Don't Understand the Scootabuse

One thing that always amazes me about this fandom is the art we produce that places characters from the show in tender moments that never fail to bring in the feels. Some of my favorite art of this type is Scootalove, where Scootaloo gets some TLC from Rainbow Dash and others.

But that does come with a cost. On the art site Derpibooru, there's an anonymous person who keeps posting nasty comments on any images tagged "Scootalove" that bully, degrade and make fun of Scootaloo. And I admit it, it makes me angrier than a cat that had it's tail got stepped on. And I'm not the only one: I don't doubt that a lot of people on Derpibooru would very much like to find this guy and punch him in the face.

I once read an article that stated that many Internet trolls show strong traits of sociopathy, narcissism and sadism; but I still don't really understand how/why there are people like that who seem to get their kicks off of making people angry. How could anyone be so messed up like that?

But what I really don't understand is the "Scootabuse" thing. Now, I only joined the fandom last year, so I missed a lot of the fads and stuff. But from what I gather, Scootabuse came out of a comment by Lauren Faust that said that Rainbow Dash would not be a good older sister to Scootaloo. Now, what I think she meant by that was that at that time, Rainbow Dash lacked the maturity and empathy to be able to connect with a younger filly (although she's changed a bit now). But how did that comment give some people license to create art that depicted Rainbow Dash, and sometimes others, hurting Scootaloo? She'd never do that! And why create art that depicts a small child being harmed? How could anyone enjoy that?

I don't get it, and I probably never will, but in any case, there are a lot more lovers than haters in this fandom (and in humanity), so that's a positive. This is a show about love and friendship, and most of the art reflects that. That's the art that I'll try to focus on from now on.

And fuck you, Scootahater. You're scum, everyone hates you, and you'd probably be doing the world a favor if you crawled into a hole and died.

Josiah