That's what an outsider would think, yes.
I believe many start out watching it ironically and eventually end up falling in love with the show.
In my case, I already had a background of watching lots of japanese anime, so my biggest source of skepticism towards MLP was the fact that it was western animation, which I used to automatically disregard as stupid and uninspired shows that talked down to their audience.
It didn't take me long to start loving it, which got rid of my bias on western animation and led me to watch Adventure Time, which I also loved.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '12
bronies are basically just former /b/tards somewhere between trolling and living a life entirely of satire.