rant about recent con and fandom culture

as someone whose nerdy parents used to take me to cons since i was a baby, and as someone who has been involved in nerd culture basically from birth, I have noticed nerd and con culture had and is still having a significant decline in quality ever since companies realized that they could make money off of us (2020s). artist ally's are not the same as they used to be, they used to be filled with independent artists but as of late they have been just so bloated with generic 3d prints and Generative Ai that its hard for me to tell what things people actually made and what people just downloaded off the internet and slapped a 50 dollar price tag on. The only real acceptation for 3d prints is when someone actually models and creates what they 3d print then i will gladly buy it. But most people who sell 3d prints don't create the models for the prints they sell so unless its stated otherwise i assume that 3d prints are downloaded for free and then sold to me for exorbitant prices. 

I used to basically go to gen con every year i can say that I've felt less and less welcome as the number of people who went increased, not to mention that you can hardly walk due to the amount of people going now. I'm not saying this because i don't like that people can openly be nerdy now but i am saying that as nerd culture has become popular it has been harder to get to actually go to cons and have fun.

as fandom has become more and more popular i have felt increasingly unwelcome in con spaces. i used to go to cons because i felt like it was a safe space to be weird and queer without being harassed, but as cons get more popular i find that there is less and less space for people like me to actually unabashedly enjoy themselves without having to mask their personality's. Its like all the people who used to make fun of me for liking ,creepy-pastas anime etc have all suddenly decided that they want to be a nerd. Which would be FINE if they wouldn't bring “cringe” culture with them. Its like walking into a gay bar and being surprised to see a drag queen, like come on people what did you expect. 

Im not saying that con culture wasn't toxic before because that would be a lie, con culture has always had problems mainly racism and sexism but i am saying that i miss when i could be cringe at cons.

like i said I'm glad that people are able to show their love for nerd culture but also i feel as if I've lost a space that used to be safe for me. if the newer people knew con-educate better and respected other kinds of nerds i would have no problem with sharing space with them.