I'm so tired of people on the internet being obsessed with making fun of other people. It's half of reddit and it's depressing and mean and nobody really cares because they get that "I'm better than you" dopamine hit from it.

I can understand and appreciate some of it. I like looking at /r/Instagramreality and seeing how crazy photoshopped some of these pictures are. I can understand when a situation is truly not in someone's favor at all and their behavior really needs calling out. I used to like r/tumblrinaction because it's a showcase of some of the most insane people on the internet, but now it's turning into a hate subreddit where people are openly homophobic, so that's out.

But stuff like...everywhere else. Just making fun of people to make fun of people. A top post on r/murderedbywords and r/all right now is literally just a long string of insults about a person's appearance. Someone browsed their tumblr because they disagreed with the admittedly inappropriate thing they said, found a picture, and posted it followed by nothing but personal attacks about their appearance, many of them about things they have no control over, like their hairline. Tons of upvotes, tons of people thinking it's cool. I don't think that's cool.

Last night, a post on r/hittablefaces, a subreddit I never see and thought was banned, reached pretty high. It's a guy with severe dysmorphia who has clearly had too much plastic surgery and is obsessed with making his face look a certain way. I commented that I think that- ignoring the subreddit's core premise being pretty shitty in the first place- it strikes me as especially shitty to post someone whose appearance is the result of mental illness and attack them for it.

60 downvotes.

Then the other day on r/memes someone took a post from r/roastme, a contained area where people go to be roasted with consent, and overlaid one of the comments onto the OP's photo and shared it as a "meme". Removing all consent from the situation, and just posting a picture of someone to make fun of them, treating it the same as posting a relatable picture of an overweight cat or something. That's so messed up, is that not super messed up? And then people defend it with "Well he asked to be roasted". That doesn't mean he asked to be made publicly and repeatedly fun of for the rest of his life over various other forums! A decent person would understand that! You don't get to approach celebrities who have been to a roast on the street and just assault their appearance!

I posted my picture in r/gaymersgonemild and said I was feeling cute. One of the comments was just "Why?" and I will remember it the rest of my life.

I don't understand why behavior like that is rewarded. We all have an appearance and we all like to think it's okay, why on earth wouldn't we all sympathize with people and feel bad for them when someone attacks how they look? People should look how they want to look and be happy about it! It's not up to you how someone else looks!

Edit: thank you for the gold. I want to add that I've had a hard time for a long time not being mean or angry with internet strangers but I'm trying real hard right now not to do that (I did call a guy on r/games a dumbass the other day but Tbf he was being a dumbass?), and I think I'm doing really well. I started a YouTube channel and it's made me feel more personal and public with strangers so that's helping. I am trying. This sort of thing has always bugged me regardless. I think people should for the most part be who they want to be, like what they want to like, and do what they want to do. That doesn't mean you can't criticize things (like, I think some games are complete trash and will explain why for three hours), but people who like them aren't bad people for it or deserving of mistreatment...

Also another example. There was a post about a guy who made a giant ceramic dick in one of his art classes. He had a ruffly white pirate shirt on, painted nails, a bunch of jewelry, pretty standard hair, hoop earrings I think... I went to the comments to envy him for looking how he pleased and pulling it off and almost every comment was thinly veiled homophobia! I defended him and luckily people seemed to agree but the whole thread was people making fun of a stranger because of their clearly curated and intentional appearance being unconventional. It was so sad.

Submitted December 28, 2018 at 05:15PM by Materia_Girl http://bit.ly/2An42eK