DuracellEnergizer said:

I'd say it started with the SE and finalized with the PT, when George started pouring his revisionist "I had it all planned out from the beginning" Kool-Aid with gusto; far too many people drank it up uncritically and allowed it to poison their systems.

Sure, but that wasn't the case with Return of the Jedi though. And I also don't recall (although I was completely out of the loop at the time) anyone being called 'fake' fans for any negative reception for Phantom Menace back in 1999-2000. It seemed like a lot of the dumb BS about "true fans" didn't show up until maybe around the time Episode III came out, and that truly is something that you only see on the internet, thankfully.

Do you think it was caused by the completely arrogant claims from Lucas claiming that he planned everything for decades and had a "vision" coupled with the unhealthy cult-leader worship that TFN people had for him? It would make sense I guess since I don't think there were any "true vision" speeches back when Jedi came out, making it OK for people to dislike it.