I finally figured out a way of articulating in concise form why so many of us react so strongly every time an older fan (or even, sometimes, a fan of my own generation, because I'm no longer a young fan myself) tries to explain why this all an overreaction, or asks that younger fans be more nuanced in their reactions.
It's older fans and pros who, for decades, have been telling us it's okay and even an honor to be screamed at by Harlan Ellison and pinched by Isaac Asimov (as two clear representative samples of a larger problem), and so they've lost trust. They don't need to convince younger fans and pros we're overreacting. What they need to do is convince us they we can trust them enough to talk to them at all, because they finally actually see their past as problematic ... and that's just not happening.
The weight of those decades is behind every single reaction of every outraged younger fan and pro, and has been building for longer than old school fandom really understands. Present abuse is bad enough. Present abuse while not understanding that that the decades-old pattern of abuse preceding it is problematic as well makes the problem far worse.
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I finally figured out a way of articulating in concise form why so many of us react so strongly every time an older fan (or even, sometimes, a fan of my own generation, because I'm no longer a young fan myself) tries to explain why this all an overreaction, or asks that younger fans be more nuanced in their reactions.
It's older fans and pros who, for decades, have been telling us it's okay and even an honor to be screamed at by Harlan Ellison and pinched by Isaac Asimov (as two clear representative samples of a larger problem), and so they've lost trust. They don't need to convince younger fans and pros we're overreacting. What they need to do is convince us they we can trust them enough to talk to them at all, because they finally actually see their past as problematic ... and that's just not happening.
The weight of those decades is behind every single reaction of every outraged younger fan and pro, and has been building for longer than old school fandom really understands. Present abuse is bad enough. Present abuse while not understanding that that the decades-old pattern of abuse preceding it is problematic as well makes the problem far worse.