Society is an odd conundrum when you attempt to wrap your head around it. This phenomena typically occurs whenever you witness a new trend or share experience and everyone seems to go along with it. Only much later, when you think about it with a smigeon of critical thinking, do you notice something off.
Going against society can be strained, difficult, like pulling back a sticker that's been on way too long, however sometimes it's necessary to get rid of what we probably shouldn't be so welcoming of.
Reddit user, u/GoodBoyNSFW, wanted to know what we shouldn't be so accepting of when they asked:
What's the worst thing that is socially accepted?
How Do You Think You're Reading This Now?
the simpsons nerd GIF
Giphy
Making fun of someone's intellectual/creative curiosity, cfr. the use of nerd or geek in the negative
World wouldn't be as advanced as it is without the geeks and nerds, so keep it up, I'm proud.
The Rat Race Ran By The Fat Cats
Spending most of your time working just to survive.
The fact that, if you are not rich enough, someone else owns most of your time, and in a sense, your life.
Let The (Legally Allowed) Girls Have Some Fun
Hating TikTok or Instagram just because girls are on there having fun. Yes I understand sometimes they are underage, and that's not good, but the vast majority of them are of age or more.
Think about it, tell me one thing teenage girls can like without being made fun of, either by other teenage girls or by boys or by adults. Honestly, I can't think of any. Girls will be made fun of no matter what, and I think that incredibly awful because it means that girls are pretty much not allowed to like anything.
Take Care Of Everyone And Everything
Killing/mistreating animals for fun.
I have leftover empathy for everyone, but if you're one of these you better rot.
yeah dog fighting is so messed up
It's Not Your Body
Asking women about their plans to have children and not accepting their answer.
I dont understand...why this is okay
A Mixing Up Of The Order
Serious relationships without actually knowing the other person.
Many, mostly young people seem to think it's important they get into a romantic relationship. They don't even bother taking it slow and get with people they shouldn't be with. So instead of it going stranger > friend > romantic partner, it goes stranger > romantic partner > friend.
And people wonder why there are so many "toxic" relationships.
Keep Your Kids Offline Until They Know
Posting dozens or hundreds of pics of your kids online and social media. That is so violative of their privacy and rights to grow up without the entire world creeping in.
When I was younger (11/12) my dad took a picture of me at the beach that I found really unflattering and embarrassing and revealing. I asked as he laughed at my appearance if he wouldn't post it and he said sure.
I saw it on his Facebook page the next day with several likes and several comments. I was humiliated and it honestly fed a lot into what is now hardcore social anxiety and close attention to how I look, including an eating disorder from a few years ago.
Please don't humiliate your children.
Forever In A State Of Slight Inebriation
Excessive drinking/constantly drunk/high
Agreed. It's quite literally one of the most unhealthy things I know of that is not only socially acceptable, but encouraged. Leads to countless health conditions, cancers, heart disease, GERD, Depression, just a ton of sh-t (that is all now super common in society) and yet if you don't partake, you're somehow no fun.
Hypocritical Values
Being proud if your son got laid or confessed to having an S/O but judging your daughter if she did the same exact thing
This. So many tales of fathers fist-bumping their sons for soliciting BJs under the bleachers (metaphorically speaking) yet threatening to kill any boy their daughter brings home (100% serious). Mothers slut-shame their daughters too, definitely, and they can be even worse sometimes. But it just feels - it might not be true, but it feels like - boys are not criticized or judged nearly as much for being sexually active teenagers.
Abuse Is Abuse. Doesn't Matter Who It's Against.
Women being violent to men. A lot of the time that gets brushed aside and laughed off.
When a woman slapping or punching a man is funny but the reverse makes him a criminal.
Prancing Around On Stage
speaking out season 4 GIF
Giphy
Pageant shows for little girls. Looking at you toddlers and tiaras...
That's nothing but a bizarre off-label Munchauson's Syndrome by Proxy, just using performances instead of diseases.
I mean, you notice how it's 100% mothers as the primary parent? TBH, you might get the extremely rare (and invariably subservient) father involved, but they're never the ones in charge. It's the mothers using their infant/young daughters as fantasy proxies. Get a psychiatrist to poke around, and I'll bet you dollars to dimes that some pretty serious issues will come bubbling out of the woodwork with these women.
YEAH, WELL I HEARD--
People talking over each other. Its one thing to do it in the heat of the moment, its another thing to be looked in the eyes and watch people do it like "yeah b-tch" and then apologize as if it didn't mean anything.
Who's All For Legal Gambling??
I would have to say microtransactions.
Or the lootbox (the gaming community is part of sociaty too)
Why Keep It Behind Closed Doors?
Not discussing salaries and being told it is inappropriate.
It ain't. And not discussing it is a tool businesses use to prevent employees from getting what they deserve.
Are We At The Point Where Billionaires Not Helping Is Ridiculous?
Owning literally billions of dollars and not doing a crap to help people or pay texas or treat your employees right because: If YoU JuSt WoRk HaRd EnOuGh YoU CaN GeT ThErE ToO or ThEy DoNt OwE YoU AnYtHiNg
Stop processing this fake illusion and start contributing to f-cking society.
Size Doesn't Restrict Influence
Treating cigarette butts as if they are not litter
As a smoker myself it just annoys me when I see them all over the ground. Definitely when it's next to a bin or ashtray. Just use it.
If there is nothing around while I'm smoking, I just put it out and put it in my back pocket until I get to a bin. That's probably gross but it's better than [littering].
A "No" Means "No," No Matter What The Movies Say
homer simpson no GIF
Giphy
"Pursuing" someone after they have made it clear they are not interested. I blame most romantic movies.
100% agree, and reflecting on being a young man a long time ago... it's confusing as sh-t. That was so reinforced on TV and movies in the 80s and 90s... and when young guys are coming of age and just getting into dating, it's very confusing... lots of nerves and hormones and things, and even though your senses tell you that you should let it go, you have these voices all around you telling you to "not give up", or that "they're just playing hard to get"... or that "girls like it when you fight for them" etc...
Couple that by the fact that some women also actually do the whole "play hard to get, even though you're interested" thing (maybe because they're led to believe that's what they should do too?) and it's a big confusing mess for a lot of young people. I whole heartedly agree that it's really perpetuated by the media, and I really wish that sh-t would just stop...
[deleted]
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Do we even have a clue that they're the "one" that got away? How long until it sinks in? And how do we not know there isn't another "one" coming behind them? I have no answers. Just asking...
The Draft
Episode 1 Omg GIF by RuPaul's Drag RaceGiphy"The girl who summoned up the nerve to ask me out towards the beginning of high school. I was so humiliated by the life my family was living that I stalled until she gave up."
"Betsy, if by some stroke of dumb luck you're reading this... I'm so sorry. It was 25-27 years ago, but I still hate myself for that. You were beautiful, intelligent, a good person, and if I had anything resembling a stable, presentable home I would've said yes in a heartbeat... I had a crush on you since 7th-grade 'intro to drafting.'
I Love Her
"Weird, I was just confiding in my mom about this last night. I'm late but for catharsis's sake I'm going to post. My first girlfriend is a classic case of you don't know what you have until it's gone. She's the complete package. Beautiful, intelligent, compassionate, and so kind. We started dating when I was 17 and broke up when I was 21."
"For reference I'm 30 now. I was an idiot. I wanted to play the field. I wanted to party and hook up with college girls. It was fun at first but after a while I felt this gnawing hole in my heart. The feeling of doubt crept up slowly and still, a decade later my chest feels tight thinking about it."
"I didn't realize until my later serious relationships that getting along with your SO's family is so important. Her mom and step dad genuinely treated me like a part of their family. It's not a stretch to say I literally grew up with these people. I spent some of my most formative years with them. Birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, you name it. They celebrated me and my accomplishments. They genuinely cared about me. Just amazing, salt of the earth, lovely people."
"Her birthday was in March and I sent her a text and we ended up talking for a bit. She's happily married and stable with a daughter and a second on the way. I'm genuinely so happy for her. She deserves happiness. I just wish I was a part of that. Sitting at work 10 years later I'm tearing up. I numbed myself out to it for years, it's so strange to me that I've been so stuck on her lately. Is this normal?"
- direct07
15 Years Later
"My very first real love. I was a teenager and I didn't really know how to be comfortable in myself or with myself. I played silly teen girl games and lost him even as a friend. Now 15 years later I still think about R from time to time. I genuinely hope he's happy in his life."
"Edit: Wow this blew up while I was sleeping. Thanks for all the sweet words and to everyone with their "one" congratulations! I suppose I hadn't looked him up on social media because I'm scared, scared he won't respond, scared he will respond, scared he'll think I'm a stalker. I'm in a happy relationship now, but what if... Etc etc etc. But I'll give it a Google."
Missed You Much
rhythm nation dance GIF by Janet JacksonGiphyA girl I dated in high school. Went on a date one time she took me out parking and I was too stupid to realize it.
"She always talked about moving away as soon as she got finished with high school. I always thought I would stay in a little town the rest of my life. Turns out I was the one who left and move to another state. Later I heard that she had told someone that I knew that she thought that we would be married at some point. Missed it by that much."
Ok... I've been a bit blind to the light. People can be cruel, but also highly creative. Why not just lead with the truth? It'll always hurt more after lies.
Chuck E.
Chuck E Cheese Wink GIFGiphy"Ah the rare AskReddit question I can answer."
"I met a wonderful woman circa 2013-2015. We worked at what I can best describe as an upscaled Chuck E Cheese. Or ghetto Six Flags. Your choice."
"We hit it off instantly, though at the time I was rather romantically inept. Eventually, she says she's leaving to join the Air Force. I tell her I'll miss her, and wished her well. The thought of asking for her number so we could stay in contact didn't even cross my mind."
"Cue the next day, I stop for lunch on my way to work, and as I'm walking to my car I hear my name being called. I turn around, and it's her, running toward me. Universe giving me a second chance, right? Wrong. My dumb butt still didn't ask for her number. She looked a little upset, and I still think about her often. Desiree, I hope you're doing well."
The Getaway...
"He was my first and last love. I was 16 and he was 18 when we met. We bounced around like idiots, on again off again, finally got together mid 20s. We both fell into bad habits - drugs and alcohol, more booze for me, more drugs for him. We had some bad things happen that were pretty detrimental to staying sober. We would split, reconcile, get sober, fall off the wagon, split, etc... repeat as necessary. We realized we were very bad for each other unless we could BOTH just get sober for ourselves, and split."
"Ten years later, I was sober for 7 years (still am, going on 18 years end of this month, actually! Woo, go me!) and he was beginning to come back, sober about a year. He contacted me, we met, talked about trying again. He said that once he had been totally clean for a year, we'd do it. That whole "Don't make any changes for a year" thing. I would visit him, tho, things were good."
"He woke up one morning feeling bad, thought he had the flu. (This was pre-now) I stayed around because he was sick, but neither of us thought he was drastically bad, just the flu, right? He got worse and worse, finally we called an ambulance because he got up from a nap and couldn't breathe. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Aortic dissection."
"He got away, but someday I'll see him again. I never stopped loving him, and him me. We just weren't good for each other."
Ce la vie...
"My most serious Ex."
"Don't think I truly understood love until I met her. Loved her more than I ever thought I could love anything. It eventually ended when she told me that, through no fault of my own, she had fallen out of love with me. That was 2 years ago, still hurts to think/talk about."
"Ce la vie..."
The Avoid...
"I'm in the middle of trying to avoid that right now actually."
"It's not worth the heartache trust me. I fought to stay in a relationship for an entire year. If I would've just let her go the first time she wanted there would've been a lot less pain. We would've left on good terms. I would've lost a lot less sleep. Rip the band-aid off because once the band-aid starts peeling it's inevitable it'll fall off with time."
Kim Tate Eye Roll GIF by Emmerdale"My ex and I broke up over 3 years ago. Mutual breakup through a lack of communication on both ends I feel."
"Thought I was over that hill until this week she messaged just to say hey and ask an innocent question. We text for the best part of the day and it's brought up a lot of old feeling. Feeling pretty bitter sweet right now."
Love is a mess. Why even bother trying if you can't be true? It's not hard to just spell out the situation. And if you're the one needing to put together the words... look closer. The dialogue shouldn't be difficult.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.