Gaiman has some qualms with the current makeup of the “social justice” community within comics fandom. As he told reporters prior to the event, the best way to become more inclusive and welcoming is to “stop shouting at each other.”
One of the best things about fandom for me as a young fan and then as a young professional was, it was really, really hard to find your tribe. And you would make allowances for the ones that you did find, because finding your tribe… was hard. And you’d find them and you’d go, “OK, you are not, perhaps, everything that I would have wanted in a friend, but I will embrace you!” And now, when it’s incredibly easy for people to find each other in this virtual village, it is also incredibly easy for them to close ranks.
Gaiman mentioned a run-in with the “proto-Gamergaters and proto-SJWs [‘social justice warriors’] before they had a name,” in which he received Tumblr messages from both sides insisting, “we have a right to hate.”
“I was seeing the same letters from both sides. I wanted to start forwarding them to the other team. What works is communication.”