LET'S TALK ABOUT: HOW HATE IS BORING

Photo by Leonardo Wong on Unsplash

As a huge How I Met Your Mother fan, I am irrevocably in love with Josh Radnor (and the rest of the himym gang). The first of his independent films, 'happythankyoumoreplease', is one of my all time favourite films, and the soundtrack is the most played album on my iTunes. Having so much love for his first film, I thought that I would share the same passion for his second independent film, 'Liberal Arts'. Although my heart definitely didn't warm to Liberal Arts in the same way, I took away two lines that sum up how I've been feeling for such a long time now, but never being able to express with words: "You think it's cool to hate things. And it's not. It's boring. Talk about what you love, and keep quiet about what you don't."

When another person is pouring their heart and soul out about something that they love, and that thing is something that you happen to dislike, you can give two possible responses. Firstly (the negative option), you could reply by demeaning everything that they have just said. You could tell them why loving that thing is wrong, and why hating it is so much better. Secondly (the positive option), you could boost their confidence about having such passion. You could tell them that you think it's fantastic how people can share such different opinions yet still remain friends - that you don't share their love, but that you respect it nonetheless. 

Over the last few years, I've come to realise that the only people that I want as friends are those that choose the second, positive option. Those that put you down for the things that you love are not your friends; you should not have to experience such hatred into your every day life. I get the impression that it has become a 'cool' personality trait to have to hate things, but like Liberal Arts points out... it's not. It's boring. What fun is there in being so negative all the time? Life is a wonderful thing because of how much love and joy there is in the world, and the feeling that you are blessed with when you make another person smile is incomparable. There is also an awful amount of hate and cruelty in the world - it'll never be 'cool' to add to that.

I'm so happy that I've found a way to express how I've been feeling, so much so that I've been able to write a blog post about it! What do you guys think? Do you agree with Liberal Arts that you should "talk about what you love, and keep quiet about what you don't", or do you have a different opinion?