Thank you. How can anyone not understand what he means? He finds the word "fan" condescending, because it implies the audience and the artist are on different levels, as though he has some kind of answer for life that the rest of us cannot find. If anything, an agreement with Morrissey's aversion to the word is a rejection of a "prism of faith," as Anonymous put it.
It's not as though this is something he's just now coming up with, so why the ire after 30 years?
From 1984:
"I get terribly embarrassed when I meet Smiths apostles - I hate the word fan. They seem to expect so much of me. Many of them see me as some kind of religious character who can solve all their problems with a wave of a syllable. It's daunting. The other night we all went out to the Hacienda, and for the entire night I was simply sandwiched between all these Smiths apostles telling me about their problems and what should they do to cleanse themselves of improprieties. I don't always have the answers for everybody else's lives."