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Narrative
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redirected from Main.FanHaters alt title(s): Fan Haters; Dead Horse Entertainment; Not Allowed To Like It 
Confused Matthew admits he liked "Bayformers".
"Final Fantasy VIII sucks and you suck for liking it!"
—Noah "The Spoony One" Antwiler
"Creed sucks! I hate you, and I hate the bands you like!"
To some people, there is only one thing worse than anything they consider So Bad Its Horrible; people actually liking it.
In a nutshell, a Fan Hater is someone in a Hatedom, who hates not only the work, but also the fans of that work.
The thing is that to these people, art is Serious Business, and they treat their enjoyment of art the way some people take to competitive gaming. If you like anything not up to their standards, they will either mock you, mock that thing in front of your face, or just go on a diatribe about why you shouldn't like that thing. A common term that Fan Haters are fond of using, is "Lowest Common Denominator".
As a work becomes more popular, the probability of such a group appearing approaches one. Today's media landscape seems to encourage this somewhat, because In A World where executives and producers seem to believe in Quality By Popular Vote, and because Ratings are so important in determining what keeps getting made and what gets cancelled, it's easy for fans of one thing that might be on the verge of getting canned to resent the people who are making another work so popular (and thus keeping it on the air), as they blame those fans for their own favorite work's misfortune.
But others seem to just want to rail against fans simply because they think it makes them superior. This group is comparable to Moral Guardians, only it's their own subjective tastes they are trying to guard. These kinds of people are a big reason for some people's mentality of He Panned It Now He Sucks: Fan Haters are always waiting for an opportunity to pounce, and even a single negative critical opinion of something is usually enough to "justify" their "this thing is bad and you should feel bad for liking it" rants. It also contributes to Complaining About People Not Liking The Show: because there are quite a few Fan Haters out there, some fans mistake an honest criticism of a work for Fan Hating and get very defensive.
It is a very odd phenomena, because after all, not everyone enjoys the same things. And maybe they just don't enjoy it for one reason or another, not because of their sexual orientation, not because of their intelligence, not because they're old or inexperienced, they just happen to like it. But chances are if you like something that's subject to fan haters, expect one of those comments to be thrown at you. It's incredibly rare to see someone who actually acknowledges that maybe you like different things because you're not mentally ill or homosexual or "haven't seen a 'true' something".
Of course actually being familiar with the works people aren't supposed to like is entirely optional.
Contrast the inverse, Complaining About People Not Liking The Show, where fans of a show will lambast you for not liking it. This activity has also been known to spawn Fan Haters, though in that case, the hate starts with the fans and spreads to the work. Also compare Tainted By The Fanbase, where you love the work but hate the fans. Also, when a fan likes the show, but is a Fan Hater toward a certain character on the show, it's a specific type of Fan Dumb known as The Hate Monger.
Be warned some may pretend to be fan haters, but are in fact Trolls, which is even worse.
A Sub Trope of both Hatedom and Opinion Myopia.
Due to past messes, please avoid Take That statements, flame bait, "This Troper" blurbs, and redundancy.
—Red Vs Blue PSA
Common forms of this trope:
Websites specializing in Fan Hating (and Hatedom):
Examples here should be from in media. Anything else goes to the troper tales page.
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