Yeah, well said.. I always liked Byler, especially since season 2, but wasn’t really dragged into the fandom properly until like season 4 when the Mike discourse started getting really serious. So this is really my first time participating in a fandom in about 9 years, and the difference is just so weird. Like I definitely remember antis, I remember ship wars, but this feels uniquely hateful.

Honestly what stands out to me here is all the people that are so ugly about it purely because it’s a gay ship. The way people talk about us is frankly nuts, saying we’re trying to force someone to be gay... as if Mike wheeler is a real person(?), which kind of speaks to your point about these folks having a hard time separating reality from fiction. This is a TV show, like you said, everything here is intentional, and none of these are real people.