By Dan Brown

I have an observation about pop culture that also applies to comics fandom. I want to share it with you.

It’s OK to stand in the middle of the road.

I don’t mean that literally.

What I mean is, when you’re thinking about your feelings for comics, books, movies, TV shows, or anything else, you don’t have to be an extremist.

You don’t, in other words, have to love something or hate it.

The world, and the human imagination, are vast enough to accommodate more than two possible feelings.

So when you watch this summer’s Star Wars series The Acolyte, you don’t have to immediately go to your socials and post, “I loved every minute of it!”

Nor do you have to state, “I hate all Star Wars properties produced under the Disney banner!”

It is perfectly OK to say, “I liked maybe two of the episodes of Acolyte, but the rest of the eight-part series didn’t move me.”

Get the idea?

When you’re talking with a friend about Taylor Swift, you don’t have to boast, “She is the best/worst!”

It is perfectly acceptable to say, “I guess she’s OK.” She doesn’t have to be at the top or the bottom on the list of your favourite musicians.

It’s OK to sort-of like a franchise or a property or an actor or a superhero or a comic title.

In no way is it wrong to have mixed feelings.

Being “Meh” is a totally acceptable way to feel.

I’m not one of those columnists who blames the internet for all of society’s ills, but I do think when people go online they get the impression everyone else is a partisan of one stripe or another.

If all that’s required of people is to love or to hate, then it’s easier to sell them stuff, whether that be a political ideology or a new product.

And perhaps in the comic world the presence of “completists” – those who have to have every issue of a certain series, or every book by a certain author, no matter how good or bad – makes everyday fans feel they can only belong at one end of the spectrum or another.

If you recall the 1989 Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing, there’s a character named Radio Raheem who has a gold plate over his left fingers spelling out “HATE” and another on his right hand spelling out “LOVE” That was his way of viewing the world.

Don’t be like Radio Raheem.

(This would be the right time to note: I enjoy some Spike Lee joints, but not all of them. I guess you could call me a middling fan of his work.)

Likewise, you don’t have to love a comic deeply or loathe it with all your soul.

Riding the fence gets a bad rap, but the full range of emotions is available for your use, and I’m giving you permission right now to even have contradictory feelings sometimes.

Because that’s what most of life is when you’re an adult: Neither black nor white, but beautiful shades of grey.

I hear so much about how so many things in our modern times are “divisive.”

That new Beyonce song is divisive . . .

The new Toronto Blue Jays uniforms are divisive . . .

Disney’s latest live-action remake of a cartoon classic is divisive . . .

Well, things would be a whole lot less divisive if we embraced the entire rich tapestry of human emotions, not just the extremes at either end.

Even this column is subject to this principle.

If you kind-of like what I had to say, I’m fine with that!

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.