A few days ago, a friend brought up to me a curious yet increasingly common activity. A sign of the times, I suppose.
Hate watching.
The idea that people actively subscribe to content creators they absolutely despise, just so they can attack, insult, and bash everything they do.
Hate watching?
I thought to myself: who is so bored that they end up adopting this sort of lifestyle, if we can even call it that?
To be clear, I'm not saying I've never watched videos from people I disagree with, especially when they’re discussing subjects I’m passionate about. That's normal. I'm trying to make a distinction between occasionally exposing yourself to opposing ideas, and intentionally seeking out content you already know you’ll hate, purely to fuel the bile brewing in your gut.
Maybe I simply value my liver a little more, but I can’t think of a worse way to spend a day.
It’s almost as if these hate watchers wake up in the morning, add two squirts of ammonia into their coffee, and begin pondering what new levels of resentment they can achieve before bedtime.
A sort of self-pleasuring ritual.
Auto-erotic outrage stimulation, to be crystal clear.
Recently, Kyla Turner appeared on the Whatever podcast. Yes, that podcast — the one that regularly invites women on only to shame them for having OnlyFans accounts or for existing outside a very specific ideological mold.
Kyla was there to discuss her political views, her liberal Christian perspective, and throughout the entire thing there was a “fan” sending hundreds of dollars in superchats to insult her.
Hundreds!!
At one point, he sent $200 just to call her an Adderall sniffer.
How lovely.
And that’s the point I’m trying to make.
What we’re witnessing feels like a kind of mental rot. Not just worrying because of the social invoice we’ll eventually have to pay for it, but also comically stupid.
EQ — emotional intelligence — seems about as present in these individuals as ticks on a stuffed animal.
But maybe the sentiment itself isn’t entirely new. It’s simply wearing modern clothing.
People have always poisoned themselves emotionally trying to hurt those they resent. Literature is full of it. The idea of drinking poison and expecting someone else to suffer isn't exactly a modern invention.
Social media simply industrialized it.
Now resentment comes with subscriptions, notifications, algorithms, and donation buttons. HAHAHAHA!
Still, I can’t help but wonder:
Is hate watching, in some strange way, a sign of relevance?
Meaning... if one day I manage to gather my own small army of hate readers, does that mean my writing has finally become important enough to emotionally infest people?
Maybe.
But even then, it wouldn’t change the fact that this is still a profoundly sad state of affairs.
So I summon thee, hate readers.
Speak now, I say.
Amusing.
MenO
