And now its the other way round and now its the weebs that are the ones that have to tell others (tourists) that anime girls aren't real? im so sick of people treating fictional characters like they are real and real people like they are fiction.
At one time, I would’ve taken their opinions seriously, now I assume they are barely better than animals in terms of intelligence
weeb and weeaboo were definitely originally derogatory terms. oftentimes it was used to describe someone who loved Japan, but their perspective and idea of Japan was very warped and skewed to the point where they would be laughed at and shunned if they actually went to Japan and acted the way they did.
Much like "nigga" in principle, the community ended up embracing it. now it's mostly used to describe a person who is a fan of anime or Manga in some way.
I always figured it was just self-deprecating acceptance.
"Yeah I'm a loser who watches anime, but I'm kind of ok with that."
you can tell who is a real anime/manga fan and who is a tourist based on whether they are fine with being called weeb or not. A tourist hates to be called weeb but a real fan is fine with or proud to be called weeb.