Why is gatekeeping good?
Because something can’t ‘be for everyone’ and keep its identity. If you appeal to everyone, you eventually appeal to none.
Gatekeeping keeps people who don’t want to adhere to the existing culture of whatever is being gatekept. People should be expected to adopt the culture of whatever they’re joining to some degree.
Nobody actually believes gatekeeping is bad. The people who decry gatekeeping absolutely gatekeep the fuck out of things they already enjoy. Or worse, they’ll step into a space, then co-opt it and start gatekeeping the ‘old guard’ out of that space. Which I call “Hobby Gentrification”.
These are the same people who will demand that toxic or bullying individuals be kept out of a hobby, failing to realize that people want to gatekeep them for the exact same reason. Because they’re toxic to the hobby.
People for some reason think gatekeep means “no one new is allowed in” when in reality it means “keep out the threats”.
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