Do we enjoy hating things?

[Erttheking]

I took a look through the threads on this website and do you know what half of them are all about? How Bethesda is becoming the new EA, how Dawnguard is crap, how iron sights are stupid, how Assassin's Creed 3 is (American gun wank/anti-American/betraying everything the series stands for) how long until the Old Republic dies, how stupid your classmates are, how stupid religion is and what people just generally don't like. This brings me to my point...do we enjoy hating things? Even subconsciously? It seems like whenever I go onto this website it's always about how X is stupid or Y is stupid, we seem to rarely talk about things that we like. It's been going on for a while now, and it's almost as if people aren't content unless they're complaining about something. What do you think about this? Why do we do this?

P.S. Please refrain from saying things like "welcome to the Escapist, you must be new here" or things like that. I find they add very little to a discussion.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[FalloutJack]

Do we enjoy hating things?

No. Next question!

.....

Okay, okay! FINE. I'll explain.

No, we do not love arguments and hating on things. Not REALLY. Or rather, not people. The trolls are idiots. No, what people do all that for is because they think it's necessary. This can lead to very unwise actions, anything from FanDumb to wars, but it's not out of enjoyment. It's not really fun. You might feel a kind of satisfaction from spreading knowledge - should you have any to spread - but some days it feels like sand being tossed in the ocean.

 

[Euryalus]

I like the Jimquisition's "I hate Video games (because I love them)." He makes some very good points. I don't particularly like hating things but there are just so many things out there that are worthy of contempt. Its almost like we don't know how to react when we find something good or just ok, so we focus on the small things that prevent the ok from being good, and good from being perfect. We're really good at pointing out and tearing down shit but not the opposite. We hate because we know no other way.


...Also shits fucked up

 

[yeti585]

I like the Jimquisition's "I hate Video games (because I love them)."

I'd just like to say I found that video to be the same bland point Jim is always making. It's like going to visit your grandparents and the 90 year old neighbor tells you the same story every time, but this time I have the option of skipping it... Glad you liked it though.

OT: To say everyone loves to hate things is wrong. An optimist loves everything and it will all be okay and you'll be a cowboy-astronaut from mars. A pessimist thinks shit's fucked and can start to hate it all. It takes a cynic to love to hate.

 

[Rawberry101]

I don't think I hate things. I guess it's the reason I don't think I've posted on any of those topics. I think lots of people hate things because they don't have girlfriends/boyfriends, my off the cuff observation. I can't speak for these fine Escapists, more for my friends.

And to T0ad 0f Truth, I love your avatar. I used that pic to end a presentation on the horrors of nuclear warfare and got tons of laughs!

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Yes.

It's probably the least productive of my hobbies, but we live an aggravating and often illogical world and moaning has a cathartic quality to it in some ways.

 

[Xaio30]

We don't like hating as much as we love having an opinion that differs from everyone else's.
It probably comes from the human need to be unique and special.

 

[Nazulu]

NO!!! At least not me. I hate them in the first place because they piss me off. You may see some negative posts of mine now and again, but that's from disappointment.

 

[Keoul]

We don't enjoy hating things.
I bet the reason you see so many "I hate X" threads is because it makes a good topic for discussion [sub]*cough* most of the time *cough*[/sub].
Also in this day and age there's just a lot more to hate than to love, such is life.

 

[Able Seacat]

I think people do like to have a good moan and complain about things occasionally. It's always nice to find someone who agrees with you about something that has annoyed you.

I do like how this thread is complaining about complaining.

 

[Korenith]

I took a look through the threads on this website and do you know what half of them are all about? How Bethesda is becoming the new EA, how Dawnguard is crap, how iron sights are stupid, how Assassin's Creed 3 is (American gun wank/anti-American/betraying everything the series stands for) how long until the Old Republic dies, how stupid your classmates are, how stupid religion is and what people just generally don't like. This brings me to my point...do we enjoy hating things? Even subconsciously? It seems like whenever I go onto this website it's always about how X is stupid or Y is stupid, we seem to rarely talk about things that we like. It's been going on for a while now, and it's almost as if people aren't content unless they're complaining about something. What do you think about this? Why do we do this?

P.S. Please refrain from saying things like "welcome to the Escapist, you must be new here" or things like that. I find they add very little to a discussion.

I think the reason we tend to talk about the bad stuff in life is that the good stuff is fine as it is so once you've said how good it is that's it, conversation over (for the most part. Exceptions etc.) If something is bad though you have various places to go from there: how it could be fixed, where has it been done right, why it happened in the first place. Also forums are a good place to let out frustrations because even if the people on here judge you for it who cares because chances are they aren't part of your life in any other way.

 

[lRookiel]

Depends, if it actually bothered me then yes I would take great pleasure in hating it. These things are almost non existent though nowadays.

 

[Phasmal]

Yep, I'm British and we love to complain.
But I can't say I hate the things I complain about.

I can complain about things I love, or things I dislike or things I don't even care about.
It's nice to have a good old moan every now and again.

 

[King of Asgaard]

No, actually it's quite the opposite.
I hate that I have to hate a lot of things.
I hate that I've become too cynical to look forward to anything.
I hate that I have to complain.
Yet I have to complain, and critique, otherwise the standards will remain at less than perfect, and no one wants that.

 

[Haagrum]

I don't think we necessarily enjoy hating things. Personally, I know I don't care enough about a lot of stuff to actually hate it... and I'm an Australian, we're a nation of first-class whingers!

(before any of my countrymen and women get annoyed - please read the news about the Olympics in any major daily newspaper before commenting about how wrong I am... thank you)

However, I think it's more accurate to say that humankind invented language because of a deep-seated need to complain about stuff. No matter how good life is, it's easier to gripe about the small things on the sidelines which aggravate us. I wouldn't call that "hating" - in a lot of cases, I'd probably call it an inflated sense of entitlement and a short attention span.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

First world problems man, First world problems.

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

I personally think we do. We like to align ourselves totally against things, "hate" them, to validate our own views. Like when a group of people "hate" another group for 'X', 'Y', & 'Z' reasons and then the other group responds with 'A', 'B', & 'C' reasons; in my personal observations I've seen that after a while the conflict very rarely stays truly about the subject of contention and simply turns into a high-school slagging match designed to simultaneously destroy the ego's of your opponents and stroke your own. So yes, I do think we like to hate people/things/concepts as a means of justifying and stroking our own views/ego's.

Then again we could talk about how the term "hate" has been bandied so much in modern times that the true meaning has been diluted and could really be substituted for the term "strongly disagree with" in many cases.

 

[JediMB]

Yes, people love hating things. Especially in packs/groups.

It's sad, but true.

 

[DaWaffledude]

You don't say.