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Comment by serve_yay | Hacker News Reader

It seems to me that rooting out and shaming "snobs" is becoming something of a cultural pastime. It really bothers people when you don't like what they like. So it must be because you're an asshole snob, not because you just don't like it. It's related to all the anti-"hipster" crap that has popped up in recent years. It's fun because skewering "hipsters" is puncturing pretensions, you're taking cultural snobs down a peg.

I find all this behavior symptomatic - even if someone is being a snob, so what? Ignore them if their opinions are bad.

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It isn't about not liking what other people like, it's about being a jerk about it.

I for instance don't care for sports. And that is how I phrase it when asked. If there is a sports related conversation taking place I am generally more upset at the snobs demanding to be a part of the conversation just so they can shit all over sports in general, than the people that are spending an hour talking about a specific player, game, or statistic.

It very much is a social thing where you need to know how to politely excuse yourself from conversations and situations you do not want to be a part of rather than trying to evangelize your view that they suck.

I use the "I'm not a sports guy" variant. It just doesn't interest me. Unfortunately, most movies, music, and tv have lost my interest as well. No snobbery or moral objections, it just doesn't interest me.

A lot of people are gonna say I'm a jerk and think I'm militant if I don't like what they like. Fuck that. People decide they don't like you even if you didn't do anything wrong, all the time.

> It isn't about not liking what other people like, it's about being a jerk about it.

Well, that jerkiness is often a reaction to the jerkiness of many sports-lovers, who abuse one in grade school and raise one's taxes to pay for their hobbies in adulthood, and spend so much time expecting that everyone shares their enthusiasms.

> It very much is a social thing where you need to know how to politely excuse yourself from conversations and situations you do not want to be a part of rather than trying to evangelize your view that they suck.

I (eventually) learnt that not everyone shared my love of science fiction and fantasy; I don't trot out Tolkien or Asimov every time I'm talking to most folks. It would be nice if folks didn't trot out football or baseball when talking to me. If I had to learn to suppress my enthusiasms except around the like-minded, why haven't they?

> It really bothers people when you don't like what they like.

I don't believe that is the reason behind snob bashing. What really bothers people is aligning ones likes and dislikes as to boost perceived social status. People perceive it as grabbing social status undeservedly, so the social instinct for punishing transgressions kicks in.

> even if someone is being a snob, so what? Ignore them if their opinions are bad.

You have missed an important point the author made. It was not about one snob but rather a whole social group.

I agree that seems to be a common pastime on discussion forums, even such a fine one as this. However, I was happy to see that the blog post simply focused on what the author could do to improve, rather than lambasting others.

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