Ask Lemmy

Sport. I just not interested in discussing the topic as a spectator.

Ohh and MLM shit.

Weed/drugs. You do you, but shut the fuck up about it. I don't need to know why you think it needs to be legalized and all of the "health" benefits it offers. Just smoke your weed and be happy about it.

Celebrities. CrossFit. Comics. Crypto.

Their health. I've reached the age where most of my friends have something to say about their health. It becomes a sort of one-upmanship game, where everyone has to top the person who spoke last with their afflictions. What is this, the misery olympics?

People talking about wanting to lose weight or dieting. It’s one thing to say “I’m going to skip dessert because I’m watching what I eat” but more often than not, it turns into this dark, self hating thing, e.g. “I gained so much weight over the holidays, I can’t believe I’m up to X lbs, I look so ugly.” Women especially seem to bond over these conversations and it makes me really uncomfortable and sad to be honest.

Work outside of work. We’re at a bar after office hours, stop talking about work.

Sports.

Their kids.

People talking about what alcohol they like. I don't drink so it's just boring to me and I can't relate whatsoever.

Gossip. Even talking about gossip.

Can't stand when someone recites a previous conversation instead of telling me the subject and results of the conversation. He said blah blah blah blah, she said blah blah blah blah, then she said blah blah blah... 🤦

Nutrition and diet stuff.

(And here I go, talking about the stuff I don't want to listen to other people harp on about! Haha.)

It's mostly because I used to handle regulatory documentation for a food company, and as a part of that I read a LOT of mommy blogs/health blogs/etc. and discovered people are shockingly uneducated about the actual science of nutrition--but more than happy to talk about their ignorant misinformation at length, and gather followings online for it. People are also uneducated about the history of nutrition and food regulatory agencies and say a lot of stupid things there too.

You kinda see the same sort of problems arising that caused the anti-vaxx mindset. Anti-vaxxers come about because vaccines were so effective at preventing once-prevalent childhood diseases that people grow up without actually knowing people who got sick from those things, and they start tilting at windmills instead due to a lack of personal experience with the deadliness of certain diseases. (They attack the vaccine helping them, instead of having the experience to be scared of the disease.)

Likewise with food, food safety with pasteurization and such has been SO effective that you have things like raw-milk advocates crawling out of the woodwork because they've never actually heard about a toddler's kidneys being damaged for life from salmonella. Apparently to them, their "freedom" to eke out...oh, some tiny unconfirmed extra "nutrition" from unpasteurized raw milk...somehow outweighs the very real risk of actual human beings becoming ill and dying. But historically back in the day tainted milk was a very real danger, killing kids and elderly and making others sick, it was a public health menace. The discovery of pasteurization was ground-breaking because it fixed that public health issue. But people who don't know their history and haven't seen with their own two eyes someone getting really sick from raw unpasteurized milk get fixated on some hypothetical damage being done to them or their freedoms if they can't get or drink their raw, unpasteurized milk due to laws or regulations. They're completely willing to let real people die on their minor molehill. Mostly because, as with anti-vaxxers, they haven't seen what life is like when people are getting sick left and right from this stuff.

I also come from a background of trauma and abuse, and I'm extremely aware of how quickly control of food by someone antagonistic towards you can physically make you ill or sick very, very quickly. A lot of people have hot takes they think only affect them but which can fuck up other people if they were applied more broadly. There's this disconnect that food is actually needed for people to live...probably because the people flapping their gums have never missed a meal.

The dose makes the poison.

For me, excessive self aggrandizing stories are unbearable. Everybody has a story about themselves where they are the hero, or did the amazing thing. That’s perfectly fine, and in reasonable doses is interesting to listen to.

However that guy who turns every and any conversion into a story about themselves strains both believability and interest beyond my breaking point.

Repeated discussions about problems that have no solution other than drop someone out of your life. If you aren't going to ditch the person you are complaining about, then I really don't want to hear any more about them.

opinions about gossip

Ninja air fryers, at my work there are loads of people who own them, and it's on the verge of becoming a cult.

Lately, just about everything.

Weed, alcohol, other drugs and Bar stories. I do not partake, but due to it being common amung my peers it is hard to avoid. To them that thing they experienced at that one bar 4 weeks ago is the funniest thing, but I cannot relate at all and its kinda frustrating because I do not intend to partake in such activities just to keep up socially. Same with smoke breaks.

I don't know if this is unpopular or not, but I really don't like hearing about folks' medical history. Like yes, I know you have anxiety/diabetes/whatever because you tell me every single time I see you. I, too, have a condition that requires me to take multiple pills everyday for my whole life, but you'd never know it bc I don't make it my identity. I'd rather not, and I'd rather not others who aren't facing death do it. On some cases I guess it speaks to the status of mental health care in my country since it almost seems like a cry for help that I just cannot answer.

As a European, when an American talks about his gun collection.

They're somehow so proud, and want you to be impressed about how much they go on about their guns.

Please. We're not all barbarians here. Shut the fuck up.

Anime.

Internet drama.

When people talk about content like they talk about drugs. The whole "we need to get more people to lemmy. I am doing my part because i post daily into empty communitiys and you should to. ".

I physically cringe reading it. Fake activism to frame a addiction.

Usually it's culture that's not their own, from a position of expertise. Theres a fairly good chance of putting out some really bad info and it can also come off as racially or culturally insensitive - which I want no part of. Extra cringe when it's your own culture that they're talking about and you're put in that awkward position of having to do an ackchyually...

Technically I can relate to the dreams thing but for completely different reasons. Dreams on their own are fine to talk about IMO (most famously as a conversation starter and I even help host a group set up for them), but once in a while you'll find literal dream preachers (my first BF was one of these, coming to the meal table was a chore), and I might ask something like "will this be on the test". It's not some kryptonite, it's just dull-ish for a lack of a better word, though I'm not singling it out either.

Horoscopes & astrology, and celebrity gossip.

"Artificial Intelligence". The marketing has overtaken reality and common sense. Until the datasets are re-evaluated with information given with consent, I refuse to consider this snake oil anything more than a fad.

Alignment in RPGs

Can’t stand listening to tech “evangelists” talk about tech. It’s so hard no roll my eyes when someone goes on and on about how the _____ (block chain, AI, whatever buzz word we’re on now) will change the world. Like yes, but not in the way you are describing because it clear you fundamentally misunderstand the technology. I work in tech and there are really cool projects out there, and discussions with my peers are really insightful. However, when a person starts telling me how excited they are to get I chip in their brain to control their phone, I can’t help but wonder if they already have brain damage.

I love when people talk about politics. It makes it very easy to decide whether I should be their friend or not.

Anything that you can tell they don't know much about but they still talk about it like if they know. I guess that's more of a type of person that a subject but I don't mind chatting people up about what they like most of the time

I don’t like to talk about video games and stuff because people keep telling me to shut the fuck up

Having movies explained to me