Rob Bricken, writing his Nerd Processor column on Medium, has decided fandom has been transformed from being about love and diversity into hate and intolerance. As usual, he’s full of shit.

There are an increasing number of things I used to enjoy that feel tainted by the hate other so-called fans feel for them, and it’s getting harder and harder to separate the two.

I’m sorry, but you have control over how you feel. It’s not hard to separate what assholes say and what you think. Who is more important? According to Bricken, it’s everybody else’s opinion.

Studios have given nerds power, and power has corrupted us. By acknowledging these fans so much, and catering to them to wholly, they’ve given nerds a wholly unjustified sense of equality with those making the entertainment. Worse, when studios do try to placate fans by bowing to their wishes, it confirms what these fans have always felt in their hearts — that these franchises belong to them.

People who make the entertainment do not cater to fans or placate fans. They are creating their art, and if fandom loves it or hates it, it doesn’t matter. Do you think a creator spends time thinking about what an audience wants and then caters to them? I’m not saying that aren’t thinking commercially, but they are also thinking creatively, and what makes them creatively fulfilled.

I don’t give a shit what some rando on the Internet thinks about Star Wars, Game of Thrones, or any other entertainment I enjoy. You feel tainted by their vitriol. Ignore them, and you take away the oxygen they feed on.

I can still express my opinion without also going on a crusade to convince people who love it that they’re wrong, because these are the people who remember that being a fan of something is about loving it.

Write about this next time. This is what you want to have a thousand words on. This.