Like to Dislike?

We all have our own list of people we won’t want to hang around with. Some are of the universally detested ones such as a-holes, douches, posers and sluts. Others are born out of our own individual tastes or rather distastes. Know-it-all’s, narcissists, histrionics, social butterflies and insert all of them here.

Such sentiment probably roots from the image that society has brainwashed us with and our very own experience of being around with this kind of people. Given the shame associated with them, would there ever be a reason we’d still want to hang around with them? Probably something difficult to come up with.

But a third reason can be cited.

Sometimes, we dislike a certain group of people because we see in them a portion of ourselves we dislike as well. Whether it be our past self we’d rather forget, our current self we’d want to get away from or our future self we’d want to avoid, we declare our dislike for them to distance ourselves from these groups in the hope that distancing would steer us clear from the danger of becoming just like them. As such, the dislike for these groups proves to be the strongest since it’s the one which hits closest to home.

In times like these, change that aspect of yours first before having the guts to declare your dislike for others. You have no right saying that you don’t want to hang out with a group you dislike if that aspect you most hate about them can be found in you. Hello, hypocrisy!

And always remember, the groups you say you dislike the most are sometimes the ones you’re most afraid and likely to become a part of.

But of course, "don’t hate, appreciate" still remains the best solution.