Fanboys(and the occasional fangirl) are the pop cultural equivalent of a militant fundamentalist religious follower. I am not talking about just fervent belief here... I am talking about those people who say that if you don't accept their gospel, you will burn in hell and that you are a dirty stinking heathen sinner if you don't see that, and they have no reservations about telling you such in the most vile language imaginable.
In short, they are the Fred Phelps of pop culture... and I think most of you agree that is the sort of thing that most people don't want to be because they engage in the sort of rhetoric other people in the same general group try desperately to distance themselves from since this most extreme group makes everyone else look bad.
Now there is nothing wrong with being passionately devoted to pop cultural ephemera, and while it is occasionally annoying to be proselytized at by a true believer in a franchise, character or company, it isn't really crossing a line. However, it is the methods that fanboys employ that make them one of the most hated segments of our community, because like that hateful minority of fundamentalists, either you agree with them and their love/hate relationship with the thing that defines their life or else you should die or be stricken by some extreme hardship because your beliefs conflict with theirs. Also both groups have a tendency to throw out the words "fag" and "queer" as insults a lot.
I am a passionate fan of many things... but I've never told someone to I hope they get AIDS because they didn't like a particular movie or game as much as I did. And I've never been so incensed by images and footage being released from an upcoming adaptation of comic/novel that I loved that the subject of rape ever came up. I have gnashed my teeth about remakes in general, but I've never wished cancer on anyone involved in their making. I've never foamed at the mouth when a game in a series that I enjoy fanatically didn't get a 10... especially when I hadn't played it yet. I get mad at people online because our opinions differ, but I don't take it personally and I certainly don't make it my crusade to personally battle those people who disagree with me.
It is pop culture... it is supposed to be fun, not some self-righteous display of one's supposed love for a tiny segment of that vast tapestry.
Samuraifrog made a particular observation that I think is worth noting: "Fanboys are so dick-brained these days that they’ve actually become a parody of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Remember when that guy was a parody of fanboys? Now he looks tame and well-adjusted." Yes, I remember those days indeed. I mean when did acting like a total ass about someone else's creation become a good thing, and who encouraged this type of behavior in the first place.
So really, if someone called me a fanboy and I was acting like I described, I would be utterly ashamed of myself.
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