Love Being a Hater

Okay, I love this topic.  I find the act of being deeply critical about people, places and things to be extremely gratifying.  It allows you to be funny (or so you think), connect with humanity, and get a little closer to understanding what you're all about.  And isn't that what it's all about? And when you love to hate something, not only do you hate it, but you get a sick pleasure out of its stupidity.  Writing this post will put me on a week-long high.

Things I love to hate:

1. People who only send Christmas cards after they have children.  

I have no problem with people who don't send Christmas cards in general.  I like doing it for a lot of reasons.  I can be bad about being in touch.  A lot of holidays cards are glittery.  I think it's nice to stop once a year and literally take the time to let someone know you are thinking about them.  I can understand not doing it.  It takes time, it gets expensive, and some people don't even appreciate them.  However, if you have a child and then suddenly feel the need to spread the Christmas spirit, you are totally full of it.  I can understand wanting to show your kid, looking cute in a special ensemble, to interested parties.  But if you never bothered to send me holidays wishes and wish me a happy new year in the past, don't do so now as a pretense to showing off your baby.  I think it's incredibly poor taste.

2. Married couples who communicate with each other on Facebook.

Okay, I can understand the silly joke here and there, and I'm not above doing it myself.  But I've seen people who are married compliment each other's cooking, or wish them luck at their meetings, and have other sorts of inane conversations through their Walls.  Of course, people who live in the same house will still need to talk online, and maybe even use Facebook to do so, at times.  But I can't help but feeling like a lot of what they are doing is just to show other people that they are a happy, fun couple.  Lame.

3. Business owners who act like you should know their business as well as they do.

This one has been a huge pet peeve of mine for years, but I have never witnessed the heights of ridiculousness of this situation more than when I was planning my wedding.  I hate when you walk into a store that sells something you need, like flowers, or a service you need provided, like framing; and you ask a basic question about what the purchase entails/includes, or how the process works, and they totally scoff at you for asking the question.  Like they are so smart for knowing how the business they have run for 25 years works, and aren't you an idiot for not. And it's not only the owners who do this.  Often, employees behind the cash register do too. Give you attitude for not knowing that Venti is the largest size?  Well, I'm sorry.  I never accomplished my dream of working at Starbucks, so you'll have to school me.  The bottom line is, there is a nice, friendly way to convey information, and then there's being an ass.  If you have so little to feel good and confident about that you treat customers like they're stupid, it's really, really sad.

4. "That's a really good school."

I hate when people say that.  But I do love to hate it.  I find it hilarious when people say that because if the school was truly great, we'd all know about it.  Of course, there are exceptions. There are some really kick-ass small liberal arts colleges out there, but that is not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the random local schools.   I think people feel the need to justify staying local for college.  If you chose to go to St. Joe's (in Philly) or Creighton (in Omaha), that's fine.  But don't tell me it's Princeton.  Don't tell me that your education was elite-level rigorous and just as prestigious.  It simply isn't.  But who cares?  Own it.  Be proud of your achievements wherever you went and what you've accomplished since.

5. Bad Waitresses

I feel annoyed when people lament the experience of the downtrodden waitress.  Disrespected, paid poorly, on their feet all day.  Sure, that's not good.  But often people in service complain about how bad most customers tip.  I'm sure that's true.  But I think that there are a lot of bad waiters and waitresses out there too.  They can be generally inattentive, not refill your drinks, mess up your order-- and then what really kills me, not be nice or apologetic about anything. Such servers are included in the "woe is me" waiter population, unfortunately for the ones who are really good.  I'm a very generous tipper, and I hate to think that my generous tip should be expected, rather than compensation for excellent service.

6. Political Geniuses

I really hate that a lot of people out there feel empowered to talk down to others about politics and policy.  I have alluded to this in my "Hey Celebs- Shut the Hell Up" post.  In my opinion, the government and how it works, and should rightfully work, is incredibly complicated stuff.  I would be very careful before I spouted anything about politics, not because I'm not equipped, but due to my education and my work, I fully appreciate what it entails.  Clearly, others don't have that hesitation.  And when people do talk about issues that are more simple, in some moral sense, they naively treat them as black and white.  Abortion, Stem Cells, Affirmative Action.  Gay Marriage.  It's fine if you feel a certain way, but when you think everyone who disagrees with you is either stupid or bad, you're really losing sight of things.  And people on both sides of the aisle do this.  It's the easy way out.  It's much harder work, intellectually speaking, to tackle the perfectly justified arguments against your view.

What I might hate more than anything are people who complain.  Ironic, you say?  But I'm not complaining here.  Like I said, I enjoy hating those things.  I'm not complaining that they exist, because that's life.  Complainers are everywhere.  They really feel bad for themselves for whatever they are dealing with.  But I think they should buck up.  No one said it would be easy.