#including that some are just straight up antisemites regardless of cartman's existence

[amporella]

I do wonder, what do you think it is about Kyle in particular that gets fans so riled up? It always seems like so much of the fighting is centered around him.

Ahh, what a question... if this kind of discourse were directed towards literally ANY other character, this might be a more difficult question, but as is, the answer is relatively simple; he's Jewish, and he has the audacity to defend himself. His relationship with Cartman certainly plays a role too, but I think that's more of a subpoint to the previous point rather than a totally new point.

You're absolutely right, though; so much of the fighting IS centered around Kyle, and NO other character gets this much flak - especially not personally. A large portion of this fandom often makes the jump between 'Kyle did something dickish' (which, of course, he does, he is ten) and 'Kyle himself IS a dick'. This is treatment that not even CARTMAN gets; I feel comfortable saying that I have seen more posts saying Kyle is pathetic/any relevant synonym (even in jest, which is often hard to distinguish from genuine vitriol) than I have of people saying Cartman is pathetic. Before Post-Covid, people would scavenge for crumbs to justify Cartman's behavior; I can't count the number of times I've seen 'okay, well, he saved those cats in Major Boobage, so he can't be all bad?' which, great, but it's quite obvious that a) Cartman also frequently abuses his own cat and b) Cartman saving cats and hiding them in his attack was a quite obvious metaphor for hiding Jewish people around the Holocaust and WWII; it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Normally, Cartman doesn't seem to give a single fuck about cats, let alone his own cat. His behavior wasn't evidence that he has a heart, or that he's not all bad; it was, as always, a Cartman-related joke at the expense of Jewish people - a joke at the expense of Kyle, specifically, as most of the jokes boil down to. Post-Covid gave even more ammo towards Cartman being utterly irredeemable, but he's obviously still being defended vigorously by specific people, some out of ignorance and others out of genuine malice.

I mention Cartman and these events as an example because I think it's very relevant; the venn diagram between rabid Cartman (and kyman, sometimes) fans and Kyle haters is very close to a circle. It's not that Kyle himself has done anything wrong by existing as a Jewish character; it's that the same people who desperately want to believe Cartman can change come to resent Kyle for his existence, because he serves as a stark reminder that Cartman CAN'T change. They'll come up with as many logical loopholes as possible to TRY and pretend that he can (recent examples I've seen being 'Kyle is fictional, and his abuse doesn't matter', 'Cartman isn't a nazi, he just hates Kyle in particular' and 'Cartman was the one who tried to bring the main four back together, he changed while Kyle didn't), and when that inevitably doesn't work, they turn their anger onto Kyle. This is antisemitic - the justifying of a Jewish character's abuse from a nazi (and Cartman IS a nazi, I would be happy to elaborate if anyone wants me to) is always antisemitic, regardless of whether he's fictional or whether he was a little too uppity for you in one specific episode. I have seen posts from these same Kyle haters on Twitter that essentially admit to what they're doing; they want Kyle dead because, in their eyes, he reverses Cartman's progress - in Post-Covid, he 'ruins' Cartman's chance at having a family by existing. This is obviously not true - Cartman is responsible for his own actions, and Kyle existing as a Jewish man and being unwilling to forgive his abuser is not a crime - but it's the general reasoning behind it.

This is one of the reasons that those derogatory jokes agitate me; because there are people who legitimately think this way about the characters, and who are so delusional that to them, Kyle IS pathetic and DOES deserve to die alone, because he is Jewish and has the audacity to exist, which upsets Cartman. The repetition of these phrases in a 'loving' way towards Kyle legitimizes them - it makes the people who genuinely believe them go 'okay, well, if these Kyle likers think he's pathetic, surely it's less antisemitic if I think so', but it isn't. In this way, calling Kyle a loser/pathetic/etc legitimizes the antisemitism directed towards him; it gives Kyle haters something to point to to claim that their hatred of him ISN'T based in his Jewish identity and that he doesn't lay down and take abuse. This is regardless of the intentions of the people who make these jokes; I'm sure they don't mean harm, but it's actively harmful at worst and not helpful in the slightest at best.

Anyway, this was long, so TL;DR: Cartman fans are Kyle's biggest group of haters, and Kyle's existence serves as evidence that Cartman is incapable of reform, causing them a) believe Cartman's hatred of him is justified and b) join in on that hatred.

Thanks for the ask!