To a certain extent, some of these people say those kinds of thingsv to convince themselves. CO has famously told a story from back in the day at TFN--and this is how insanely partisan, party-line-towing some people are--that he pretended to be a prequel fan and in private messages some of the harshest prequel apologist would tell what they REALLY felt. And guys like Cryogenic actually admitted, in writing, that they agreed the prequels weren't the greatest but felt a duty to defend it because it was Star Wars.
That happened to me too. Not to single out this guy again, but Cryogenic LOVED Secret History of Star Wars when it first came out, LOVED IT, he called it a masterpiece and had all sorts of positive hyperbole for it, and even helped me rewrite certain things. He appreciated that it put the films in new context and thought it was historically interesting to "pull back the curtain" even if it meant going against the official party line, and praised it to high heaven. Then he found out--or thought, I should say, since I am really not--a "basher." His tune changed. My arguments, which he was defending and reinforcing, were suddenly invalid, the book was a smear campaign, my opinions had all kinds of fallacies and I was a cancer to the fandom. NOTHING IN THE BOOK HAD CHANGED. THE TEXT REMAINED 100% THE SAME. It was the same text he was praising the week before. Later on I did make nips and tucks, but at the time--literally--other than his suggestions which I took mostly, nothing had changed. But what had changed was his perception of me. Thinking I was "one of them", I was now the enemy, and everything I said was cynical bullshit bringing down the fandom. Things that I would say that in the past he would see as constructive or merited were now further proof that I was just a basher looking to slander George Lucas. I think he felt like he had a personal vendetta against me because he felt "tricked", because he said some pretty nasty personal things that were entirely unmerited--and also ignored by the mods, predictably.
That has happened to me before and since, but this is the best and most specific example.
Not everyone over there is like that, but some of the harshest and most famous of them are, and more are probably truely like that than you would think. They don't even believe in some of the stuff they say, and they base their opinions on essentially partisan politics, regardless of the content and context of what the other person is saying. They are the real Star Wars Tea Party if there ever was one. I don't know why someone who is an adult would spend so much time online doing that though, I guess they have nothing else to do. We are at least spending time on constructive things and things we love.
