Why the internet finally turned on Chris Pratt

The backlash against Chris Pratt tells us a lot about what we value in celebrity.

It all started innocently enough, with a single tweet, and here we are now staring into the abyss of internet toxicity, white male fragility and celebrity fandom.

A few days ago, writer Amy Berg engaged in one of social media’s favorite games —One’s Gotta Go—and pitted four of Hollywood’s most famous Chrises—Hemsworth, Pratt, Pine and Evans—against each other.

Ranking Chrises is generally a fun and much needed break from the rest of Twitter discourse because the replies are usually filled with wholesome and/or thirsty photos of some fine looking men. In this case though, the game took a hard pivot and resulted in the absolute flaming of Chris Pratt, who, the internet has decided, is the Worst Chris.

For a few years now, what’s viewed as Pratt’s religious conservatism has put him on the outs with a large segment of internet and MCU fandom. One seemingly harmless meme during a slow news cycle though was all it took to fire up people about opinions that seem to have been simmering for some time. In the replies, and quickly across the rest of Twitter, people were quick to point out Pratt’s association with an anti-lgbtq church and his possible pro-Trump leanings as a reason to knock him off the list.

Pratt, who has always maintained that he’s apolitical by nature, has never actually said pro-Trump things nor has he said anything anti-lgbtq, but his social media footprint indicates he may lean far right (he follows Ben Shapiro and Dan Crenshaw). On the outside though, Pratt has also walked a frustratingly neutral political line during a time when many view silence as complicity.

Like it or not, much of celebrity fandom is closely tied to political and social values. Fans won’t stan for anyone who doesn’t hold the same beliefs that they do. We are not, of course, talking about minor differences of opinion on policy issues here, but ideas about representation, equality and social justice. And while Pratt has maintained that he’s “apolitical,” and that he goes to a church that “opens their doors to absolutely everyone” a large swath of MCU fans see it as an attempt to duck and cover.

Part of the problem is that being apolitical is also a privilege, one that Pratt doesn’t seem to recognize.  If you are Black or a person of color or LGBTQIA, or disabled or poor or a host of other things, your entire existence is political. It is a constant struggle to maintain your authenticity against systems that seek to oppress and marginalize in favor of the status quo. The type of celebrity that Pratt is trying to cling to, as a neutral and benign force, is one that fans, especially ones who are very online, not just don’t value, but will actively criticize.

As the Pratt conversation has spiraled out of control it has also revealed something much deeper about what we value in modern celebrity. It is no longer about just being a nice or beautiful or a guy with disproportionately large biceps or a woman with a taut stomach. Fans need their celebrity heroes to stand up as avatars for social and political good, and won’t tolerate anything else.

Every time the Best Chris conversation gets brought up, each actors political bonafides are also quickly mentioned as a way to gauge their overall goodness and worthiness. There’s the time Chris Pine walked around in a RGB t-shirt, all the times Chris Evans has railed against Trump on Twitter or even Hemsworth acknowledging how he messed up by cosplaying with Native American ceremonial wear. Maybe these actions are largely performative, but they matter to fans who’ll take any small indication that their personal celebrity crush is, effectively, on their side.

The Pratt conversation didn’t peter out as quickly as it has in the past and instead has reached a crescendo as Marvel actors and Pratt’s wife jump into the comments to defend one of their own. First, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt waded into the fray on an E News Instagram post and said “being mean is so yesterday.” Next, it was his MCU co-star Mark Ruffalo, who called him a “solid guy” and then Robert Downey Jr., who chided people for “casting stones.” It’s gone on from there, with more high profile celebrities defending the character of a man who doesn’t need defending.

It’s especially galling, and also hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans, that the MCU cast stepped up to defend Pratt when they’ve been sitting on their social media hands while Brie Larson has taken years of online abuse for pushing for more diversity in films.

There’s a part of MCU fandom that has no room for people who won’t vocally go to bat for the things they care about, and that’s what’s happening with Pratt right now. His politics are at best opaque and given he won’t clarify how he feels or what he believes (outside of espousing generic Christian values) a lot of fans have decided he’s just not worth their time. No one is canceling him, no one is harassing him and this isn’t going to stop anyone from watching the next Guardians movie.

Fandoms can turn toxic and bully people off the internet, but that’s not what’s happening here. This isn’t Star Wars nerds coming for Daisy Ridley or racist Marvel fans going after Anthony Mackie for being a Black Captain America. That’s not it at all. It’s as simple and clear as a lot of people just saying, LOL we like three people named Chris better than we like you.