in defense of hating [popular thing]

[originally posted September 14th 2023 on cohost. I'm sorry for bringing bitterness here right now, but I found this post when digging through my cohost archive and it's something that still resonates with me so I'm bringing this over. I felt this years ago, I feel this now, and I will likely feel this in the future. The post was written relatively off the cuff and is pretty salty in tone but I would still make a very similar argument in a more level headed state. It's natural and fine to hate things and I can't stand this brand of forced positivity where you have to pretend everything is cool cause people out there enjoy it. Obviously don't go up to people having fun to rain on their parade, but be a hater in your own space on your own time. Being a hater is fine as long as there are also other things you are genuinely passionate about. Don't let being a hater take over your personality but also allow yourself to be a hater every once in a while. It's fine.]

something that's always irritated me is when people feel the need to defend the most culturally accepted and universally popular thing from "haters", whether it's football, Marvel movies, or the most common subject, The Beatles. I swear, I see someone come to the defense of the Beatles for the unjustifyable hate they receive like every few weeks, and I never feel confident enough to complain about it because I don't wanna come off as subtweeting someone particular. But now, Fantano has posted a video talking about Beatles Hate, so I can use that moment in time to rant really quick so that I can pretend I'm talking specifically about the popular music critic who is too big to give a shit about being subtweeted by me and no one has to feel personally attacked. Okay? Okay.

The Beatles are easily the biggest band in the music history. The fact that everyone thinks they're great, have had an immessurable impact on music history and that to this day are many people's favourite artist ever is a given. We all know that. I don't wanna take this away from anyone. And that very fact is the reason why, a small minority of people, talk shit. Beatles are the status quo. Everyone loves the Beatles and universally accepts that they are good. So let's have a goof and shit on them. Is that a heroic act? Is that a particularly interesting take that the Beatles were bad actually? No, of course not. But the only reason these comments exist is because the love for this band is so universally accepted that saying you hate them is seen as a ridiculous statement. I'm sure there exist some serious takedowns of the Beatles (the world is big, every conceivable opinion exists somewhere), but largely everything I've seen in that regard are shitposts. A caption: "The Beatles if they were a good band", followed by a sped up video of them performing, but the music is replaced with breakbeat (really funny, for the record). The fact that ridiculous posts like this exist should be a confirmation to you, the Beatles fan, that they are indeed the status quo, cause otherwise comments like this wouldn't even make sense. No one would make a post like that about a band that's only somewhat popular. When was the last time you've seen a post like that about, I don't know. Stone Temple Pilots? That's not even how people talk about bands that are actually widely hated, like Nickelback or Imagine Dragons.

You don't have to defend the most popular and commercially succesful thing in the world from haters. Just go outside and ask literally any random person and they'll agree with you. Everyone fucking agrees with you. A random shitpost doesn't affect you or the cultural perception of the thing you like. You're not gonna get bullied for liking the Beatles. You're not gonna get bullied for liking football. I swear I used to see more people complain about nerds saying sportsball than I ever saw nerds saying sportsball. You are in such an overwhelming social majority where you like literally the most popular thing on the goddamn planet but still feel the need to defend yourself against a rando makes a snarky comment based solely on the fact that the thing you like is fucking everywhere. You ever tried being a person who is not into football existing among other people? Everything is always about football. It never fucking stops, it's everywhere. Trains are jammed full of screaming football fans when you're tired and just wanna go home. Random people trying to rope you into a conversation about football and no matter how many times you repeat yourself they don't fucking understand that you cannot contribute to the conversation. Every news broadcast on the radio being like 30% football regardless of how much other stuff has happened in the world. Like give me a break, I'm sorry some nerd said sportsball within your vicinity one time