Some fans are just wankers (meaning they’re assholes) and all they do is wank. Hence the term for fandom bullshit. They get off on being miserable assholes, just like your Aunt Janice who can’t go five minutes without complaining about something.

It doesn’t matter what they ship, there are a cluster in every single ship to ever exist. They’re the bad apples that try to spoil the bunch for everyone else. Sure, there are different flavors of wanker-ness but it’s all the same brand; sometimes it’s wrapped in “activism” or “protection” or “purity” and sometimes it doesn’t bother to masquerade as anything and just let’s it’s “your ship/fave/opinion sucks and mine is better” colors show.

The important thing to remember is that groupthink doesn’t exist and these clusters are just a bunch of butthurt individuals. Each person is their own person, even when they’re clustered together.

And maybe what we really need, is to see people as individuals again and listen to individuals. Sure, some of them are going to just be wankers, but most, I believe, are just normal people with hobbies, and you have more in common with them than you might realize on first glance.