What if we told you that not everyone is a fan of what everyone else is raving about? Ever noticed how there are certain things everyone seems to love, but there’s a quiet group out there who just can’t bring themselves to join the fan club? Here’s a glimpse into the world of those who navigate against the current of widely celebrated preferences. We’ve gathered thoughts from the silent few who choose to swim against the current. Whether it’s a popular dish, a widely watched show, or a cultural phenomenon, these individuals aren’t afraid to express their unpopular opinions.
It’s a reminder that diversity in opinions keeps things interesting. What about you? Anything that you find yourself on the opposite end of the spectrum from what’s generally adored?
iPhones. I get they are high quality but stop shoving the idea that it’s the best phone out there down my throat. Stop promoting this overpriced when there are Chinese products with way better specifications and a lower price. Also having an iPhone usually transforms people into d*cks who just can’t stop bragging about their new phone.
It’s sandy and hot and I get burned easily and then I have to put on sunscreen but it’s oily and then I have to walk home dehydrated and oily and covered in sand
Coffee. I don’t like it. I could drink tea 2-3 times daily but drinking coffee feels like it trying to have an acquired taste. Thought maybe coffee at a fancy cafe house would be better than homemade. Ordered cappuccino. Still meh. I would stick to tea. Though all my friends prefer coffee.
Christmas. The music and movies are almost always terrible. It’s expensive. It’s too commercial. Shopping is stressful and you often don’t know what to buy. You have to spend time with the weird part of the family that you try not to think about most of the time. The last couple of years when we just got Chinese food and went home have probably been some of the most enjoyable Christmas Eve I’ve ever had.
Big weddings. We’re currently planning ours, and slowly realizing just how much unnecessary stuff people pay for just because they’re told that it must be part of a wedding.
We’ve been thinking about our decision, and I think we’re ready to ditch the idea of a traditional wedding and go with a tiny vow exchange on a hill somewhere, then invite friends and family over for a fun dinner or bar afterward.
I hate doing errands. I hate being the driver all the time. I hate other drivers because they exist and brake for no reason other than they dropped their McDonald’s nuggets while taking a sharp curve. Learn to drive a monkey!
Clubbing or going out to bars. It’s so expensive, and loud, and there are so many weirdos. I have so much more fun drinking with a handful of friends at home.
If, and only if said bar is also a concert venue, and there is a concert there I’d like to see, then it’s excused.
One of my favorite things about becoming an adult was the realization that I could say no to camping. You can’t make me. I’ll have air conditioning and a mattress please and thank you.
Music means a lot to many people, but I very rarely listen to it. I absolutely understand why so, so many people love listening to music, but I just prefer quiet over music 95% of the time. And on the rare occasions when I do listen to music, I listen to video games, movies, or television series soundtracks. Music that brings forth the feelings I got while experiencing that media. Usually, those sessions only last maybe 15 minutes (a handful of times a week at most), and I generally do just that, listen to music. I don’t browse Reddit while I listen, or anything else. Some people love listening to music while they work, drive, shower, eat, games, etc. For some it relaxes, distracts, and comforts. I just prefer the sounds of the world around me most of the time. It’s not that I don’t have any preferences as far as artists or genres go, but music is not a big deal in my life.
Fruit Salad. Keep the fruit separated so that the flavors can shine individually. I don’t like eating wrinkly grapes, bruised bananas, and apple juice-stained Kiwi. Sometimes some jokesters will add pineapple to the mix. Pineapple is the glitter of the fruit salad world. The taste just gets everywhere.
Education. The American Education System isn’t geared towards learning. It’s geared toward memorization and test-taking. They don’t teach you anything. By the time I was in 9th grade, my teachers, my parents, the principal, and my IEP manager had all agreed there was nothing more they could teach me. But I still had to go. Because I was a minor. It was awful. And I made it worse. For everyone else.
Watching other people play sports. Bores me to the depths of the ocean.
I’m not surprised there are a lot of people who don’t care for sports, everyone enjoys different things for different reasons. I live in a small town and am kinda introverted, to begin with, so I don’t meet a lot of people that don’t watch some kind of sport, especially football and baseball. Nothing wrong with enjoying what does it for you though!
Watching game streamers. I don’t want to see your stupid face when you’re playing a game, I don’t care about how many followers you have and I don’t want to see a stupid homemade animation every time someone donates money to you. Also, I don’t understand why anyone would donate money to a streamer.
Harry Potter everything. The books are awful, the films are unwatchable.
JKR flat-out stole the story from Ursula Le Guin, dumbed it down, removed any intelligent subtext, $$$profit.
“The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers around a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins the school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with one of his fellows. During a magical duel, Ged’s spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows his journey as he seeks to be free of the creature.”
Quote from Le Guin “She could have at least said thanks”
One is literature written by an anthropologist with themes, subtext, and ideas – what is in a name? how do we come to terms with dying? The Earthsea cycle is also beautifully written prose.
Harry Potter is like the McDonald’s of books and hard to read, ugly, pulling the same cheap trick over and over. Quirky detailed explanations of nonsense characters or monsters. Childish and weak character names.
The films – Do you like the awful child acting, terrible plot, the mass market approach, or the fact that they made the same film five or six times over?
Everything Japanese. E.g. “foodies,” think ramen and sushi are the best foods ever created. Weeaboos think anime is the pinnacle of entertainment and storytelling. Nerds think that katanas are the best swords ever made. It just irks me. Also, having spent lots of time in China, I think people are missing out on a lot of cool Chinese stuff (food, history, etc.) just because Japanese stuff is mainstream and “so awesome” and Chinese stuff … isn’t.
Food:
DELICIOUS Sichuan cuisine, e.g. Ganguo Wawa cai (baby cabbage cooked in spicy broth), gan bian sijidou (spicy fried beans), etc.
amazing street food, e.g. jianbing (savory egg/onion breakfast crepe)
Lanzhou niurou mian (spicy beef noodles)
Peking duck
yangrou chuan (spicy/flavorful lamb skewers from Western China)
much, much, much more. China has multiple cuisines associated with certain flavors
Entertainment
Jackie Chan movies (ok they only PARTIALLY count)
Xiangsheng – performance of “play-on-words”-heavy comedy by a duo, one of which is vocal and one of which is more of a subdued, reciprocator-like character. Quite like Abbot and Costello, but living on still today.
Medieval War/kung fu movies. Some serious, some comedic, China has no shortage of these, some of which have been exported to America. Examples: Ip Man (a Hong Kong movie about a Chinese guy), Hero, Red Cliff, etc
I work in emergency medicine on the West Coast. Fire wants to respond before the ambulance to all medical calls. The majority of firefighters are extremely douchey and most of them are highly incompetent.
Sending a couple of tons of fire apparatus code three (lights & sirens) to a stroke that they can’t transport anyways is retarded.
All of the superhero movies. Sci-Fi fantasy is a lazy genre where every character’s superpower is just one giant, contrived plot device. The formula is identical in all of them.
The only really good superhero movie was The Dark Night because it wasn’t sci-fi fantasy. Neither the good guy nor the bad guy were supernatural, and the Joker was brilliantly acted. Iron Man was ok, but the technology is so out in left field that it might as well be fantasy-based supernatural. Like when he’s flying and gets hit by the tank shell in mid-air? Even if I could believe that the thin material of his suit was capable of deflecting that shot, his internal organs would liquefy at such a sudden momentum change.
Every other superhero movie has dull, boring characters with arbitrary supernatural sci-fi fantasy powers that served as perpetual plot devices, and the entire movie depends on the audience wanting to see superpower porn and eye-candy visual effects.
It’s the equivalent of downing a cup of sugar and calling it a meal.
And the fact that so many of them all seem to get extremely high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes despite how vapid they are, makes it clear just how crappy the movie-reviewing industry is. Either RT is being paid off to cherry-pick reviews, or the reviewers themselves are being instructed to write positive reviews of the films. There is just not enough substance in any Marvel movie to justify the RT scores they get.
Dogs.
I simply don’t care about them. Yeah, I’ll pet them if I visit a friend who owns one but they smell and they’re just an effort to keep around.
Also, the ‘doggo’ memes constantly being shoved down my throat are slowly making me go from being indifferent towards dogs to actively disliking them.
The memes aren’t funny in the slightest (woooo ur pet did something that’s amazing dude please do keep me updated!) and the word ‘doggo’ itself is just obnoxious and cringy.
Bacon. Specifically bacon ON things. It ruins the taste of whatever it’s on. Love burgers? Eat a burger. Put bacon on it, and all you taste is bacon. Just eat some bacon then!
Also, crappy bacon. Crappy bacon ON things. See above.
I LOVE good quality bacon on its own, though. I’ve eaten a (pre-cooked) pound of GOOD bacon before in one sitting.
Cats. They’re buttholes and super touchy and unaffectionate and they lie down wherever they are like they own the place and I feel like it’s extremely disrespectful. On top of that, they’re just oozing attitude all the time. Like, “Why are you bothering me???” If you’re just there.
On the other hand, I love to pet them so idk I just hug them against their will. I would petition to declaw all cats if it wasn’t like bad for them or something.
Hockey. I watch my family jump and cheer for joy, their eyes lit with amazement as people chase a puck with sticks. I have been in self-exile since the playoffs started.
Fake nails. I mean yeah they’re pretty but they’re so annoying when you’re trying to type on your phone, opening a can, or really anything for that matter. Why are long fake nails this amazing beauty standard??
Celebrity culture. They are just normal people with extra makeup and with enough spare time to go to the gym regularly. Seriously, what makes them any better than the people I see walking down the street…
I’m not a fan of brand-name clothes. I like good quality clothing but whoever’s name is on it means nothing to me. I’ll buy some cheap loafers but my wife has to have a Prada and Chanel bag. I don’t get it.
I’ve never, ever liked large crowds. Not in classrooms, concerts, parties, anything. I just want a few people, like 3-7 max. More people make me uneasy.
To clarify, I mean to say that most people love going to concerts and other activities where there is generally a large crowd, maybe not for the large crowd but for the event happening; for me, I can’t go to that event because of the crowd.
Birthdays. I never got on board with the significance when I was younger, so now every week it seems like I’m obligated to be somewhere. I don’t trouble you with my birthday, how come no one else wants to extend the same courtesy?
Of course, if you complain about this sort of thing, whoever of your friends had a birthday last will take it personally. I guess if I were open about how I feel I would be invited to fewer birthdays, but I just want to not have to be obligated to go out so often, not be excluded from things because my friends have decided I’m a butthole.
Anything Pumpkin Pie/Spice, I find it bitter and the texture off-putting and grainy. I’m so sick of it everywhere I go in the fall and winter. If I want something sweet with cinnamon and allspice, I’ll eat an apple pie. Apple Pie, you are the real MVP.
Tomatoes. They’re on every single thing on every menu ever unless you specifically request to not have a disgusting slice of undercooked seeping fetus-fruit on your sandwich.
Wearing flip-flops in a professional place of employment. Gross. I do not want to hear your feet suction to cheap plastic each time you leave your desk.
Patriotism. Blind loyalty to “leaders,” no matter what horrible things they’ve done is the epitome of mob mentality. Thinking your country is the best when you know virtually nothing about most other countries is mindless stupidity. Treating foreigners like dirt because deep down they scare your weak-minded sense of superiority is just another kind of racism. People are stupid AF.
TV, it’s more commercials than content and what little content is there is terrible.
Professional sports, why am I going to waste time and money watching a rich guy throw a ball when I could just go outside and do the same thing myself and be a little healthier for it?
New vehicles. I want no power accessories and no touchscreen nonsense in my vehicles.
My truck is about to turn 20. Other than the fact that I question its reliability for long trips a little, I like driving it more than the new car we bought for my wife, which is the nicest car I’ve owned. My truck has the least amount of controls it could possibly have and still functions. I don’t have to search for something, it’s one of the few controls that’s there. It has every control you need in a car… turn signal, AC, widows, gears, wipers, radio, steering, cruise control, parking brake…
The new car has knobs that I believe are just open panels full of other knobs. Lane sensing, collision detection, in-seat testicular warmth settings, auto lights, manual lights, fog lights, multi-section climate control, GPS, ejector seat (probably, I’m too scared to touch that one), multiple LED screens, backup cam, backup cam settings, backup cam settings… It’s a car, and it looks like a NASA launch control console. I hit a button by accident, because there were 5000 of them, and it took me 5 minutes to turn my brights off. The lever that controls the lights tilts, swivels, pans, zooms, rotates and has 82 buttons on it.
There are 97 different buttons near where the one button to open and close the sunroof should be. There should be one. ONE. Open/close. But no, it has settings. I could drive my truck blindfolded with a good navigator. You could drive my truck without ever having been in my truck before. You could put your cell phone in the convenient window mount and have navigation you wouldn’t have to read anything to use it. Once I complete my second bachelor’s degree knob turning and touchscreen navigation, maybe I’ll be able to change the radio station, since out of all the knobs, there’s not one for that.
There were two versions of the one I wanted called something along the lines of “Electric Toothbrush X250” and “Electric Toothbrush X1000”.
The x1000 cost twice as much as the X250.
I asked what the difference was and the guy said a whole lot of things about technological integration that networks via the internet through yada yada yada.
After he said his piece I did my best to summarize what he said.
I came up with, “So the more expensive one has Bluetooth and an app that tells me, via my phone, when to brush my teeth?”
Breakfast. This is a hard one to explain, tbh. I’ll eat breakfast foods, but almost never for breakfast. I cannot stand the smell of eggs and bacon in the morning, it genuinely makes me queasy. Eggs and bacon at night though? Sign me up.
Word signs on walls. Word signs in gardens. “Family”. Faith”. “Garden” etc. I don’t mean to be a gatekeeper but if you have to slap the word family on your wall to remind yourself that you have a family I think you’re doing it wrong. And I know it’s a garden because there are plants in it.
I really despise how the mass media collectively decides what is and isn’t okay for people, schools, governments, etc to be doing/saying. As a journalism major who has studied some communication, these widespread internet campaigns for what the collective mass deems acceptable are scarily turning into a Groupthink epidemic. A good recent example is the Kanye/Trump “controversy”; look what happens when someone doesn’t adhere to the group ideology. All Kanye said was that Trump is a human too and that he has a love for all humans, but the collective has labeled Trump a “fascist, racist, misogynistic, and idiotic dictator” so Kanye is clearly mentally ill/being whitewashed. Truly scary how quickly the collective can turn on someone for saying something as simple as having love for everyone despite their flaws.
Do you know how bad it gets when you wanna go see a movie, but as soon as you get within 20 feet of the door you start smelling this… stench which makes you want to throw up? And then you actually open the door, and it’s 200 times more powerful. It fades a bit when you’re actually in the theatre hall, but it is still always there. 🙁
All games are repetitive by nature. But the best games, in my opinion, are the ones that do a good job of hiding their repetitiveness.
In a strategy game, for example, as you move through the tech tree you get ranged units, or siege units, or AoE units. The new unit types let you approach each phase of the game differently. But the core loop is still “build a base, kill the enemy.”
In an FPS, you might have weapons that do different types of damage, or that are launched differently (arcing arrows, thrown grenades, etc.) but the core loop is still “find the enemy, aim the crosshair, shoot to kill.”
For some people, the strategy repetition feels like losing all progress and starting over every 30 minutes. For some, the FPS repetition feels like nothing more than “clicking on heads.” For others, there’s enough variety in mechanics, story, or other elements that the repetition is masked so it feels fun rather than tedious.
TL;DR: All games are repetitive. Not all games FEEL repetitive. Depends on what you like.
Money is something that I like but also hate. Like because you depend on it to buy or make a living, but also hate it because you need to ridiculously work hard to get all of them.
I do not like tea. It’s nasty and gross no matter how you make or serve it. Mix all the honey or sugar you want, but it’s still just leaf water. Nasty nasty leaf water.
Cards. Birthday, Christmas, anniversary, whatever.
I’ve never once been genuinely excited about receiving a card, the reaction I give is completely faked because the useless thing is just going in the bin after a few days.
Fair enough they work as a way to send congratulations to a family that lives far away, that’s fine.
But trading cards to the family you live with or see regularly just seems so pointless to me. Such a waste of time money and paper when everyone would much rather have words and a hug.
I feel like most people feel the same way but dare not be the first one to stop the cycle.
I’ve watched one or two and they’re good, I love the studio Ghibli films, but some people base their entire lives and personalities around their devotion to it! It’s really not that good. It’s got to a point now where I cringe at the mention of it, and if someone tells me they like anime I can’t help but think less of them and feel like there’s this barrier between us which will prevent me from liking you.
I know it’s irrational and that I must be the “odd one out” as so many people like it, but I can’t wrap my head around the appeal. The way it’s scripted and how it seems to be an exaggeration of everything and how they make it all cutesy ugh I hate it. I understand that all of this is part of Japanese culture but I think it’s the Western adoption of it which is the cause of my aversion. When I think of anime fans I don’t think of a Japanese person, but instead some dorky teenager with poorly dyed greasy hair posting “fan art” of their drawing depicting Kylo Ren crying in a manga art style.
Why spend such ridiculous amounts of money on being with your friends or romantic partner when you can do that literally any other night for absolutely free?
You’re stuck on this hot, crowded, stinky dance floor with music playing way too loud, and you’re being chaperoned usually by other kid’s parents! Talk about awkwardness.
People only go to it because it’s part of the “high school experience”. To that I say, screw the high school experience, it mostly sucks anyway.
Sriracha. Everything that’s “spicy” is “Sriracha this, and ohhhhh I LOVE Sriracha, everyone does!”…yah not me. It’s sub-par at best, and there are so many other hot sauces people could use as bases, but nope everything is “honey sriracha cream cheese this” and “sriracha aioli that”. Tired of it.
I’m in high school and I see everyone using it all the time, but I don’t get it. I tried it once because I thought it would help me with my social life since I could communicate with everyone at school and not feel like a loser. Instead, everyone who added me just spammed streak requests. I uninstalled it because all the interaction I had was fake, nobody added me because they liked me, and they added me because I was a recommended name that they could use for more snap points.
Salted egg food. Anything to do with salted egg – salted egg bun, salted egg pasta, salted egg cheesecake (why is this even a thing), salted egg baked rice, salted egg fried chicken/fish, I DONT GET WHY PEOPLE LOVE IT. I mean, I like the ACTUAL salted egg itself, the real duck egg saturated with salt and cooked with porridge, THAT is really good salted egg food. But I hate it when they try to match it with anything else. GROSS.
Screw lavender! The smell makes me want to vomit. No, I don’t want lavender-scented everything. No, I don’t want lavender hair, pillows, or soap. Ruins everything it is put in and overpowers any other smell for me.
Krispy Kreme. Anyone who has ever had a quality hand-made donut knows that their factory blend machine processed crap holes are grave by comparison to nearly all else. Heck grocery store donuts are even better and those are garbage too. Like how can people say Krispy Kreme is the best when it’s literally fast food donuts?
Glitter. I’m an art teacher at an elementary school and all the kids AND teachers are like “DO YOU HAVE GLITTER I CAN USE??” And I say, “No, I don’t have glitter. I refuse to have it in my classroom because it’s useless and awful and impossible to clean up” And then they look at me like I’m a heartless heathen who destroys all magic in the world. All because I don’t want tiny, scratchy pieces of metallic plastic embedded in my floor/my hair/my clothes
I like the concept of taking an established story and changing it to fit the Disney style. I like Elsa, who is basically the closest you’re going to get to lgbt/nerdy reclusion and repression right now in Disney.
But. I have a few concerns.
Olaf is a waste of screen time and adds nothing of worth to the plot.
Hans does not get enough screen time.
WHERE ARE THE DEMONS? The original Snow Queen story had soulless evil people created by shards of glass/ice some demons dropped.
Not enough of ice power science. I would have loved it if Elsa had an ice laboratory.
The Trolls feel like CGI Tinkerbell movie rejects This would be fine if the Tinkerbell movies didn’t do them better.
ALL THE SINGING IS ATROCIOUS. Now that I am going to be burnt to death by angry fans, allow me to explain. ‘Do You wanna build a snowman?’ repetitive. Dull. Suffers from Brother Bear Phill Collins syndrome- you could hit those emotions more potently if actual dialogue happened, not song. ‘Summer’ UTTER WASTE OF OUR TIMES GET OUT OF THIS FILM RARR. ‘Let it go’ Meh. It’s trying to be the typical Disney ‘I Want’ song, which is usually the highlight after a villain song. But honestly, it… doesn’t really progress the plot forward like they do. It’s a waste. Well sung, but it’s like a scented candle when you’re stranded on an island. It’s nice, but in that situation, you’d rather have food than a pretty candle. Substance.
MARKETING! My god, there is too much merchandise, years after this movie came out. I’m actually burnt out on that one SmugSmileElsa every cushion maker uses.
Not enough of Oddly Scandinavian Shopkeep In The Icelandic Land Of American Voice Actors
Pregnancy announcements/sonogram pictures/gender reveal posts on social media. You (along with millions of others) are fulfilling a basic human biological function. Good for you.
And honestly, asking a millennial waitress for no avocado is about as socially acceptable in this day and age as asking for your food not to be prepared by a black person.
I’ve had people just flat-out refuse to accept that I don’t want it, ask me if it’s an allergy thing, and follow me from the counter back to my table to continue to explain to me why I’m making terrible life choices.
Hip-Hop. I just… Can’t do it. All the trap-influenced stuff that’s coming out right now just feels lacking in heart or inspiration, and overall nothing I’ve heard from older eras of the genre really leaves me thrilled.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy being friendly, and talking to people now and then but people at my company sit down to have lunch together, take coffee breaks together, throw baby showers and luncheons for everyone, etc. I just don’t give a crap. I’m not here because I WANT to spend 8 hours of my day working. I’m here because I need money to survive. The last thing I feel like doing is just talking to others all the time. To be fair my co-workers are great people and I appreciate them. I just don’t care enough to be best buds with everyone.
Picnics. They sound way nicer in theory. The reality is warm, soggy food, walking too far just eating a scone or whatever. Then lots of bugs, uncomfortable seating, crappy utensils, etc…
Winter. Like everyone when asked what their favorite season is they will always say winter. When I ask them why they think that they say that they love snuggling up in a blanket whilst drinking hot chocolate. So you like Winter because you like to keep warm? Honestly, where I live it gets so cold and do we get rewarded with snow? No. We get rewarded with windburn and dry and cracked skin. And waking up with your feet cold in the morning? Uhm I’ll pass. I’d go into why I prefer summer but if I get any replies on this they’re mostly gonna be rude. (I know I JUST had an angry rant on why I hate Winter, but Winter fans or Winternators please be polite when disagreeing with me)
Hardwood floors. They’re cold and so loud. I can hear every little tippity tap of my dogs’ paws and the sounds just reverberate off the walls constantly. Every sound in the house is a good 25% louder. They also require vacuuming AND mopping.
Give me a house full of carpet all day every day. Sadly my husband does not agree.
You’re sitting down, having a nice chat with your friends, and then you all keep having to leave to throw the ball.
I once went to a hen party where half the attendees were pregnant. They all had to keep excusing themselves to go to the toilet. Bowling is exactly like that party.
Shopping. As a woman, it’s apparently not socially acceptable to not like shopping. Like I’d rather do anything else. Flipping through hundreds of things I have no clue how to choose among, then going into dirty cramped changing rooms with poor lighting, with people and rowdy kids everywhere. And it drags on and on and on. WHY??
DJs, don’t get me wrong I like some of the Music they produce. I just can’t grasp Why people pay loads of money to watch a guy press the play button when I can press that button myself at home
Watermelon. I have never liked watermelon. As a kid, I used to pick up the seeds from the ground when relatives were eating it. Put them in my mouth. Pretend to eat a piece of watermelon and then spit out the seeds like everyone else. Loved spitting out the seeds. Hated/hate watermelon.
I hate hazelnuts, never liked them. In México we have this candy called Duvalín which is essentially Nutella in a tiny container you can eat with a little plastic spoon. People would insist to me it was chocolate even though it clearly says “avellana” which is hazelnut in Spanish…
I also don’t like peanut butter but that doesn’t shock people as much.
USA cooking/baking reality show competitions. Too much drama and overly saturated puns from the host. I don’t care about your half-baked, gap-toothed survival of middle school, Karen. All I want is to watch you bake and make things that look delicious.
This is why I watch The Great British Baking Show. Smooth pace, pleasant British accents, and witty one-liners that aren’t stacked like a middle school attempt at a human pyramid.
