking site for book reviewers, has a very low reputation among Young Adult authors due to a handful of Caustic Critics whose snarky reviews manage to get enough comments and likes to get the top spot. If they had bothered to look a little closer, they'd notice that most users don't even write reviews, and that on average, 5 star ratings outnumer 1 star ratings 25:1.
Any discussion made in TvTropes forums. More often than not, you'll end up discussing with the same 10/20 forums users (A.K.A the most regular guys). So all the decisions and discussion usually go one way, the way these 15 guys decide.
Pokémon fans aren't ALL Fan Dumb/Hate Dumb who only like certain parts of the franchise. Most of them actually like the games all the way through, and many do like the anime. Fewer of them stopped playing after a certain generation than the Ruined FOREVER page would have you believe and the Nostalgia Filter is a reason to keep playing, not one to stop. Most of them play the games because they enjoy them for what they are - good games, rather than just nostalgia.
Despite how it seems, not all Sephiroth fangirls are one psychotic episode away from being committed and think they're married to him on the astral plane. Only a handful are like that, but they create TONS of drama, so they're the ones that get noticed first. And since we're on the subject, despite him being made out to be the official mascot for Draco in Leather Pants, it doesn't happen quite as often as assumed. It seems that accusations and complaints of Draco in Leather Pants-ing far outweigh actual instances of it, at least these days.
Believe it or not, there are people who actually like a Sonic the Hedgehog game made after 1998 or simply don't bother with the entries they don't like, but a casual look at the online "fanbase" would have you lumping them in with unicorns and the tooth fairy.
Not all people who like any the 3-D games are autistic, mentally retarded, furries and/or into other weird fetishes.
It's ironic that there's an entry on this page implying that all furries are fetishists.
There are people out there who do like both 2D and 3D titles, do have reasonable concerns about the gameplay beyond They Changed It, Now It Sucks and could honestly care less about Sonic's eye color or whatever non-issue is in vogue this week.
Similarly, one would be surprised to learn that most Kingdom Hearts fans do not hate Kairi or Xion. Heck, even some yaoi fangirls don't hate them.
While the whole "Anti-Casual Gaming" sentiment has gone rather overzealous... to put it mildly. "Hardcore Gamers" seem to be actually getting it worse. Over the years especially earlier in the 2000's, while the Video Game Industry was by all means profitable, it was also in danger of being stereotyped as something "For Lazy Nerds Only". However thanks to the surprise success of the Wii seems to be making good progress in going against that in making Video Games profitable to all sorts of demographics. While there are folks who do wish that the 7th Console Console would make that stereotype go away there seems to be quite a vocal group who would seem to feel otherwise.
Not all PC Gamers are so stuck-up you wonder how they are able actually able to sit down or have to hire someone to tie their shoes for them. There are actually are PC gamers who aren't stereotypical snobby girls or actually bemoan all people who play a console as uneducated swine - You just never hear about them due to the widespread Patricianism prevalent and reinforced by most PC magazines.
Similarly, not all PC gamers really care if you use a controller to play a PC games (especially FPS games). However, with a loud minority of people that tout how much better a keyboard & mouse set up is and snark at anyone who uses a controller, anyone who needs help setting up a controller for a PC game may not ask for help because of the attitude of the minority.
Online, fandoms of both JRPGs and WRPGs are notorious for this.
On a related note, the Final Fantasy community is known to be one of the most vocal of all video game communities, with Final Fantasy XIII being the latest victim of Vocal Minority. The game holds pretty great scores on most video game websites, and quite a number of people favored the massive overhaul from the usual things that you'd expect from a game in the franchise, but it's the more vocal players that makes you think otherwise. In fact, the fanbase was strong enough for a direct sequel. The damage was so intensive that the company hired thirteen beta testers ranging from the typical gamer to a video game critic to Oshima Yuko of AKB48 to write blogs on what they thought of the sequel; just to convince deterred players that their game does not suck.
Perhaps one of the fanbases hit hardest by this is Fallout - somewhere along the line, everyone forgot about the sane fan, and began painting the entire fandom with the Fan Dumb and ...rancor of No Mutants Allowed. NMA itself is hit hard by this. Most people simply go there and write them down as "haters". But there are actually many sub-groups of fans in the site, from super-hardcores to people who even liked Fallout 3.
This has gone to the point where it extends to other fandoms. Heaven help you if you're an X-COM fan who has legitimate complaints about the newest game, apparently that makes you Fan Dumb. (a rare example where it seems that the defenders are the Vocal Minority)
Downloadable Content is an example of this happening to a product instead of a group. Believe it or not, not all DLC are overpriced cash cows and not on the disc waiting to be unlocked. There are good and worthwhile ones too.
Most Online Gamers aren't GIFT utilizing Griefers. Even the most reasonable gamers can turn a blind eye on this fact. This is especially true for Xbox Live and World of Warcraft users, which both have been basically Misblamed for "creating" it.
It might be hard to believe not everyone who likes Halo or Call of Duty is either a 12 year old kid or a dumb jock.
Most people don't actively desire characters like Gene, Phoenix Wright, mega man battle network characters or nico minoru to be included in Marvel vs Capcom 3 (or Geno in Super Smash Brothers). But from the perspective of Gamefaqs style forums, the vocal minority makes it seem like the company is bad for not including those characters.
In a more traditional example of "vocal minority" in the literal meaning of the term, there's the European Playstation Store: if you look at it, it seems that SCEE's official position about the PS One Classics is that noteworthy titles such as the Spyro the Dragon trilogy, simply put, don't exist - in other words, they officially don't mention them anywhere. But if you take a look at the comments in the European Playstation Blog*
, it becomes suddenly clear that the users' community has NOT forgotten about them.
The Mass Effect series have this in the form of FemShep players. Contrary to what the message boards may show (where FemShep seems to be the most popular version to play) Bioware's official statistics shows that over 80% of the players play as a Male Shepard.◊
Not all The Legend of Zelda Fans are unpleasable people that constantly whine about games like The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. In fact, many of them are perfectly content with the series, and actually like both of the mentioned games. You just wouldn't believe that when looking at the online fanbase.
Just about any official forum for a game is filled with this. The somewhat reasonable explanation for this being that people who have no problems, technical or otherwise, are happily playing the game whereas the dissatisfied players will go to the forum to complain.
X-Men: Evolution has this as well in two forms. It's sometimes said that Scott is a Creator's Pet because of his social ineptness and lack of a sense of humour, however there is a larger group who like Scott, as he is quite the Badass when he wants to be and was completely reasonable, but because such a large (yet minor) group hate his guts, usually for made up or flawed reasons they get ignored or bashed.
A second group is the opinion on Lance, Scott's rival, Lance is usually bashed by Kurtty fans for being Kitty's love interest and likewise the Lancitty ship is also hated by them, simply for existing, but their is a group who hate him and the ship for legitimate reasons and can be rather level headed.
Also applies to the hatedom, those who just don't like the show or even hate it for somewhat legitimate reasons barely voice their opinions, whereas those that refuse to even watch a single clip go out of their way to flame any YouTube movie or other fan-made content they can find.
People who hate Motion Capture. Most filmgoers don't exactly care about how the film was animated (for example, the motion-capture heavy Avatar is the biggest film of all time) or produced but some so-called animation experts will cry Uncanny Valley, that the process is stealing jobs from "real animators" (instead of say, something such as Flash animation or budget cutbacks at studios) and that Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron, George Miller and Steven Spielberg are antichrists for making movies this way. Outside of politics, this may be the most vicious vocal minority on This Very Wiki.
Did you know there are people who actually like Apple because it does what they need it to use? Or that there are people who use Windows for reasons other than gaming? Or that there are Linux users who aren't "omg all software should be free you capitalist pig" types? Or that there are people who use Apple products who actually don't rub it all in peoples' faces that their well-taken care of computers don't crash? Or that there are Linux users who merely like that OS the best? Or that some people actually bypass iTunes to put music on their iPods? Most people actually wouldn't believe it considering walking around with an iPod elicits strong negative responses from some individuals.
Hang around a few Internet forums populated by the highly computer literate, and one might easily come away with the impression that Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are the two most popular Internet browsers in the world, with Opera and Safari coming up fast, and Internet Explorer is an antiquated relic used only by those who are too lazy and/or stupid to download a better browser. In reality, though Internet Explorer no longer commands an absolute majority of all Internet users, it is still far and away the most popular browser in the world.
Smart fans. Most wrestling fans don't know or care about the innards of the wrestling business, akin to how most movie fans don't know or care about the innards of the film business.
Professional Baseball's image has been fairly tarnished as there seems to be a noticeable number of cases of Baseball players getting in trouble for illegal drug use. While fortunately exposure towards ball players that are NOT drug users is remotely existent. But still its been considered pathetic on the amount of ball players who get in trouble there.
And compared to football and basketball, baseball's drug policy violations are actually the lowest... but because the most busted drug is steroids, and football's already covered that ground and basketball doesn't focus on it, baseball is painted as the problem child.
Modern day (and pre-1930s) Marxists, especially in academia. At its heart, Marxism is just an effective epistemology (many academics who are not Communists use Marxist analysis), and even within Communists, most denounce the Russian Revolution as Blanquism trying to ride on the popularity of Marxism.
The South in the United States. Most of the people down here are perfectly normal, but any time a southerner is interviewed on national television, they seem to find the most redneck inbred person in the entire state.
Humanity as a whole. Not all Humans Are Bastards; that is way too simple-minded a view on a subject with such diversity.
An example that crops up in a lot of places, even here in TV Tropes, is Americans. Most of them are not loud, boorish, lazy, uncultured, stupid, etc. or insane Bible-thumpers. Many, if not all countries also have a good number of these "bad apples" as well. It's just that the walking stereotypes tend to seek out attention far more aggressively than the normal folks.
Feminists. Believe it or not, not all of 'em act like Andrea Dworkin or Valerie Solanas and the vast majority of them are not only vocally opposed to open misandry (i.e. hatred of men), but they've never burned a bra in their lives. *
Which is mostly a myth, anyway.
In fact, a 2007 study indicates that Feminists tend to actually have more success in heterosexual relationships, with both the guy and girl reporting satisfaction, than non-feminists.
Animal rights/welfare supporters. Going by most of theirrepresentation in almost all forms of entertainment, one would swear that vast majority of them are insane, radical misanthrope psychopaths who get off on threatening the families of medical researchers, blowing up laboratories and throwing red paint on people, rather than just people who believe that animals shouldn't suffer unnecessarily. PETA, being the perhaps both the most recognised (due to celebrity endorsements) and controversial (due to being ridiculously inept) animal welfare rights group, are in large part to blame for this viewpoint.
Doesn't help that their publicity stunts seem to aim for pure shock or wtf value to catch people's attention.
Muslims, Christian, Jews, Atheists, and any other group of people representing a certain faith (or lack thereof). Just goes to show you: it really doesn't matter what group a person belongs to; a small group of loud fanatics always seem capable of drowning out the voices of the quiet, moderate majority.
Beliefs tend to get this worse than many of the other examples as particularly rabid members tend to remain in the public eye even after they are dead.
To compound this one, often times the vocal minority of one religion or religious view likes to pretend not only that it represents the absolute only valid form of its faith, but also that the vocal minorities of other religions or religious views are the majority of their camp.
A common defense of many loud fanatics when tooting the horn of their particular religion and/or attacking another religion (for example, Atheists attacking Christianity) is "I used to follow [insert the religion being attacked] but eventually 'saw the light.'" In real life, the religion one follows is generally the same as the one his/her parents followed and rarely will one ever totally change religions at any point in his/her life (although his/her specific views may be tempered or altered over time). And, even if one supposedly followed a religion before renouncing it, the extent to which he/she followed it (among other factors) is a crucial factor when witnessing such a defense. Unfortunately, you probably wouldn't know this from the many "faith switch" stories so rampant on religion-themed internet forums and Amazon.com review pages. Not only from people who switched religions but also from people with sibblings or friends who switched religions.
Special mention has to go to Muslims; Its become general public opinion that a Muslim walking down the street is more likely than not going to blow everyone up. The constant targeting of Taliban in movies and games has probably helped cultivate this point of view, not to mention Osama bin Laden and 9/11, with no regard to Muslims who are actually, you know, normal human beings that don't have a death wish for themselves and everyone around them. Bin Laden at this point should probably be the poster boy for "Vocal Minority", since he's more or less the guy that's become the stereotypical image of Muslim people. It should be noted that the Quran itself severly prohibits killing people in any circumstances except a mutually agree-upon war; its one of the few crimes that was perscribed a specific punishment. The use of the phrase 'Allahu Akbar' in paticular has been stereotyped as something terrorists say before blowing themselves up, while in reality, it just means "God is the Greatest" and is one of the most commonly used phrases in the Arabic language. It is rather funny (tragically so), though, when someone utters it in a school hallway and everyone immediately backs up from him as though he's the bringer of Armaggedon.
Environmentalists. You know, those guys who think Humans Are Bastards, Science Is Bad, MegaCorps are bad, etc that are always trying to push you into inefficient green technology or trying to make you feel bad for driving a hummer or SUV? Well guess what...most actually aren't like the kinds of people who take Avatar seriously. They know pollution is inevitable and that the key isn't removing it altogether, it's managing it at an efficient level. As well as cleaning up some heavily polluted areas (ie, Cuyahoga River, which lit on fire from all the pollutants put into it), keeping endangered species from going extinct, or, most importantly, trying to make it so that kids wouldn't have to clean up messes left by this generation and can actually grow up in a safe place. (Love Canal.)
Not to mention those who are simply more interested in more efficient versions of existing technologies, or developing advanced technology to reduce/contain/slow pollution. The word "environmentalist" has actually grown to mean something closer to the WE SHOULD ALL GO BACK TO LIVING IN GRASS HUTS type, with less extreme people usually avoiding that label.
Anti-Japanese sentiment in China and anywhere else, let's have it at that. Yes, Sino-Japanese relations at present are rocky, but the media focuses on the negative things a little too much. Not everyone in China participates in flag-burning and general hooligans. Not everyone has a burning hatred. Same for Koreans. And neither are all Japanese people Nanjing massacre denialists, even though it's a sore subject, and any mention of Nanjing in the media will most likely get censored to avoid backlash.
While this doesn't apply to Koreans, anti-Japanese protests in China are notable not because they represent the majority of the Chinese people, but because the Chinese government is so repressive that simply allowing the protest to take place implies at least state approval of the message
Dutch example: the ill effects of cell-phone towers got the weirdos out in spades on the TV, because the science was boring and the weirdos weren't.
Also: the HPV and H1N1 vaccine had/has a large online "anti" presence on the web, the very vocal and very crazy get frontpage items. (Nanobots in the vaccine! MIND CONTROL!)
Teachers. You have probably seen plenty of stories about them in the news lately, but good luck finding any recent ones that DON'T involve them getting arrested for having sex with their students.
We have a special case in New Jersey; the New Jersey Education Association (the teacher's union) is seen as a horribly corrupt and immoral group. New Jersey teachers are apparently only concerned about their paycheck and making sure they get ridiculous pay raises and benefits every single year. Any time a teacher is talking about salaries or upcoming elections to their students, they're just trying to give a sad story to get the kids to talk to their parents and swing the votes their way. Governor Christie was heralded as the one man finally brave and powerful enough to stop this madness. Some minds were changed when not only did Christie's new budget cause entire programs to be cut from multiple school and many teachers losing their jobs entirely, but a clerical error from his administration caused New Jersey schools to lose several million dollars in federal grant money. Even the Anti-Christie side has its vocal minority, though; people saying that Christie is a demon who hates teachers and wants all the money kept for the people in high places. He allegedly cares nothing about our children's futures, and is going to drive the state into the ground. In reality, most teachers want to try to find some middle ground, and Christie is honestly trying to do what's right for the state (although how competent he was can be up for debate).
Combining aspects of the "religion" and "teacher" examples above: The overwhelming majority of Catholic priests DO NOT MOLEST CHILDREN. One of the most tragic aspects of the whole scandal (apart from the actual child molesting, of course) is that so many good people—people who would have been sickened to know what was happening in the institution—poured a lifetime of good and honorable work into an institution which, through the grotesque acts of a few and those who covered up for them, has been reduced to a sick joke.
Pet Owners (ESPECIALLY Dog Owners) are also a pretty big victim of this as well. Sure they can be seen as genuinely loving to their cute fuzzy pets but nowadays this love is looking more like a grossly unhealthy obsession than anything else. While its not the only show like this the recent reality TV show "America's Top Dog" is one of the bigger examples why Pet Owners are starting to look more like creepy fanatics in the media.
The animals themselves are subject to this. Generally, most people see a few animals in their lifespan and then judge the entire breed based upon the couple animals they have seen. (Or stereotypes, such as Pit Bull and Chihuahua's aggressiveness or Siamese being spoiled cats) This is of course ignoring that like humans, animals have their own perks and personalities...or that many of these stereotypes are a result of breeding. (Siamese cats, for example, were bred for vocalizations)
The Furry Fandom suffers horribly from this. Believe it or not, most furries simply like drawing or writing about animals that stand on hind legs, instead of having sex in a leather fox costume. You just don't see these people because the <10% who actually act like the stereotypes (even on that page) are far more interesting to watch on the media than the people who simply draw art or keep kinks to themselves. (You'd actually see about as many people who don't like Fursuits as people who do)
It's hard for a person who isn't a mental health professional to tell the difference between what is normal for their situation and what is a disorder *
It should be noted that some people do get their diagnosis right
, or what they have self control over vs a patholigical behavior. Since it's a lot easier to search Google than see a mental health professional, some people who have perfectly normal reasons for their behaviors misconstrue them as disorders, blurring the public idea of that a disorder actually is ( or what people who have the disorder are like).
Teenagers are especially susceptible to this kind of thing. If a kid does not realize that they're Not so Different and that everyone's went through the feelings that they have , who knows what disorders they might consider themselves to have.
Happens very badly to political parties in America. Republicans are gun-toting, bible-bashing, gay-hating, nationalistic jingoists. Democrats are communist, gun-hating, pot-headed, tree-hugging pacifists. Obviously due to Mass Media.
One particularly famous example of the use of this trope in politics; President Richard Nixon in 1969 famously positioned the anti-Vietnam War movement as one of these in his 'silent majority' speech, claiming that for all the protesters who made the news and raised their voices, there were countless more who agreed with the war but didn't speak up. (The war was unpopular with many, but not everybody subscribed to the same idea of *how* to end it.) Indeed, he won the 1972 election by a landslide.
While Fast Food was never really deemed healthy to begin with but in the 2000's there were a lot of news stories about people who would eat there every day and become morbidly obese. For a time a lot of people seem to think that these people were the only ones who'd ever eat a Fast Food place like McDonald's. (And that is when Subway really began advertising themselves as the "choice for healthy food".) While obesity is a problem to take seriously there was a fairly vocal response on how those who eat at a Fast Food restaurant for every meal and those who would eat at a Fast Food restaurant at all are not quite the same thing.
Abstinence. People often think of abstinents as hyper-religious, condemning of "fornicators," etc. In truth, a recent study showed that the vast majority of college senior virgins (those that have gotten through those "can't control it" teenage years... while controlling it) just haven't met the right person yet.
Part of the problem was the religious right coming out in spades for abstinence education and abstinence programs. It shows how out of touch they were that they didn't realize how utterly ridiculous "purity rings" seemed to a lot of people, and how far into Squickville "promise ceremonies" were.
And likewise; every time sex education even mentions abstinence as an option for avoiding sexually transmitted diseases...let's just say everybody assumes that the students are only taught about not having sex and never how to use a condom or other forms of contraceptives. You'd be surprised how many times they do teach about contraceptives and condoms but the teens just don't listen.
Youth culture in Britain at least. Shocking as it may sound, most teenagers aren't happy slappy hoodies who will knife you in the face at the first opportunity and never amount to anything.
Stage parents. Not every Stage Mom is a total raging bitch who are using their child as a living doll to shove their failed dreams onto. In many cases, the child decided what they want to do, the parent encourages them, and if they do push them to continue something, in most cases it's a case of encouraging them to push through a bad day (similar to encouraging a kid to get back on a bicycle after scraping their knee.) Similar with dads pushing their sons into sports.
Irish Nationalists. Most Irish Nationalists are just people who want Northern Ireland to join with the Republic of Ireland by peaceful means. They are not all terrorists, Anglophobes, IRA members and protestant haters (some, though few, are protestant themselves).
A classic maxim of customer service: "A satisfied customer will tell one person. A dissatisfied customer will tell 10 people."
Religion was already brought up, but special mention goes to Catholic priests. Just like teachers, the vast majority would never think of molesting a child and were horrified when all that came out. Still, there's the stereotype that priests, most of whom just wanted to dedicate their lives to serving God and God's people, are raging pedophiles who can't be within a one mile radius of any child.
In a rare funny case of this, jugglers. Yes, some clowns juggle. This does not mean all jugglers are clowns. Even jugglers acknowledge how ridiculous it is getting huffy over this.
The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements both have plenty of common ground with each other and both make a valid point that people in power shouldn't have carte blanche to run roughshod over the ones who gave them their power in the first place. So far, so good, but who do the cameras love more: The thousands of normal, mentally healthy people who want both the government and the private sector to start acting responsibly, or the handful of wackos toting "Show us your birth certificate!" signs, fighting with riot police, and holding up traffic by focusing their chakras in the street? This is an open-book quiz, by the way.
People with chronic depression are often portrayed as perpetually somber, complete downers who do absolutely nothing but mope and feel sorry for themselves while sitting in their rooms all day. In actuality, most depressed people are quite capable of laughing, having fun, and functioning reasonably well in day-to-day life. They simply feel sad and distressed more often than is normal or healthy, often without a traceable cause, and many actively search for ways to get better. Additionally, most depressed people do not inflict harm upon themselves, but the media probably thinks a depressed person who doesn't slit their wrists isn't interesting enough.
Same goes for pretty much any publicly known mental condition out there, with the media tending to showcase the most extreme examples they can find.
Believe it or not this applies to racists as well, the majority of whom are not violent, and many of whom are not even particularly hateful and are perfectly able to converse with and in some cases even befriend individual members of another race; they simply believe, in good faith, that other races are less capable than their own.
