>>49508572
>>49513038
It's been so weird watching this all go down from the sidelines. Just admitting you liked any anime was a social death sentence only 15 years ago, now the same people that would relentlessly bully you for it probably eat up mainstream shit like Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan. You're completely spot-on about the failed normies, I've known so many of these fucking people and they were definitely the original harbingers of doom for otaku culture back in the day. Back then I always wondered "why are you even in this friendgroup?" but now I understand it's as you said, they had nowhere else to go and just latched onto whatever group would take them. Weebs and otaku, being lonely and kind by nature, let the wolves in.
>>49513069
You actually had to put effort into discovering media for yourself. You needed to do research, talk to other people about what's good, and hunt for torrents and downloads. Now everything people consume is driven by AI algorithms, they just doomscroll their streaming apps until the AI shows them something they might like. The art of getting into something organically and hunting it down yourself is almost completely dead.