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“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good
It's not just the quality that makes someone or something known. "People, brands, and styles become popular because the right people have adopted it — rich people, celebrities, opinion leaders ... and we copy them in the eternal human quest to be fashionable and admired," said Douglas Holt, professor of marketing at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and previously a professor at the Harvard Business School.
According to him, cultural icons emerge because they express a particular ideology that society demands at that moment. However, not everyone might understand or agree with the messages that these beacons are sending. So when Reddit user The_Real_Garfield_ posted a question on the platform, asking others to share their favorite examples of the phrase "just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good," many obliged.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Fashion brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci. Well done, you're paying an extortionate amount of money for something you can get for half the price without the name at exactly the same quality. And half the time, the clothes/bags look ridiculous and ugly anyway! Why would you pay 3 grand for a bag you can't even get a fart into just because the label is "high end designer"?
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#2
Headlights so bright that the owner is the only one on the road who can see anything.
Lydsylou (she/her) 8 months ago
Caused my cousin to have a fatal car crash. He had only just learnt to drive at age 17
#3
Religion. Scamming vulnerable people for centuries. Causing wars, women to be oppressed, bigging up the patriarchy. Putting the fear in people who are just trying to go about doing the best they can. Enforcing eternal sin and therefore causing people to feel guilty for things they haven't even done or that are natural things to do. Making people feel that they are bad or evil just because they are who they are. Using the cover of godliness to do unspeakable nasty things to innocent children. Stripping cultures of their individuality and enforcing the bland beliefs of mass religion onto them.
Trillian 8 months ago (edited)
Exactly. And if you need religion to enforce your morals, then you don't have any. You are just afraid of punishment.
Bols 8 months ago
Yes this is actually scary if people are good only because of fear of punishment or promise of a reward
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CaptainSlapNTickle 8 months ago
"Centuries?" Add a zero or two. Keep your imaginary friend out of my home, public schools, courthouses and government.
Mohsie Supposie 8 months ago (edited)
Not all religions. If done correctly, religion can help you be a much better person.
Gabriele Alfredo Pini 8 months ago
I think we should separate faith, religion, organizations and culture if we want to discuss this argument. A lot of time religion is used only as an excuse, as a flag, to protect one own stereotypes. To the point that when the person we hate share the same culture/religion with us, we subdivide the religion/culture itself to still have an excuse to hate him. This without adding money and power interests...
Cosmikid 8 months ago
" if we want to discuss this argument.." Why on EARTH would you want to discuss this? And here? Please examine any history textbook, from the last 5,000 years (they exist) - and find me a SINGLE example of a time when "discussing religion" resulted in anything except - conflict. Just ONE!?
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Dragons Exist 8 months ago
Religion is left over from people "deciding" where rain and volcanoes came from, which evolved into all-powerful gods
Danish Susanne 8 months ago
Not all powerful gods until monotheism was "invented". Then all power to one god, and much more power to his priests.
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ThatBlackNightingale 8 months ago
I wouldn't say all religions are bad. The people IN the religion are the ones to blame. It's who makes up the religion, twist words, and make false claims. The religion itself is not bad. You are absolutely correct that many have been stripped of their cultures and forced to convert. People should not be persecuted for their beliefs, and that is still something we struggle with. Corrupt people in religions push these false ideas to the people, so as we see now, many are trying to bash this false ideologies.
David 8 months ago
ahhh, the ignorance or White Euro-Ethnocentric view of the world, associating all religions a few specific denominations that are rooted in European History (such as eternal sin is limited to certain Christian groups only for example). Also only 3.75% of all wars in history were religious ones. They are not the cause of wars.
Weaponized Beef 8 months ago
No. Money/resources is the cause of war. Of all wars. Religion is just sometimes used as a cover.
Load More Replies... Nunya Bizness 8 months ago
Agreed. Brainwashing children to believe in this stuff is unethical. Regardless of all the bad that it has been used for (everything and anything can be used to justify injustice, not just religion), it's the brainwashing of children that is the problem, ironically enough, it's also the only way it can survive.
Jeremy Hannegan 8 months ago
I mean, and saving lives and stuff but i guess we dont need to mention that part.
Michael Largey 8 months ago
We can if you'll mention all the lives lost in wars of religion and religious persecution.
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Brandon Anderson 5 months ago
Casual reminder that morals don't exist without a belief system. Atheists are only "good" and "moral" in the west because they were raised in a judeo-christian society. Put those same Atheists in some tribe in Africa and they'd be doing the some abhorrent c**p if they were told to.
Thinking Mammal 8 months ago
You western people have to get over this now as if all religions dictate the same sht as Christianity. I'd suggest you to look up Islam without any prejudice. You're criticizing Christianity here, not all religions in general. Educate yourself.
Kris M 8 months ago
Raised roman catholic especially Polish roman catholic (thosewho know will tell u how extra they are in Poland. Sadly my mom was hyper brainwashed as a child and I love her but her faith and my lack cause such a divide that I hate and she will never accept my choice to not believe peacefully
Cindy Brick 8 months ago
Obviously you haven't read a word that Jesus Christ said...big difference there.
michele mbennett101044@yahoo.c 8 months ago
Another version of Organized Crime. Religion has been the reason and source of hate, sex abuse and unspeakable other acts, disgusting.
Somethingpenguin 8 months ago
I agree with this, you shouldn't have to enforce a religion, It should be out of actual belief in that religion.
Mimi M 8 months ago
Based on the human urge to understand and also to control outcomes (or at least to try), and just as much - based on the human need to control other human beings. The lesson is - if it wasn't religion it would be (and has been) something just as bad.
DC 8 months ago
... that usually is very religionesque, never rationally sound and requires just as much belief in just as supernatural BS. National-Socialism, Stalinism, ... they're all more alike to religion than to, say, secular humanism.
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Tracy Wallick 8 months ago (edited)
Not this again... the way BP drags organized religion is no different than how atheists smugly tell religious people they're wrong, or religious people telling other religious people/atheists that they're wrong. Organized religion isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and villifying it, and the people who are involved in it (that being the overwhelming majority of the population of Earth) is NOT going to fix the problem.
#4
Being horrible to people for no other reason than to make you feel better about yourself. At the end of the day you’ll just end up with less people liking you.
#5
The whole uprise of “pranks”. I love a good harmless prank that’s fun for everyone involved, but a majority of what you see trending is just harassment.
#6
Cable TV. They should be paying us to watch commercials not us pay them.
Ephemera Image 8 months ago
Ditched cable fifteen years ago. Repetitive c**p with the price constantly going up.
#7
The answer is 100% TikTok, I don’t get the appeal for it, from what limited I’ve seen of it it seems like a bunch of s**te.
Howl's sleeping castle 8 months ago
I was glad when they banned tiktok here. It was really bad
#9
Hate for Taylor Swift. It’s super trendy to hate on her. But the gal goes up on stage and actually sings and actually plays. That’s already not common in pop music. She writes her own songs; also not common. She has single-handedly gotten girls that cared nothing about football into football. She also single-handedly got young people to register to vote in America. She’s changed the world for the better. I get that people may not like her music, that’s fine. But there are people that straight up hate her simply because it’s trendy. And that’s ignorant.
Lydsylou (she/her) 8 months ago
Fair enough to not like her music or even to not like.her as a person but people make it a whole personality and it's ridiculous. It goes the other way with people who are obsessed to the point of worshipping her and that's all they talk about as well. She's a human leave her alone for 5 minutes!
#10
Tik Tok influencers convincing gullible viewers to spend money on things they don't need like the trend of selling kids adult skin care.
#11
Sequels, prequels, reboots, reimaginings etc. Just stop. .
#12
Those damn Stanley cups. I got my wife one when they first became popular and our generic ones keep ice FAR longer.
#13
Twilight book series. Had to tell so many people who tried to get me into those, just because it’s on the bestseller’s list doesn’t mean it’s good.
Groundcontroltomajortom 8 months ago
50 shades of grey is another one, the quality of the writing is abysmal!
#14
Beats headphones. Supreme clothing. Both marketing machines. Subpar products.
#15
Drinking bottled water. For most of us, tap water is fine but we often opt to pay for water in plastic bottles instead. So many plastic bottles.
#16
An example of a phrase would be fast fashion. It's fashionable and affordable, but often comes with ethical and environmental concerns.
#17
Never understood Twitter, the threads and replies are odd to follow. It should just uncollapse like Reddit. Never understood why people love it so much.
Laura Williams 8 months ago
I'm old, Twitter is a popularized version of a BBS board. Oh so, is discord . A BBS board let you talk to friends while online and follow everyone's conversations. Just like Twitter and discord.
#18
Those Monster energy drinks. So overpriced and taste like pineapple flavoured cough syrup. Absolutely repulsive, I say. The worst thing I've ever bought.
#19
SMEG. It's a kitchen appliance brand known for their cute mid-century aesthetic that's super overpriced for their functionality and quality. I silently cringe to myself when people bring them up or I see them in the wild. Even the brand name sounds gross. Did nobody ever make the connection to 'smegma' before they decided on a name?
#20
Drake. Guy hasn't put out anything worth hearing in years. Why is he one of the most listened to artists?
#21
The Fast and the Furious series. The series had a few great movies early on (1, 5, arguably 3), but has gotten progressively ridiculous since then. But even when it's bad, they got family.
Tracy Wallick 8 months ago
If you're watching F&F movies intending to take them seriously, you're doing it wrong. They're not supposed to be super serious, they're supposed to be fun to watch.
#22
Prime hydration drinks. It's crazy expensive, yet it's one of the worst electrolyte beverages around because it's low in sodium and high in potassium. It's also very low in sugar, which is NOT what you want when when you're trying to rehydrate quickly.
#23
Video games that win awards based on revenue rather than highest consistent peak-player count and highest consistent user reviews.
You know who you are, Todd.
Nunya Bizness 8 months ago
Selling power =/= quality. If it did, then McDonald's has the objectively best burgers on earth.
#24
The fact that many people use credit cards and don't pay their balance in full. It's quite literally the worst way to be 'loaned money' since its often 20%+ interest. Loosing money for no reason.
I say this because there are usually ways to get loans 'when life happens' at much lower rates (maybe about 10% ish).
Yet, many, many people use this.
Stygtand 8 months ago
Being from denmark. Credit cards and credit scored have always baffled me. Why on earth to you need to “loan” money every time you buy something in order to be able to borrow money for a house/car. We do have credit cards here but no credit scores. And most people, not all, pay in cash or debit card.
What do you think ?
Olli Hawk 8 months ago (edited)
People who full on guilt trip you into thinking like them. Like I’ll see videos of people drawing Disney fan art, and the comment section is full of Palestine supporters who scream that they’re a terrible person for “supporting Disney”, or vegans who say that eating meat is animal abuse, or artists who yell at beginner artists for tracing faces, and saying that they’re stealing artwork
VOTE if you live in the USA 8 months ago
I have a book complaint! If I'm reading a fictional book, I DO NOT need a preface, an introduction, or a prologue. Just start with Chapter 1.
Bo'owowo'uh 8 months ago
Yeah maybe, but I disagree about prologue. A prologue can often very usefully provide action (of course, only when done well enough) to hook readers in & get them interested before the calm at the beginning of the story start. As well, there are amazing writers like Tolkien who can get away with prefaces and introductions, but yeah.
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Alison Marchand 8 months ago
I don't know if that would exactly be considered "popular" as it's more INfamous than famous 😅 but you're absolutely right, it is an abundant cornucopia of crazy s**t
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Olli Hawk 8 months ago (edited)
People who full on guilt trip you into thinking like them. Like I’ll see videos of people drawing Disney fan art, and the comment section is full of Palestine supporters who scream that they’re a terrible person for “supporting Disney”, or vegans who say that eating meat is animal abuse, or artists who yell at beginner artists for tracing faces, and saying that they’re stealing artwork
VOTE if you live in the USA 8 months ago
I have a book complaint! If I'm reading a fictional book, I DO NOT need a preface, an introduction, or a prologue. Just start with Chapter 1.
Bo'owowo'uh 8 months ago
Yeah maybe, but I disagree about prologue. A prologue can often very usefully provide action (of course, only when done well enough) to hook readers in & get them interested before the calm at the beginning of the story start. As well, there are amazing writers like Tolkien who can get away with prefaces and introductions, but yeah.
Load More Replies... Alison Marchand 8 months ago
I don't know if that would exactly be considered "popular" as it's more INfamous than famous 😅 but you're absolutely right, it is an abundant cornucopia of crazy s**t
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