twister111 said:

The "true fan" statement is so pompous, bombastic, and nonsensical. It's completely unnecessary and only serves to break fandoms apart.

That is the thing though, more often than not these days that "fandom" isn't even connected in the first place.

To make a shorter version of my previous point: I went to visit a cousin of mine many years ago. I was perusing his DVD collection and excitedly came across the Planet of the Apes box set. I had no idea he was a PoTA fan like myself! Seeing me with his Apes box set in my hand, he rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, that thing was the biggest waste of money. Good lord those movies are terrible! Trust me, they're nothing like the new one."

Turns out he liked Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake so much he had seen it in theaters numerous times, and at the point of my visit he was anxiously awaiting the DVD release. He'd never seen any of the old PoTA movies before buying the box set and was extremely unimpressed.

I am a Planet of the Apes fan. He is a Planet of the Apes fan. But the reality is, we're not even fans of the same thing. I can't stand the remake, he hates the originals. We're not part of the same fandom at all. Not to say we should be petty and fight about it, but there seems to be this idea that we all just need to hold hands and be happy because we love the same things.