One reason I get so annoyed when people dismiss "fandom bullshit" as nothing more than silly drama not worth discussing, is that adults in fandom have been talking for years about the rise of reactionary teenagers trying to enforce purity culture on everyone around them.
The mainstream finally clued into the problem and are so confused as to why it's happening, and meanwhile, fandom archivists saw the warning signs a decade ago.
It's not a problem unique to fandom, but it's intensely visible in fandom spaces, but people discussing the issue always get shouted down as "cringey fandom weirdos and their cringey fandom drama."
It reminds me very, very much of being a Norse pagan ten years ago, desperately trying to warn my non-pagan friends that, hey, Asatru groups are actively using neopaganism as a fascist recruitment and brainwashing tactic. Nobody outside of pagan spaces wanted to listen, and then "all of a sudden" there's a viking larper in the January 6th coup attempt, and people are confused why so many neo-nazis like Odin so much.
Similarly, furry community spaces kept trying to raise awareness of nazi furs, only to get shut down as "weirdo furry drama mongers." It also happened in the My Little Pony fandom--I was there. I REMEMBER trying to tell people, hey, there's some nasty shit happening beneath the surface, it's not just "weird basement dwellers," it's more than that. But it was the hot fun thing to shit all over My Little Pony fans as "cringe" across the board instead of listening to the actual issues at hand from fans who were trying to tackle the problem.
You gotta listen to subcultures telling you that there's a problem, before the problem gets too big to deal with. You gotta listen when people are saying, hey, this is a really big issue in this space, and if it becomes bigger, it's going to be a problem for everyone.
People outside fandom paint all fandom issues as "wank" and "drama," even when the issue is significantly larger than that and is worth talking about. Harassment, bullying, bigotry, neo-puritanism? That's way fuckin' bigger than "fandom wank," and it's incredibly ignorant to dismiss these issues as "online drama." You don't have to personally get involved in the topic, but stop dismissing it as "not worth talking about."
