Who Are The Actual "Haters"?

If you have ever disagreed with someone you may have been called a hater. Being associated with that word is not fun, but it’s not that bad either when you realize that it’s a third- grade word that people seem to use when they don’t have an answer to whatever you’ve said that doesn’t agree with the brilliant thing that they have just said or written.

It’s interesting that the term “Haters” or “Hater” is almost never said to someone’s face. It generally occurs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any one of the social media sites which are leaping into life like drunken bunnies.

So “haters” has definitely become a thing.

Did you know that there is actually a Haters Dating App? In this app. “Haters” are matched up according to their mutual hate; in other words, what they hate the most.

This unique app was launched by a former Goldman Sachs finance guy named Brendon Alper, who quit his job to launch it. The idea is that you choose one or more of 3.000 plus topics, hating as many as you want, and the app fixes you up. Voila!

Alper says that mutual dislikes are a better sign of compatibility than mutual likes. He also said when asked, what is the number one thing people hate the most? His answer, not surprisingly, was that people hate the Presidential Election of 2016 more than anything else.

Not kidding.

So how did this whole “haters” thing get started? Most people think that it started with Taylor Swift, one of the world’s financial geniuses, who oddly has never worked at Goldman Sachs. Swift who famously writes songs about her personal life, specifically about boyfriends, wrote “Shake it off” which includes the phrase “Haters gotta hate…” , that has become the meme for describing anyone who has the temerity to question or criticize you.

It turns out that Swift didn’t originate this trendy word. One of the first users of the word haters came from the all-girl group called #3LW in their hit 2001 single “Players Gon Play” who first coined the phrase “Haters Gonna Hate”. In that self-same single they also coined the phrases “Ballers Gonna Ball” and “Callers Gonna Call”. The group #3LW have dissolved now and hopefully living their lives without haters.

Whoever began this silly meme is as unimportant as the word itself. It is an unimportant worn- out word that has become almost meaningless. I say “almost” because when you read that a person has called out someone else as being a hater, you immediately know that the person slinging this word around is pretty insecure, and probably more than a little unsure about whatever they are saying in the first place because they can’t listen to another opinion.

Having an opinion is a good thing. It’s patriotic. It’s interesting. It’s fun. It’s enlightening. It’s human. It’s important. More important than anything, it’s YOURS. Your opinion matters. Never be afraid of expressing it or being called a Hater. Look at this way, being called a hater could be a huge compliment, and it could actually hook you up on Alper’s hater’s site.

Let’s celebrate “Haters” Let’s make this “The Year of the Hater”.

And if anyone has the temerity to disagree with this commentary ….well, you know what you could be….