I’ve seen this tweet on here a couple of times but I really don’t think it’s accurate to most of the fandoms I’ve seen. Saying that nerds joining fandoms to serve as a “security blanket” when they’re not very good socially definitely isn’t inaccurate, but it also isn’t a super unique observation. There are many many ways that fandom culture has been criticized and mocked (coincidentally they often end up targeting autistic traits). People are generally “fans of fandom” in that they enjoy the sense of community that fandom comes with more than the actual thing that they’re supposed to be a fan of, as opposed to proving that they’re the biggest fan by memorizing the most facts or camping outside to be the first to see a movie. There are a lot of depictions of nerds like the kind he’s describing here, where they’ve just memorized tons and tons of obscure trivia about their favorite thing to show that they’re completely obsessed w it, but I’ve rarely met or seen these kinds of people, online or otherwise. Maybe it was more of a thing when Ebert was writing this, idk, I have to assume it’s based in some truth, but it doesn’t “basically describe every fandom on earth” these days. Ebert says they’re boring to talk to bc they’re just regurgitating facts at you, but people who are super passionate about a particular work will often have their own unique observations and opinions that you might not develop if you haven’t dedicated a significant portion of your free time to thinking abt it.