Retrospect: Let's Not Do This Anymore

Let me start with a story about one time when I actually made a decent decision.  When I was in my 20s I was casually involved in the Sailor Moon fandom (don't act so surprised).  I was young, queer and Haruka (Uranus) and Michiru (Neptune) were everything.  When people online would badmouth them--or worse--break them up--OR WAY WORSE--straighten them out, I would become apoplectic with rage.  Those were OUR out queer Senshi and they were all we had, and they meant so much to me.  Outta nowhere, I actually made a good choice (in my 20s, no less!).  I could be as mad as I wanted to be, but I did not  abuse or otherwise antagonize other Moonies on the internet, even if they were wrong (and they WERE wrong, obviously).  I somehow kept it in my broiling brain that this was a fictional TV show and fans could interpret it any way they wanted, regardless of canon, and regardless of my feelings.  I, meanwhile, would do the same.  It wasn't just my shining good nature at work; Liz talked me down from a lot of my rants.  And thus we Moonies existed in harmony, even though those HarukaxMichiru detractors were wrong.  Which they were.

Which brings us to the Gen4 Brony fandom.  While I endured this on occasion, most of the infighting I saw was second hand.  But the gatekeeping (especially when it came to deciding what horses were kissing what horses) was intense.  I'm almost glad in some ways that Gen4 has passed, and now maybe we're all mature enough to realize that some people don't like or don't care about your ships, canon or otherwise.  And that's OK.  We can all revel in our favorites and ignore what doesn't interest us and all hold hands and WTF DID I HEAR SOMEONE SAY MICHIRU IS STRAIGHT BECAUSE SHE SMILED AT SEIYA ONCE I WILL FIND YOU AND COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND EAT YOUR PETS