We grow up in a culture that drowns people in guilt and shame over the smallest deviation from the norm. I grew up just at the very point where anime fans and video game nerds were reaching critical mass of non-isolation, but what would come to be semi-affectionately known as 'weebs' were still widely rejected and seen as fringe weirdos by most.

Homestuck came up in an era where these anime conventions were at a historical peak of interest and its most visible adherents were nerdy teenagers. The story goes out of its way to not be user-friendly. So I think that relegated a lot of people to non-understanding and Homestuck fandom was seen as this embarrassing thing and those who were influenced by the opinions of others had to sort of learn how to disavow it even while praising it.

I'm not at all immune to trying to downplay my interests with irony, but I don't do that with Homestuck anymore. I have a very idiosyncratic opinion on Homestuck. I love Acts 1-7, the maligned Act 6 is my favorite act, I love Hiveswap. I have serious issues with postcanon but no issues discussing it or engaging it or *respecting that feel differently from me on it.*

I think that might be the key difference. I try to treat my interests as expressions that come from a specifically "me" type of context, but a lot of people treat their opinions as a way of projecting an image of themselves to others, defining themselves by a certain opinion set, developing a disdainful attitude toward those who see differently, and treating everything with a sort of ironic contrarianism, like even their opinions aren't really their own opinions but rather something molded self consciously in opposition to 'Rosemary shippers being too cringey' or 'Davekat being too popular' or whatever. Needless to say, this seems like a limiting way to engage with art.