When it comes to franchise fandoms, I'm pretty thick skinned. I've learned which conversations to stay OUT of, or which kinds of posts to ignore.
Never ask me any question you don't really want an answer to, I'm an open book.
The answers are what they are.
To focus this on MLP, since that's where we are, I myself can say that I feel pretty strongly about several things.
Folks like to debate about whether or not the villains are redeemable, and which ones are and are not.
Okay, I have strong feelings about this matter, and depending on what another user says, yes, it might well change the way I view them.
I can't say I'm so chill and aloof that I'd never get my feathers ruffled.
We all like to believe that about ourselves, I've learned that it's seldom true, and that I don't tend to have a ton in common with people who are like that.
However,
Maybe we don't need to have a ton in common to get along.
And that's where the not insulting people intentionally comes in.
We all have to leave room for each other to disagree.
I do not understand why so much room ends up being made for people to be mean to each other, but that's usually what happens.
It's worst on the internet, but it happens everywhere.
We have as good a handle on it, here on the forum, as you're likely to see.
But my whole life, I've watched how many mods, parents, teachers, cops, heads of state, bosses and managers and administrators all see that someone is being abused and they turn a blind eye, or join in, or are tone deaf and obtuse.
Their job is to prevent differences from turning into problems but they all seem to have these lazy thresholds in mind. They don't seem to wanna put much effort in. Maybe they don't believe in Equestria like we and our Mods do, but that's why we're all here.
Yes, if you think that Cozy Glow is just a rambunctious child who needed more love and therapy than she had already received, and not a negligent, calculating psychopath with ice water for blood, then yes, you zig where I zag.
I might be cautious about what I tell you, I might be less likely to take the lead in getting to know you.
But I don't have to insult you or clinically psychoanalyze you the sane way I psychoanalyze Cozy Glow.
That is not nice, productive or called for, so I don't try to extrapolate who you must be, based on how you feel about a show.
And, I don't automatically attack people for being different than me.
That said, differences matter.
I won't dislike you if you're a Cozy Glow apologist, but if you are, that alone won't make me like you.
We'll have to find something else to agree on.
Here, we might actually have the chance to find that.
But I'm in many other fandoms beyond MLP.
How ugly it can get, and how quickly it can become ugly.
That's why, despite my age, when I found myself in the Interfanchise Interphasic Rift again, I decided to come to the MLP universe and settle here in Equestria, as it were.
I love many franchises and Universes, but it's better here and kind of a nicer, more relaxing place to be based out of.
No pony here has yet attacked me personally over how I feel about anything on the show.
I have seen some ponies who are hurting, because of things that happen on the show, and that is also a shame, but that's a discussion for another thread.