There’s a subreddit you should absolutely not visit unless you want to cringe yourself into such a condensed state that you actually become a black hole and devour the entire solar system. But you should really check it out…
It’s called r/sadcringe and it is what it sounds like; user submitted cringe content that is sad. That said, it’s also frequently really funny, as evidenced by some of the better text exchanges that get regularly get added to the gallery of failure.
Check out these 10 examples of conversations that that did NOT go well.
10. Ready, aim, fired
This is the most compelling short story of a generation.
Looking at how terrible all those conversations went makes me feel slightly better about the fact that I work from home and don’t talk to people enough. Obviously, talking to people is dangerous. That’s the lesson here, for sure.
A lot of hay has been made about the “war” between Millennials and Boomers. But in the end, it’s really all about the memes. At least that seems to be the philosophy of a private group on Facebook called a group where we all pretend to be boomers.
It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and it’s rapidly gaining popularity, with nearly 15k members at the time of writing and likely far more by the time you see this. The bit is simple: a bunch of people young to youngish people do an impression of the online habits and styles of their older counterparts. That’s it. That’s all. And it’s kind of hilarious.
A thread on this latest lob in the generational war picked up a lot of attention when Twitter user @manhattanna posted a series of screenshots from within the group alongside commentary explaining that she might actually die from laughter.
joined that Facebook group where you can only talk like Boomers and I’m having the time of my life pic.twitter.com/YfvtD9OhiN
Here are some examples of the kinds of things she unearthed. (All screenshots are from @manhattanna’s thread here and were presumably taken within the Facebook group. Names and faces have been removed to protect the innocent.)
10. Dinner With Tom
The vicious face at the end of the comment thread is what kills me here.
If I’m being honest this sort of stuff fills me with a mix of unbridled joy and deep guilt. I know full well that, if I’m lucky to live long enough, I will eventually be totally baffled by whatever new thing society throws at me. And when that day comes, a group of kids will get together and make memes about it which I will also not understand. And then I’ll just get in my rocket powered recliner and go to my moon retirement estate, I don’t need this mess.
3. Answer: 2.S because looking down the line of three each of the groups has line patterns in common, in the first column it looks like two parallel vertical lines, in the second column it appears to be a single vertical line, and the third column seems like it could be the ‘C’ like curve which S would have.
There is a long overdue conversation going on in America today, and it’s about the future of policing. People are tired of overreach, tired of the police being outfitted like they’re going to war in our streets, tired of being teargassed and beaten, and yes – for people of color – tired of being targeted and murdered, often for doing nothing at all.
A world with a drastically reduced police force can be hard for most of us to even picture, and the ideas that could make it happen will sure be tough to wrap our minds around, too.
For most who have been radicalized to this way of thought, there was a watershed moment – a moment a lightbulb went off, and everything you believed about police and policing before goes right out the window.
For one Sean Trainor, that moment was the night he went on a ride along.
A long time ago, when I was younger and dumber, I did a police ride-along with a high school classmate who had gone on to become a cop.
It was one of the most chilling and radicalizing nights of my life. (Thread)
He begins with some innocuous but annoying facts, like how the guy had no real work to do so he just drove around putting license plate numbers randomly into the system and hoping something came up.
Two memories stand out to me. The first is how my classmate spent most of the night: rolling around suburban Maryland in a patrol car, punching license plate numbers into a database, looking for excuses to pull people over.
And anyone who looked “out of place” in a white neighborhood? They definitely got their numbers punched.
My classmate was so bored that he’d punch pretty much anyone’s plate into the database. But he devoted special attention to beat-up cars or drivers who looked “out of place” — which typically meant black or brown drivers in predominantly white neighborhoods.
This was a boring night. They might have pulled someone over for a broken taillight, but most of the searches came up empty.
Fortunately, few of those searches resulted in traffic stops. I seem to recall my classmate pulling over a guy for a broken tail light. But, for the most part, he spent the night driving around aimlessly.
To combat boredom (or looking for a fight), he would pull up to other cops’ traffic stops just to see what was going on.
To punctuate his boredom, my classmate would respond to other cops’ traffic stops. When he heard another cop had pulled someone over, he’d turn on his lights and tear off into the night.
On one call though, he was not. The man was pulled over for nothing major, but turned out to be an ex-convict driving with an expired license.
Which I mean…still feels like no big deal.
In this instance, a colleague of his had pulled over a car for some trivial reason — a broken tail light or expired registration — and then discovered that the driver was, as I recall, an ex-convict driving with an expired license.
He had just recently gotten out of prison, and was in the car with his wife and young children.
The guy (who was white) had gotten out of prison earlier in the week and hadn’t had a chance to renew his license. When he got pulled over, he was driving around with his wife and young kids.
The original officer didn’t let it go (of course) and he and the ex-convict were talking outside the vehicle when this guy, and a few other cops, too, pulled up to check it out.
Not content to leave this poor guy with a warning, the officer who initiated the traffic stop asked him to step out of his car for a conversation. As they were talking, more and more bored cops rolled up, including my classmate.
As the driver became more stressed by the onslaught of cops, the original officer began to get aggressive in response.
Not surprising, the situation kept getting more intense. The guy who had been pulled over looked increasingly stressed as more cops materialized. And the cops responded to his stress with heightened levels of aggression.
Things escalated, as they tend to do when everyone is amped up, and the man ended up face down and handcuffed.
Eventually the scene came to a boil. I don’t know exactly what happened. I seem to recall the guy taking a swing at a cop or raising his voice. Regardless, he wound up face down on the curb, his hands cuffed behind his back.
The entire night was just his cop friend trying to drum up trouble.
And that was night: a full shift devoted to manufacturing crime — desperately searching for reasons to pull people over and then harassing people until they snapped.
The guy he was riding with was just doing his job. In his mind, he was protecting the “good” citizens of his community.
My classmate wasn’t an exception to his department’s rule. He wasn’t a “bad apple.” As he told it, he was doing exactly what his department expected him to do. He saw himself — in fact had been trained to see himself — as a dog protecting sheep from wolves.
The “bad” people, the “enemy,” though, was almost always someone “other.”
But from inside his car, the sheep receded from view, and all the flesh-and-blood people in his community — and especially the people of color — took on a decidedly wolf-like aspect. He clearly viewed them as enemies and interacted with them as such.
The takeaway for Sean? They did nothing that night that helped anyone be any safer.
In short, nothing he did made anyone safer. He didn’t protect or defend a damn thing, except white supremacy and class domination. His entire shift had been devoted to profiling, harassing, and intimidating people.
He feels badly that he didn’t say something at the time, even though he didn’t know any better.
Looking back on it, I feel like shit about that night — I wish I had said something or objected to his behavior. Though, at the time, I had neither the perspective, the words, nor the courage to do so.
Even though he knows it wouldn’t have made a difference.
But, objectively, I know that nothing I could have said would have made a difference. Even if I had convinced him to quit, someone else would have done his job exactly as he had. The problem wasn’t my classmate. It was the whole rotten system designed to terrorize people.
And it’s not that guy. It’s not one guy. It’s the entire system.
What I learned that night is that behind every Derek Chauvin or Darren Wilson — behind every dramatic eruption of violence — is a whole universe of pervasive, mundane, and wanton cruelty.
Remember the beginning of Twilight Zone: The Movie?
I saw that movie when I was VERY young and it scared the hell out of me and left me with a permanent fear of driving in the middle of nowhere at night.
Here’s the scene so you can see what I’m talking about.
Hey, the road is a creepy place at night.
Let’s take a look at scary incidents that AskReddit users had while driving at night.
1. That’s a creepy movie, too.
“I dropped my GF off the night we saw The Mothman Prophecies. It wasn’t a super scary movie, but it had some scares. I take the interstate home. On the way, there is a curve where there aren’t any lights. Just a dark stretch of interstate.
As I came around the bend, there was a guy in a black trench coat walking along the side of the road. As it was about 3am, I guess I started him. So, when my headlights hit him, he whipped around and I swear he stared me right in the eyes.
My heart jumped into my throat. The whole event lasted maybe 2 seconds tops, but it had my heart racing. Not paranormal, but definitely scary for me.”
2. A terrible experience.
“I was driving home late one night and was driving on a dark stretch of the highway. Suddenly a body was in front of me, I tried to swerve out of the way but it was too late. My bumper was hanging on the ground.
The guy died. And I went to a nearby gas station not knowing what to do (was 18). When the tow truck pulled my car up on to it, there were a bunch of blood and guts on the bottom. I couldnt get that image out of my head
Apparently a drunk driver with 5 DWI’s had hit a guy on the motorcycle prior.
For years after I had serious depression and thought about it every night before sleep.”
3. Taxi driver.
“I drove taxi during the night shift and among many crazy and terrifying things, I saw a toddler (2-3yrs). it was about 1 am and I was driving in a very wooded part of our town, just after dropping a customer off, and in the middle of the road was this baby just sitting in the dark.
I stopped my cab and turned on my flashers. I preceded to walk up to the kid and he just started bawling. I tried to comfort him but me being in disbelief that a baby with no one around was just sitting there all I could say was “it’s cool it’s cool bro”.
I picked him up and he started crying frantically (I would to if a stranger came and grabbed me) I put him in the passenger seat and looked for the nearest drive way. It ended up being about 100 yards down the street. I pulled up into what I hoped was his house and there was maybe 6 or 7 teenagers drinking in the garage.
I couldn’t see from the road because all the houses had long dirt driveways. When I pulled up they acted as if I wasn’t even there until I said “hey, this your kid?” After a few “whats?” They came over to the cab and said “Aiden? Where did you go?”
Like the baby just goes for midnight strolls. Not a thank you or good bye or anything, they just took the baby in the house and continued drinking and laughing. As I pulled out I felt as if I should call the cops or something but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I’m still scared to this day that I’ll be driving down a dark road and hit a baby.”
4. Keep your eyes open.
“Back in my twenties I was putting myself through uni by working night shifts at a factory. Money was great but between full time work and full time study i was constantly exhausted.
Sleep got worse when I picked up a second job to make ends meet, parents split up and dad went into depression so he wasn’t working you see. Anyway, after months I kept falling asleep at the wheel on the way home from work just before dawn around 4am. One time as I was driving home all alone after work, I saw half a dozen crocodiles on the road!
I swerved to avoid hitting them and almost crashed the car. I was terrified in the moment because they came out of nowhere and were huge and I’d never seen crocodiles in real life before, let alone on a free way. I pulled over the car and looked in my rear view mirror but nothing was there.
To this day I don’t know if I dreamed those crocodiles or if they were a hallucination from sleep deprivation.
Scariest thing I’ve ever ‘seen’ and I’m so thankful no one was on the road at the time too.”
5. That’s weird.
“I was in college at the time and it was late at night, the day before thanksgiving I believe or at least around that time.
I had had class earlier in the day and packed then headed off on the 10 hour drive to the western edge of Nebraska. It was around 1 or 2 in the morning and I was in the final stretch of the trip. Driving down a totally deserted highway, only 2 lanes with no shoulder so the speed limit was 55. I was tired and having not seen anyone for at least an hour I kept kicking up my speed up to 80. I was flying down the road.
As I crested a hill I spotted head light atop a couple hills down. I didn’t think much of it. Reduced my speed a bit and got read to turn off the brights over the next hill. But I didn’t see any more headlights.
I figured they must have turned off down a gravel road. Could have been for any number of reasons. They lived that way, maybe coming home after a night at the bar and didn’t want to risk getting pulled over on the highway, but at first I didn’t think it was weird.
Until boom, a black car hauled ass past me in the direction that car had been heading, with their lights off. I still wasn’t too freaked out until I saw break lights and then headlights behind me.
I fucking hauled ass. I called my grandparents as soon as I noticed the person was gaining on me. I gave them a heads up and my grandpa said he’d be at the end of their 1/2 mile driveway with his shot gun and rifle waiting for me.
I still had another 10 miles to go until the nearest town, then about 20 miles on gravel to get to their house. I knew the roads reasonably well, but not well enough to get off the main drag and zig zag across country roads.
I was doing 90 and so was this person, but kept their distance. I got to the town and just hauled ass through it. I didn’t stop for the 2 stop signs or the one stop light.
At that point I was hoping to get pulled over. As I got about a mile from my grandparents house my grandpa turned on his head lights and spot light on his truck and was driving towards me. That’s when the person turned back around.
I always wonder wtf they were doing. Like were they just fucking with me? Did they want something? I’ll never know.”
6. Holy shit.
“A lady tried to use my truck to commit suicide. I was going 40 and she jumped towards my truck. It happened so fast I couldn’t stop in time and her head smashed out my drivers side window. Scared the shit out of me.
At first I didn’t know that I hit a person until I looked back and saw her body in the road. She didn’t die that day but as soon as she got out of the hospital, she went back and did the same thing. This time it was a semi truck and she didn’t make it.
Super sad story.”
7. Don’t drink and drive.
“Driving home after a get together and I saw headlights that seemed “funny”.
It was from a car driving the wrong way and I swerved at the very last second.
Driver was drunk and hit a van carrying a family, 3 people died, the drunk driver lived.”
8. A game of chicken.
“One time I was going to my friend’s a few towns over. Most of the drive is a pretty straight road with a few stops, and has a speed limit of 45( so everyone does 55 usually)
It’s about 8 o’clock and dark out and I get stuck behind a slow car doing about 35mph. It’s frustrating but I’ll pass at the next passing zone. Next thing I know he goes even slower, down to 20 mph. I think maybe he feels me to close to him, so I back off his bumper and he speeds up to 45.
Soon he slows back down agian..
Then speeds back up..
Then slows agian. But this time he comes to a stop. In the middle of the road. No one else around. No stop sign. I decide fuck this and slowly start going around him. And I remember wanting to look over but as I was going by him I start accelerating.
Then he lays on his horn and starts accelerating to. So I put the peddle down even more trying to pass him. He is still laying on his horn. I am freaking out, so I just accelerating harder Finally we are up to 80 mph me in the opposite lane before he slows off. I keep going wanting to put some distance on us.
Coming to the end of the road is an intersection with traffic lights. Light turns red. Guy is still behind me. I grab a ice scraper from the backseat to get ready for him to get out and come to my truck.
Thankfully nothing happens. I turned at the intersection and he keeps going. Crisis adverted, but I was still shaking when I got to my friends house…”
9. Brutal.
“Driving to work early, still dark, got caught on scene as the paramedics and police were closing down the street.
Man on a bike hit by a car, woman standing outside her car holding her face and staring at the man she hit totally inconsolable. Man on the ground, head contorted behind his back, legs splayed like a ragdoll, shoes in the street with his toes facing the wrong way, his face bloodied and cut, and his butt half out of his pants while he convulsed, obviously dying from his injuries.
I was forced to stay there while police figured out who saw what and who was involved, so I got to watch the guy die.
I didn’t work that day.”
10. Don’t stop!
“It was about 3am and we were driving back to Dallas from a field party in OK. Long dirt roads, houses few and far between. As we pass a particularly broke down looking farmhouse there is little girl standing at end of the driveway holding a headless doll just watching our car drive by.
Made my blood go cold.”
11. Years ago…
“I had a weird and somewhat frightening experience one night years ago while on a long dark road one night. I was in the Navy at the time, and I was on a training trip to Groton, CT.
I was quite the partier in younger days, and I would wander damn near anywhere wherever I thought there was some music, dancing and action (wink wink). One night I decided to wander somewhere north of the New London / Groton area to see what else was out there.
Well I didn’t see anything worth mentioning, so I said screw it and finally turned my rental car around to head back to the base.
Now let me set the scene as it really was. I was just driving along this long, dark highway when I spotted a white guy just standing there in the pitch darkness alone and alongside the road.
There was no car or anything there… it was just him. As a southerner, my first impulse was to ask if he was OK… that is until I looked into his eyes. This man looked me right in the eye, and his stare sent a damn chill through me as I drove by.
He actually had the look of something between a spirit and an outright ax murderer. I mean like this dude didn’t even look REAL! He didn’t say a word to me, and he made no physical gesture.
He just stared at me with this evil, weird and ghostly look in his eyes. Bottom line is this: He scared the shit out of me, so I kept my Black ass moving and got the fuck out of there as fast as possible.
I was even afraid that I was going to have bad dreams that night. THAT’S just how evil and weird this cat looked!
This incident happened about 35 years ago, and I never forgot about it, so I hope this puts the story into a better perspective in terms of the “Jason” effect this dude had on me.”
12. Back in the day.
“1978 or ’79.
I was the lead singer/guitarist of a punk band called The Nads. Punk was new to Vermont and roundly hated in an era of overblown bands issuing albums of overly instumented 14 minute pieces. We were three poor kids with secondhand equipment and few gigs.
We were also the owner of an ancient “Thames” van which had previously served a plumber. His name was still faintly visible on the sides despite many scrubbings. Anyway, we travelled up and down Vermont and also made trips to New Hampshire and Maine playing where we could.
We got a gig playing at a basement bar in Portland, Maine but the pay would cover not much more than the gas. We gassed up, packed two days worth of sandwiches and a change of underwear and off we went. Just over the border in Maine we blew a tire (or “tyre” since it was a Thames).
It was still afternoon and there was a garage/gas station nearby so we took the tire off and walked it over to see if they could repair it. The spare was bald as hell and probably wouldn’t have got us home. The road was narrow and in pretty rough shape and we walked along in our all-black attired and our unfortunate haircuts.
The reaction we got from the locals at the station was shock but we had cash and away we drove. About 20 miles further the same tire flattened again and we figured that we had been had. We were in an even more rural area and this was the time before cell phones so we were fucked. Night closed in.
We had food to eat and plenty of forest to pee in so we just waited for a good Samarian or at least daybreak. Sorry, bar that took a chance on us. We lounged around inside the van and played around a bit on a new song we were writing. then ate and tried to sleep.
Deep in the night we heard the screeching of metal being dragged along asphalt and we bolted upright and peered out the windshield. There a snowmobile was racing along the (June) road shooting off sparks behind it like a comet.
One guy was driving and another guy was…well…”surfing” behind it on something which looked like a piece of farm machinery while he clung desperately to a rope tow line. The “comet” lingered in our eyes as the two disappeared around a wooded corner. We didn’t say anything for a long while until Bill our drummer blurted out, “You guys need to write a song about that shit.” And so “Wrenchhead Surfing” was written.”
13. Naked dude.
“Dude burst out of the woods completely naked and made noise beyond screaming. We were driving maybe 35 km/h at the time due to us just coming round a bend in the dark and we see this figures tearing out of the woods on the drivers side of the road.
Head lights hit this man butt naked, covered in what appeared to be blood and they caught his eyes in that reflective freaky state. The noise that came out of his mouth could be called a scream but that would not do it justice.
The most ungodly thing I have ever heard and considering we were in a car with all the windows up it must have been obscenely loud because it was like it could have been coming from inside the car.
This was in ’96 and I still have dreams where he runs out from somewhere dark and makes that sound to this day.”
14. On the run.
“Driving home around midnight Halloween night after hanging with friends. We are traveling down the freeway and fog is beginning to roll in so we are driving relatively slowly.
We take our exit and as we are heading up the ramp we see the shadow of a figure walking across the road. The lights from the road ahead projected his shadow into the fog on the road in front of us before we saw him.
He was stumbling with his arms in front of him across the exit ramp. Much like a zombie in a horror movie. We barely missed him.
We called 911 to report a man stumbling across the exit ramp heading toward the freeway. Turns out it was a drunk driver who crashed his car into the ditch and he was on the run.”
15. Floor it!
“Driving in rural Arkansas on a pitch black night.
Came to a tiny intersection in the middle of nowhere with an abandoned car, driver’s door open, interior lights on, and not a single other vehicle for miles. No one to be seen.
Sped the hell out of there.”
16. In Mexico.
“While driving from Morelia to Ciudad Hidalgo, in Mexico, back in the 80’s we had two ways to get to Ciudad Hidalgo which was the national road or the old national road which was called Mil Cumbres. Mil cumbres basically means 1,000 curves. That stretch of road literally had 1,000 curves so a lot of people would get motion sickness when on that road.
One evening on our way back to my grandparents, who lived in Ciudad Hidalgo, my grandfather was driving and he loved taking Mil Cumbres because it had really nice views and he just really loved driving that road but since we had the new national road, not a lot of people used that road anymore so it was kind of desolate with the exception of passing one or two little towns.
It was dusk so soon that meant that being on such a desolate road in the moutains, we would be in complete darkness on the road with no many other cars on the same stretch of road. It took 2 hours to get to the town on that road so maybe 45 mins into the drive it had already gotten really dark and as we were driving my grandfather started slowing down.
I was sitting in the back seat because my grandmother was in the front with my grandfather so I kind of stood over the front chairs to see why he was slowing down. That’s when I saw a hug tree log blocking the road. My grandfather came to a stop and immediately started going in reverse to turn around and get out of the immediately.
After we turned, my grandfather stepped on the gas pedal and I was sort of thrown back into the back seat. I immediately turned around to see if I could anything and as we were speeding away, I could see men, very dimly since it the light from the tail lights from the car were starting to get dimmer and dimmer, coming from out of the adjacent trees next to tree log on the road, with flashlights and guns.
We were about to get robbed and thanks to my grandfather’s quick thinking and taking action immediately, we avoided it. That was the last time I was ever on that road.”
Okay, now I’m scared.
Let’s hear from you.
In the comments, tell us about the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen while driving at night.
I think he’s super nice, super positive, he obviously loves what he does, and he does a lot of good work for charities.
I think his TV show is good, too.
So why all the hate?
Some things and people just get hated on. It’s a fact of life.
AskReddit users weighed in what they think gets a totally unnecessary amount of hate.
1. Don’t hate on it.
“TikToks.
Most of the videos are made by kids or teens. Let’s admit it, most of us would be making TikToks too if it had existed when we were 13. Instead, we had marquees and wacky-colored cursors on MySpace.
Those kids are doing the cringy shit we did, they just do it on video.”
2. I wish I did it!
“CrossFit.
Sure it’s intense compared to your average gym session, and without doubt there are a handful of shitty coaches out there, but it’s a great social activity, teaches people to move well (yes, yes, there are shitty coaches) and understand the mechanics of their body.”
3. It’s very popular…
“Kpop.
It’s just another genre of music but in a different language, yeah fans can be cringy but pretty much fans of anything can be cringy, and kpop groups tend to get even more hate than western artists just for being asian, even though most kpop idols are less or even not problematic at all.”
4. Not your business.
“Not wanting or liking kids. If it’s none of your business, spend your energy on something positive rather than useless judgement.
It is a little frustrating how many people’s responses to a post about lessening your judgement… is to judge and complain.
You know you guys are proving my point, right? Like super explicitly. I hope it’s helpful to readers of the thread.”
5. Thank you!
“Guy Fieri.
He seems like a genuinely good person.
In 2017 and 2018 he cooked for thousands of victims and first responders affected by the California wildfires.”
6. She’s just a kid.
“Billy Eilish.
People who talk shit on her are literally talking shit on a kid. Do you have nothing better to do? I get you don’t like her music, I don’t necessarily favor her music either but that’s no reason to attack her personally.”
7. Look into it.
“Veganism.
Yeah there are a lot of vegan idiots you hear about, but you don’t hear about all of the vegans with completely normal lives. Veganism is simply food without chicken, cow, pig, fish, eggs, or dairy.
You can find protein and vitamins from other sources. But some people go extreme with either raw vegan, fruitarian, low carb, etc.”
8. This one is very weird.
“Greta Thunberg.
People hate her with a passion and it’s ridiculous.
A girl with a lot of foresight: “We should save the planet, make a future for our young”
Some asshole: “I wish you were dead, little girl”
I genuinely don’t understand that train of thought.”
9. Unions.
“Labor Unions.
Since the vast majority of people are working stiffs that would benefit so much from being in a union, it’s amazing that they’re unpopular at all.
Groups of worker who essentially band together so they’re able to bargain for a more fair share of the profits their labor produces. Throw in some great health insurance for you and the family and a pension so you can retire in dignity.
Seriously, what’s not to like?”
10. Furry alert!
“Furries.
Like, yeah, sexualizing anthros are weird and like mmmmmake me uncomfortable. But children who role play as warrior cats? Neuro divergent teens who find comfort in it?
Yeah, I think spending thousands of dollars on a fur suit is silly, but their out here living their best live sooooo. Cringe culture is all about making fun of children (well mostly adults who are into kid things) but like why??
Their life doesn’t affect you in any way???”
11. Good point.
“Feminism.
Feminism is female equality. I feel like we all agree that women should be legally allowed to vote and given constitutional rights. So why hate on feminism?
Bunch of right wing propaganda masquerading as memes about fringe wackos who want men to donate their paychecks or some stupid shit. You can’t achieve equality by reversing injustice.
Those people aren’t feminists, they’re angry assholes.”
12. Politics as usual.
“The other political party:
I’m just being honest. Due to the structure of algorithms and confirmation bias, people on both sides are fed straw-man arguments of the people that are different from them.”
13. Live and let live.
“Smokers.
Not “smoking”. I think that smoking receives the appropriate amount of hate. Smoking sucks. Smokers get a lot of shit though, just for having an unhealthy vice. I’m not trying to throw stones though, I have a few unhealthy vices myself.
I have a friend who got irritated when some second hand smoke wafted past them in a movie theater parking lot. The lot was behind the theater, the smoker was far way from all the exits and not anywhere near a high traffic walking area.
My friend said “Ugh, gross. Isn’t that so inconsiderate?” I said “…no, man. This guy is like…as far away from people as he can reasonably be, and the wind just happened to carry a little of the smoke the 40 feet between you two.
Where do you want this guy to go to have his smoke, Mars?”. My friend was then annoyed with me.”
14. Capitalism.
“Capitalism.
I want to be rewarded for working hard. If I’m not incentivized to work hard, I’m not going to. I’m not a billionaire. I’m not a millionaire. I don’t hate poor people. I don’t like Trump or Bloomberg. I think our healthcare, education, and housing is fucked and should be socialized.
I just think it’s stupid how much reddit hates capitalism. The world is a cruel place. People are assholes. Life isn’t fair. The government can’t create a system to change that.
Socialism only works if people love their jobs and never want more in life.
If someone told me that no matter how hard I worked, I would never be able to attain X because things are supposed to be equal, I would either say fuck you and go and attain X because I can, or I would be spiteful and do 0 work and actively look for opportunities to fuck the government.”
15. To serve and protect.
“Cops.
Yes, we need to reform how police forces are trained and be able to hold them accountable for their actions. But the broad sweeping generalizations that people make about how all cops are horrible and you’re afraid you are going to get shot when a cop pulls you over for a tail light is ridiculous and makes for an unproductive conversation.
I do honestly believe there are good cops out there and there are people who go into the job wanting to serve their community even though it is a high stress job.”
Now we want to hear from all the readers out there.
In the comments, tell us about the things you think get hated on way too much.
Some people hate on things because they don’t understand it. Other things get put down because they get too big or popular.
And some people hate things just because they’re negative and they like to be, well, dicks.
But some things out there get a lot of hatred and it doesn’t seem warranted.
Let’s take a look at what AskReddit users had to say.
1. Looking for some respect.
“Robert Pattinson. Sure, he got famous for the “Twilight” movies, and no, they’re not very good; but all of the weird independent films he’s made after that really scream that this poor guy just wants to be appreciated as an actor.”
2. Grosses some people out.
“The word ‘moist’.
I’m just describing this nice cake I’m eating and you’re acting like I’m reciting ancient curses from the Satanic bible.”
3. Remember them?
“The most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the mid 1990s, the Barenaked Ladies.”
4. Don’t hate the player.
“Basically anything that everyone under the age of 15 is into.
The irony is, the majority/plurality of people that hate on it; the thing that they were into at that age was the thing the Internet hated at that time in the same way.
“fortnite bad minecraft good”? I remember when Reddit (and the Internet in general) didn’t like Minecraft because it was full of “cringy pre-teens” in the exact same way that Fortnite is “hated” now.
I guarantee you, in 5-7 years time, Fortnite will be seen in the same way as Minecraft is seen now. It happened with Minecraft, it happened with Call of Duty, it happened with Runescape, it happened with Halo.
Heck, the likes of World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons always used to be stereotyped as “that game that only loser nerds in their mom’s basement play” (which was a dumb assumption to begin with), but now anyone and their dog can say they have an account/campaign and no-one bats an eye – you’d be raked over the coals for admitting that a decade or so ago.”
5. I love ’em!
“Vegetables.
I eat them regularly since I was a kid and it just blows my mind that there are people who take eating vegetables as punishment or they need to “learn” to like it or cook it because somehow they find it disgusting in raw state. I cant imagine not eating at least one kind of vegetable once a day.”
6. Nothing wrong with it.
“Shitty Beer.
Look, no one is making you drink bud light or coors. You can also choose not to drink if the beer that is provided to you is that bad.
I say this as a person who drinks way more than I should and chooses not to drink shitty beer.”
7. Don’t worry about it.
“Pop music.
Don’t like Taylor Swift? Don’t listen to her music. It has literally never, in the entire breadth of human history, been easier to find music that fits your taste.”
8. Yeah, this is weird.
“iPhone/ Android hatred.
Who the f cares what phone other people have!? I like my apple.
Why do people have to tell me their Android is superior and my phone is trash when they see that?!”
9. Another shot?
“People who have been in jail.
I mean they already paid for their crime. Can we let them have a regular job and join society again without spitting on them for the rest of their life?”
10. Girly?
“Probably late to this, but I felt I should add, Men who are into “girly” things.
Like any male who likes something “girly” instantly gets criticized by the entirety of society, including their own parents, like wtf is up with this?”
11. Bang your head!
“Most metal bands.
Worst thing is, people who don’t listen to metal couldn’t give less fucks about these bands.
It’s the damn metalheads always criticizing bands for changing their sound too much or always sounding the same, or for sounding too much like other bands, or not sounding enough like their genre, or switching genres, or changing their aesthetic or not changing it, or being posers, or the feared going mainstream.
It’s like metal bands get a free pass on their first album and from there on it’s the shit avalanche.”
12. Teen stuff.
“Teenagers.
Especially teenage girls who dress similarly and act similarly. It happens in every single generation and will happen until the end of time. Everyone that age is impressionable and wants to fit in. You probably were too. It’s a part of life.
Grow up, stop gatekeeping everything, and stop trying to make them feel even more insecure all the time, especially if they aren’t even doing anything to you.
I saw a grown man the other day refer to a teenage girl wearing leggings and a generic “teenager-ish” outfit as an “abortion that should have been” and she didn’t even interact with this person, or really do anything at all. What kind of psychopath says that about a kid??
If you don’t like them, who cares. They’re teenagers. If you let teenagers just existing piss you off, you have a problem.”
13. I love Florida!
“Florida.
The Florida weirdness is a result of a transparency in government law that releases police report data to the public almost immediately (scrubbed of identifying information to protect privacy IIRC). That’s why you get all the “Florida Man _____” headlines where other states don’t have them. The state police were required to issue a bulletin and the news wires just babysit the feed waiting for interesting stories.”
14. I’m not a fan…
“Pineapple on pizza!
It’s actually weird cause so many people eat weird things together, but pineapple on pizza gets hate for some reason.”
15. Have some fun!
“Old people doing young people trends.
They just want to be a part of the fun.”
16. They do get a lot of hate.
“Nickelback.
The only explanation I ever heard for all they hate they get was that they were on the radio all the time.
This maybe due to the (done zero research on this) Canada having to air Canadian artists for a certain % of airtime. Heard the same of Bieber.
A reason the US hated on them is they also had an insane amount of airtime on radios because their music (studio/producer/whatever) was cheaper than most. And, like other commenters have pointed out, they are pretty talented.
So they were just hard to escape if there was a radio nearby.”
Some very interesting replies there…
What do you think?
Talk to us in the comment and let us know what you believe gets too much unwarranted hate.
The world is full of people who don’t want to listen to reason and who think they know everything…even when they’re dead wrong.
All we can do is try our best to educate people and to do the right thing, but it can be very frustrating to deal with people who have awful mindsets and mentalities.
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about things that just need to go away.
1. No love.
“That we should have unconditional love for our relatives.
Bitch, if you hurt me enough, why should I even like you?”
2. Take it down a notch.
“Broadcasting everything on social media.
I have cut way back on my social media presence.
There is absolutely no reason why everyone that I have ever met throughout my life needs to I know every detail of everything that is going on in my life.”
3. Everybody take a deep breath…
“That if a person doesn’t immediately text you back then they don’t love you.
I’ve seen people cry over “well I texted him after 20 mins of him texting me and it’s been 21 minutes and he hasn’t texted me back yet!!! We’re breaking up!”
I’ve even had fallouts with friends because I had to stop texting to drive or go to class. I understand it’s from anxiety, I have clinical anxiety and I understand to a point.
But, it is EXTREMELY anxiety-causing to have to monitor all your text-back times and frequency so the other person doesn’t throw your entire relationship away over not texting back fast enough. It’s ridiculous and I’m so tired of it.
Let people have a life outside of you, their life doesn’t have to be 10000% dedicated to you for them to truly love you. Sometimes the best thing you can have in a relationship, any relationship, is a mutual respect of privacy and time.”
4. It takes time.
“That anything but perfection is a failure.
Progress is often incremental and takes time.”
5. Maybe you’re toxic?
“Everybody that doesn’t get along with you or agree with you is “toxic.”
People are starting to expect being around nobody but people that agree with them, like a constant feedback bubble on social media, but in real life.”
6. Don’t need to hear this one again.
““If you can’t handle me at my worst then you don’t deserve me at my best.”
Sometimes someone’s worst is an absolute deal-breaker and needing to cut ties and move on doesn’t mean that that person doesn’t deserve the good things that come from a better relationship.”
7. Not for everyone.
“A life without children is empty and worthless.
I am confident that I would be a terrible parent, and no it wont change, and no my life will not suffer because of it.
It is better to have that insight and avoid parenthood that have kids you resent, mistreat , or are unprepared for.”
8. Not a good outlook.
“Nobody is interested in having a relationship with me and that definitely means there’s a problem with the sex/sexes I’m interested in as a whole.”
9. Not a chance.
“The customer is always right.
Infuriating for those in retail, food service, etc.”
10. Sad.
“If we do not agree politically then you are an enemy that needs to be destroyed.
Politicians are supposed to be serving the people.
People should be holding the politicians collectively accountable and taking them to task.
Instead, people are fighting each other over politicians at the cost of public interests.”
11. Just existing.
“That being gay or trans is a political statement.
We just exist.”
12. Canceled.
“Cancel culture.
Yes, if someone has raped and assaulted people, I don’t really want to hear from them again (though it seems some get a pass and others don’t, see all of Hollywood applauding Polanski and then banging on about metoo.)
But if someone said “gaaaay” as an insult 20 years ago or tweeted that they voted for someone you dislike, no, I don’t think their entire career and life needs to be destroyed.
I am very left wing, socially liberal, but my God, am I sick of hearing about how awful someone is because they used the wrong pronoun or didn’t use the right word to describe a group of people.”
13. Interesting.
“The anti-nuclear bullshit.
It’s the cleanest, safest power source in the world. It’s reliable and with the proper reactor designs, scalable and portable.
And before anyone says solar, the panels are made with some fairly toxic materials that are very difficult to recycle and will be a massive issue in the next 20-30 years when the current panels need replacement.”
14. You must be a doctor!
“”Vaccines are dangerous, I know what’s best for my child.”
Yeah that 10 minute google search you did to confirm your bias trumps decades of medical research.”
15. This is very common.
“This mentality of older people in industries refusing to train or teach younger people then complaining when younger people don’t know what they’re doing. I deal with this constantly at work. I’m a young guy in my industry and I am the exception to the norm. Most fire investigators are older guys.
They constantly ask me why there aren’t more young fire investigators and I always tell them the same thing. Because you guys made it so difficult to get into the industry by requiring certifications that require five years experience to get, require two court testimonies to get, and so on that no one can get into the industry.
And then if someone does manage to break in, you guys treat them like crap, refuse to help them, and refuse to teach them what they need to know.
There are a ton of critical industries in the United States that are going to have issues because the barriers to getting into the industry are so high and those already in it are so elitist that there’s going to be no one who knows what they are doing left to continue the work. It’s a major problem.
Teach young people. Bring them in. Show them the ways. Don’t be a fucking dick.”
Even though I think (I hope?) we are evolving and becoming more accepting and more kind to each other, there are A LOT of problems in this world right now.
And a lot of them come from deeply-entrenched ideas and beliefs that people can’t see to get rid of no matter what.
What stupid and backward mindsets would you like to see go away?
No, it’s pretty terrible to be honest. I feel like shit today.
I want to stop drinking but I know I’m gonna drink more today.”
2. It’s okay to change your mind.
“That if I change my mind or opinion about something I’m being fake or phony.”
3. Let it go.
“That you need to stay in contact with all of your family members even though some of them are incredibly toxic.”
4. Get this shit outta here.
“My opinion is as good as your evidence.
This, or that everyone’s opinions are equally valid.
No, the guy who has a PhD and 10 years of experience in the field’s opinion is more valid than your 10 min google search.”
5. All about me.
“People who oppose good things because ‘I struggled through it and so should you!’ instead of thinking ‘good, nobody should go through that if possible.’”
6. We all need a break.
““No days off”. Sometimes you need a mental health day or a break, and people make it sound like if you don’t work yourself into the ground you won’t be successful.
Successful people know when to recharge.
It’s an annoying mindset .”
7. A little patience.
“Expecting everything instantly.
Patience is a virtue.
You’re not going to die if you have to wait in line.”
8. Not a hoax.
“Climate change is not weather.
Just because it’s -10 degrees doesn’t mean it’s a hoax.”
9. A bunch of BS.
“If you don’t post about a tragedy or support something on social media, you are ok with it or dont support/care about said something.”
10. Sometimes, you have to let it go.
“Quitting is only for losers.
If you try something and don’t like it, why keep doing it? Why not allow yourself to switch to a better major or try a different sport or get a new job?
I mean, don’t quit everything once it gets hard, but why stay miserable for a “quitters never win” mentality? Get a job you LIKE. Do an activity you LIKE.”
11. Work/life balance.
“There is this whole work culture expectation now of always being reachable by email or text for whatever happens. A lot of places expect, and at times demand, that you be pretty much on call even when you’re not at the office anymore.
I worked at an ad agency where days off sometimes didn’t even feel like that, because I would still be getting emails about things and was expected to be checking them. I hated it.
There should be some level of balance between work and personal life and I feel like that is fading because so many places are adapting this type of culture and mentality, especially start-ups.”
12. Not a competition.
“Stop comparing traumas.
It’s not a fucking competition. Learn to have empathy and take care of each others’ mental health.”
13. People change.
“Assuming that people are not allowed to change their opinions or values over time, and judging people, famous or not, for comments made decades ago.
Yes, some people have patterns of problematic comments and behavior and should not be ignored. But it also makes sense that, for example, a politician may have learned more about abortion or healthcare or what have you and be able to change their stance.
We are not the same people at 25 and 50.”
14. Gimme my sleep!
“Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I don’t need sufficient sleep.
Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I spend all of my money recklessly and need to work overtime every weekend.
Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I don’t want to relax at home on my time off.
I hear a lot of shit at work because I work with mostly older people. I budget my money wisely and in a sense I also budget my time.
Apparently those concepts are hard to understand.”
Okay, now we want to hear from you.
Tell us about the mindsets and mentalities that you think need to end.
A lot of people think that they know everything and so they can’t be bothered to actually take any advice. About anything. Ever.
I used to have a boss who would never listen to any of us employees even when we KNEW the things we suggested would save us time (this was in the food service industry). It was enough to drive all of us crazy.
He eventually came around and took our suggestions and guess what? They worked!
Let’s see what folks on AskReddit had to say about advice that sounded useless until they actually tried it.
1. Clean it up!
“Life is really much easier if you clean your workplace/room.
I clean my room often and it makes me feel calm and clears my head.”
2. Get on a schedule.
“Stick to the same sleep schedule on your days off that you follow on days when you have to be somewhere at a specific time (like school or work days).
I spent my whole life sleeping until noon on weekends, thinking I was storing sleep in some imaginary sleep bank. I recently started waking up early on weekends, and now I don’t have trouble waking up when my alarm goes off during the week.
Plus I have all this extra time to do stuff because I’m not sleeping all day.”
3. Drink up!
“You’re not hungry you’re thirsty!
I would eat a big meal and wonder why I still felt hungry.. It is because I wasn’t drinking a glass of water with my meal.
Now if I notice I am hungry after eating normal portions I have a glass of water and wait 5 minutes before I continue eating.”
4. It’s good for you!
“Practice gratitude.
Grateful people are happy people.
This includes just saying ‘thank you’ any time someone does something. Everyone likes to be acknowledged for something, even if it’s something small, and just making other people a little happier makes you happier.”
5. A lifestyle change.
“I suffered severe insomnia for years.
Someone told me I should get up an hour earlier, go for a 30 minute run in the morning, then do yoga for 15 minutes before showering and getting ready for work. Seemed ridiculous, but I decided to try it for a month.
Haven’t suffered insomnia since. Have way more energy, sleep better, feel better. It’s amazing.”
6. Ask yourself this question…
“Before I do anything I ask myself, “Would an idiot do that?”
And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.”
7. Good tip from Mom.
“My mom told me to spend good money on the things that separate you from the ground: tires, shoes, mattress.
I finally bought good not cheap shoes and life was SIGNIFICANTLY better. They last so much longer and my back and posture improved too. She’s not wrong about tires and a mattress either.”
8. EVERYONE should go.
“Going to therapy.
I’m a guy. I’m emotionally stable, so I thought it was a pointless idea. Went with my ex-gf, in order to work out problems in our relationship (mostly on her end).
I learned so much about myself and got some amazing life advice. 10/10”
9. They can sense it somehow…
“Stop chasing girls.
Most times now they notice me as an individual, not as someone begging for a girlfriend.
They can smell the desperation coming off you. When I gave up and worked on personal projects, I found a lot more success with women.
That said, you still have to be in an environment that leads to talking with people. Giving up doesn’t mean to sit in your apartment and mope, it means to not have getting a girl as the goal for the day while you’re out and about.”
10. All the good stuff.
“When you are sad eat healthy, do a lot of sports, and try to take in fresh air under the sun.
It works incredibly well.
It probably is something purely chemical, so it is definetly worth a try.”
11. Just get started!
“If you want to write a novel, just start writing.
Don’t plan, just get words on paper.
“You can’t edit a blank page.” Is the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten.”
12. So addictive.
“Drink less caffeine.
I didnt realize how much it affects my mental disorders (anxiety, depression, ADD) until I started drinking less, and realized I function way better when I don’t have a soda or two every other day.”
13. It really does work.
“Changing something about your appearance to gain confidence/self-esteem (getting a haircut, going to the gym).
I thought it was a cop-out piece of advice and then I got a haircut and I felt so comfortable in my skin and at peace that I remember the exact moment it happened.”
14. Baby steps.
“Trying to lose weight?
When going somewhere in your car, try and park as far from your destination as you can, when you can.
I read this tip somewhere else when I was at my heaviest and really trying to lose.
Every morning instead of taking the first spot available at work, I’d take the farthest one back. I had to trek a bit to just get to the door, then through the office and upstairs to my cube.
It felt good whenever I did it, and it put me in this mode where I wanted to do other healthier things throughout the day.
I went from 385+ to 220 in about a year and a half after I started adapting those baby steps (among many other baby steps, of course!).”
15. Don’t put it off.
“If it takes less than 5 minutes, do it immediately
I do so much less housework on weekends because of this.”
16. This is important.
“Show up.
You don’t have to be the best worker or friend. Just being the one that shows up it will mean a lot to everyone.
I got this advice from a Redditor on a post similar to this. It has help me a lot. I never participated in shit because I felt like wasn’t wanted or needed. Turns out a lot of people are self absorbed or flaky and the simple act of just being the one who shows up is monumental.
Show up to the moving party Show up to your kids events Show up to your company picnic Show up to the HOA meeting Show up to your awkward friends open mic night.
When you show up for other people they will start showing up for you.”
17. Do it every day!
“I saw a video of a Navy Commander talk about why making your bed as soon as you get out of it is so important.
The first thing you do when you wake up is stand up and get out of bed. If you make the bed, you have accomplished a task. You have succeeded. The first thing you did today was succeed at a task.
Take that with you and use that success to fuel everything else you have to do for the rest of the day.
Repeat tomorrow.”
How about you?
Have you ever taken some advice after fighting it for a while and it turned out to be great?
.”