Have you ever disliked someone who is popular among many? Why?

So “hate” is the wrong word for me, but I’m totally agnostic/ambivalent on Taylor Swift and her music. I wish her the best (I’ve heard she’s actually a nice person who does good things), but if I saw her on the street, I’d walk right past. I’m not sure if that counts?

I was, and for years I was the only one among my peers who saw through that guy. Then suddenly, everyone saw it.

I can’t say I disliked him, but I certainly did not trust him. Eventually I learned to just stay far away.

Many times. In fact, it often seems to work the other way too: that I’m the only one who likes someone that’s generally unpopular. This was especially true when it came to teachers in school, but also among peers and co-workers.

I used to worry about this, but it became such a consistent pattern—never 100%, but very frequent—that I just took it as a given.

In high school there was this English teacher that my entire class was crazy about. To this day I still can’t pinpoint why but I guess it was because his teaching method was unconventional for the time. His teaching style was similar to Western tradition than the custom of my country: encouraged more activity and fun during lessons, stuff like that. He also encouraged play outside or during the lesson like English-related games. He had a favorite song that went something like “row, row, row your boat” and incorporated it into the games and the kids loved that to death. He overall seemed like a nice and wholesome person.

Now here is my problem: I never got his popularity. I thought his games were silly and had no point other than giving the popular kids something cool to do and brag about at that time I was an outcast so that didn’t help. I also especially hated that he read the transcript instead of playing the audio recording during listening session. His voice in my opinion at least was hard to listen to and was nowhere good at the speakers in the audio, and I had a hard time doing listening exercises because of that.

My tipping point was when I confined to him my problem with the belief that he would listen as a wholesome person. I told him that I was an outcast and I might have a learning disability due to me being the worst student in the class. He was just like “oh really”. Afterward he acted as if the conversation didn’t happen at all and I was just another random student. This made me question why he was so popular if he didn’t show any real compassion to my struggle.

I don’t know about the word dislike, but there are a ton of famous people who so many seem to be obsessed or enthralled with that I could care less about then or their fame. I don’t wish them any harm, in fact I would wish them well, but the adoration baffles me. I guess I’m just not easily star struck. Not by celebrities or people in powerful positions.

A jelly above mentioned Taylor Swift, she is a perfect example. Some woman who sings? I would never wait on line or spend hundreds to see her. Although, I do admit to thinking Dolly Parton is pretty great for her philanthropy and speaking out against hate in the country singer world.

Another time was when I was studying my Master degree. There was this massively popular and respected teacher who also happened to hold an important position in the school. Everyone liked him because he was funny, didn’t force us to do too much homework like other teachers, and showed himself to be a kind-hearted man who would help anyone in need in a blink of the eyes.

I never liked him. I always had that weird feeling that all of the wholesome image we were seeing was just a facade. When he first met our class he told a long story about how he gave money to a terminally ill student and how that student later fawned over him and called him his savior. That was a red flag to me because a truly kind-hearted person wouldn’t feel the need to talk about their good deed like that, especially when we first met, but at first I just brushed it off. Then he started to pay lots of attention to a woman in our class who was notorious for her sweet-talk. It got to the point that she was always singing his praise and he was often seen with her. At one point he said to our class that he would receive any request to be the supervisor for our thesis, but he would priority people from outside of the city. And sure enough, that woman was chosen. I did contact him with my request but he appeared very nonchalant, a much different attitude you would expect from someone who claimed to be so kind-hearted. To this day he and the woman are still in contact with each other. I always have the feeling that he isn’t as kind-hearted as he portrays, and he just likes to be around people who sing his praise.

He wasn’t a good teacher either. He never really taught anything and most of the time he just told stories that had little to do with our lessons. I still don’t know what he was supposed to teach and I don’t understand a single thing that he was trying to teach. I never understand why people said his lessons were engaging.

To me he failed as a teacher and a person. But I can never voice my opinion because he is massive popular and he is protected by his prestige position.

Yes, it happens.
About 20 years ago I was asked to train about 12 co-workers. This was very unusual, but I accepted the assignment.
They all were attentive and receptive to instruction, except one. He would show up hours late, seemed very distracted, and disappeared often. I suspected he was using and selling drugs. Turned out I was correct.
I went to the boss, and told him I would continue training the others, but wouldn’t train this one guy.
My boss wrote in my evaluation that I wasn’t a team player, and that I was difficult.
The thing is everyone liked that POS.

Sure. I think popularity is always a relative and often temporary thing.

But I’m perverse, deviant, inconsistent, and a bad example for everyone. People expect more from you Mimi, and evidently you expect more from yourself.

You should try disliking someone that’s unpopular with lots of other people, so you can readjust your attitude. Practice on me for a awhile, then work your way up to Justin Bieber, Elon Musk, and Vladimir Putin.

You’ll be back in the mainstream in no time.

Not really, at work and in my personal life most people I dislike are generally disliked. But I am the one who verbalizes it.

I can’t stand Miley or Taylor’s voices. In fact Miley is so cringy in her perfume commercials I have to mute them.

Yes. Especially if you’re asking about celebrities and such. But I suspect you’re not. There’s a couple guys who are friends of my friends, and I find them really repellent. One if this guy where literally EVERYTHING is a dirty joke. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with dirty jokes and I’m not offended….but it’s so SO CONSTANT and lurid. It gets grating after while.

I dislike the people like the Kardashians who have done nothing really to become famous. I feel like they put too much pressure on young girls to be beautiful and have a certain body type.

I do not care for hip hoppers, rappers, justin bieber, taylor swift, or any of the other modern day, factory produced and computer enhanced fake musicians.
I do not care for people who play the sportsballs either, or other “celebrities”.
I actively dislike billionaires and ceos who are trying to be hip and “with the plebs”.

Back in the 60’s (when I was a teenager) I could not stand the people pretending that they were hippies. All the so called hippies that I’ve known were just weird and phony. Later when I was in college I played along to get along. Also they mostly seemed lazy and just wanted to smoke dope, drink alcohol and protest the war. I was too busy for any of that crap while working my ass off trying to make something of myself.

@Mimishu1995…why were you distressed that your English teacher acted like the conversation never happened?

Mostly Trump, because he lies all the time and incites violence against various groups of people.

Thank you everyone for your story. This question is more like a rant to get some hard-to-say things off my chest :P and I just want to know if anyone has similar stories. That feeling can be really worrisome, but @Jeruba seems to have the right way to approach it. And yeah, I do have stories of me liking unpopular people too. Maybe I will ask a question about that :P

@Dutchess_III it wasn’t just because he acted that way, he didn’t care about my struggle at all. Right when I was talking to him he already acted nonchalantly. I was an outcast at that time and I was desperate for someone who could understand me. And when you find someone who appears kind and trustworthy, you come to them and be vulnerable to them, and all you get is “oh really”, it hurts a lot.

There is a reason why I try to take every student of mine seriously, no matter how trivial their complaint is.

@JLoon Justin Bieber is a name I haven’t heard for a while. Time ti go back to hate him to get back to the mainstream :D

You, however, belong to the “unpopular people that I like” category, so no, I will practice on Justin Bieber :)

@gorillapaws I don’t know if we can still be friends. :’(

#swiftie

@Jonsblond Just think of me as being such a good friend that I’ll refuse to compete with you for concert tickets…