If you have listened to even ten minutes of the two of us talking over the past couple years, you will recognize our commitment to allowing anyone and everyone to find the activities, content, and art forms that interest them, and feel free to immerse themselves in that interest in whatever fashion and to whatever degree makes them happy. For some, that is casual enjoyment of a film franchise -- we had an episode on casual fandoms. For others, it's fan fiction and conversation about non-canonical relationships among fictional characters. We've had conversations about that as well. We've discussed fanatic appreciations of television, film, music, sports, politics, even social activism. We do this for one important reason: because when you understand someone's interests better, you can hopefully see why those interests exist, even if you don't share them in the same way, or to the same degree. The fact that it makes them happy, with no harm to others, is the point. Love what you love. We try, and most often succeed, in being positive people. We revel in seeing others get excited about an upcoming release, or watching someone discovers a new passion. We may not share that passion. We may not be as interested in something coming to market. But we love that others do. What we cannot abide, however, is gatekeeping. This disgusting behavior never seems to die out, and perhaps it's because of the immediacy of Internet response, or the growing public awareness of these acts of intolerance and exclusion, but with the recent news story of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" actor Kelly Marie Tran being effectively run off social media by hateful comments by so-called fans who attacked her for what they perceived as 'ruining their fandom', we'd had enough. This time, In Defense Of is going on the offensive. Joined by Joy Piedmont of Reality Bomb, and Don Klees of Acorn Media, we're asking everyone to tear the gates off.
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