A fandom can sometimes reach rather illogical levels. But let's face it, hating a thing can bring out the jerkass in someone as much as liking it, especially on the Internet. Actions that drop someone's IQ points to dangerously low levels can be inspired by hate as easily as by love.
Hate Dumb is the polar opposite of Fan Dumb. It always exists — where there is fan dumb, there is hate dumb.
The bottom line is this: it's okay to dislike a show/movie/game/book/character/whatever. But there are civil and socially acceptable ways of expressing that dislike, just like with expressing love for a character or medium. It's going too far in disliking something where that dislike of a work becomes hate dumb.
Of course, much like fan dumb, hate dumb are usually just a vocal minority of people who don't like something. Sometimes it's not even considered part of the hatedom. Most of them, including yourself (unless you actually do fit this, and you won't know if you do) are pretty respectful when it comes to critiquing a work, or will simply just ignore it as they fully know that they won't enjoy the work and let the fans be.
As a footnote, to many a devoted fan, nearly every hatedom for their fandom is a hate dumb. There is often a broad overlap between people who accuse others of being in a hate dumb and people who enjoy Complaining About People Not Liking the Show. Similarly, to many a devoted hater, nearly every fandom for their hatedom is fan dumb. This goes to show the polar opposites of it.
The concept is closely related to Don't Shoot the Message.
Not to be confused with hatedom, which is the intelligent version of this. Well... the less stupid version, anyway.
Please do not put this on a work's page including its sub-pages. The only exception is if it is enforced canonically as someone's character trait. In that case, mark it as such.
Common variations of Hate Dumb:
Left-wing: Most frequently, the left-wing Aesthetic Stalinist will be particularly sensitive to any depiction of a woman or minority that doesn't meet their impossibly high standards and condemn the work as hateful and bigoted, sometimes without even taking the time to look into the work and see their full characterization. If the character is portrayed as unlikable or explicitly evil and unsympathetic, or even makes a Tragic Mistake, expect people like this to jump to wild conclusions about the supposed Unfortunate Implications that often don't exist, and condemn the creator of the work themselves while citing their perceptions as proof said creator is bigoted, even if the creator themself and/or one of the heroes is a member of the relevant group. As an unintended consequence of this behavior, the left-wing Aesthetic Stalinist is partially responsible for the existence of the Flawless Token trope; creators wary of these folks may resort to writing women/minorities as flat, boring characters with no flaws whatsoever (or at least none that might make them be perceived in any negative way), as it is the type of portrayal least likely to anger them. At the most extreme, the creator may not bother to include any minorities at all just to play it safe. On the rare occasion one of these people finds a character which meets their standards, they will protect that character like their only child. Any criticism of said character will lead to the critic being dismissed as a bigot, even if their criticisms had nothing to do with the character's minority status. Alternatively, the more extreme version may accuse the creator of a work with positively-depicted minority characters of being a hypocritical or cowardly centrist or "shitlib" for seeking "diversity points" without making the work sufficiently explicit and aggressive in its attack on patriarchal white supremacist capitalism or call for a socialist or anarchist revolution.
Right-wing: The right-wing Aesthetic Stalinist most often accuses any work with a minority protagonist or other sympathetic major character of pandering to leftists (having an especially rabid hatred for the Affirmative-Action Legacy), and accuses anyone who enjoys it of being a left-wing Aesthetic Stalinist who only pretends to like the work because of its "diversity". Even when a work can legitimately be criticized for pandering, they'll usually direct their criticisms at the apparent fact that the work decided to include a minority character at all. The most extreme of these types will once again direct their hatred at the creator. They may be actual bigots dressing up their bigotry in weasel wording and flimsy excuses, or simply people who got tired of being accused of such for their legitimate criticisms and as a result act in a reactionary manner to what they perceive as pandering or tokenism. If you confront one of them in the wild, expect to have the word SJW thrown at you more than once. Often overlaps with "Complaining about works you didn't take in" as they will often refuse to touch a work with anything they perceive as "pandering", let alone examine it critically and figure out if their perception is true. Also often overlaps with "The Installment Hater", since they often claim to be fans of older installments they don't perceive as "woke" (even if the earlier versions of the work took an explicitly leftist or anti-bigotry stance for their time), and "The Review Troll", since they love to review-bomb and cite their own review-bombing as proof of the truth of their slogan "Get Woke, Go Broke". Despite them being a Vocal Minority who aren't taken seriously by creators or more accepting fans of a given franchise, their existence often antagonises left-wing Aesthetic Stalinists, who will exaggerate their presence and impact as if it's what the whole fandom believes.
This then leads to a vicious cycle of each side blaming the other for taking drastic action (i.e.: Fan Wank). Sometimes things can get really ugly if, say, a work has a positively depicted black character but a less developed LGBT one, or vice-versa, in which case more selfish and unthinking individuals will start fighting among themselves about which group is more oppressed. In any case, it's great fun to watch from the sidelines, though such debates can descend into extremely ugly or even outright dangerous territory depending on the people involved, as both parties tend to be inordinately fond of dragging it into real life and making it personal. Doxing incidents are common, as are campaigns of orchestrated harassment and attempts to get people fired from their jobs or cost them clients or professional contacts (if they are self-employed), and it can and sometimes does escalate into full-fledged attempts to cause physical harm.
Someone who bashes a work for political reasons.
- A subset of the above, The Periphery Hate Dumb: This is someone who clearly hates something, yet it should be obvious why — it clearly wasn't made with their demographic in mind. Most people actually hate on something that wasn't made for them (Works developed for young children most come to mind, followed closely by stuff that is known for targeting the opposite gender), so you would honestly think they would ignore it, right? Nope. Part of the reason this hatedom came into being was when parents decided to watch the shows their kid watched and, as natural, because it wasn't made for them (Same way most shows parents enjoy aren't made for children) they disliked it. Unfortunately this has caused it to be associated with maturity, meaning that in an effort to be "cool" and look "mature", people often deny any association to that show made for younger children. This sometimes overlaps with the Culture Alien in that they often come up with complaints about the show that is pretty much what makes it a kid/boy/girl-friendly show in the first place, and taking their constructive criticisms seriously would result in an In Name Only show that's a complete genre shift, as is the Mad Editor.
Somebody who hates certain works because they want more of what they like instead.
- A variant of this is the Die for Our Ship fan who claims they're actually this, but their 'Anti-Romantic' sentiment tends to be focused on only specific ships, and/or specific characters. Meanwhile, there will be other ships that 'don't bother them as much', usually involving one-half of the ship they previously complained about being insanely toxic, which will make it clear they're Not So Above It All after-all as they make it clear they do have ships they like, but some they really hate.
Somebody who hates shipping in a fandom and/or romance in an actual work.
- Love Interest Haters: These people may be big fans of a creator, but they absolutely despise the creator's love interest. She (it's usually a she) will often be blamed for negatively affecting the quality of his work even if she had nothing to do with it. She may also be hated for sinking the hater's favourite Actor Ship, "stealing" the creator away from the hater, or disappointing people who really wanted him to be gay (and either believe there are No Bisexuals or take Het Is Ew so far that they find bisexuality Ew too). Don't be surprised if these haters insist that the creator's relationship is unhappy even if there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. In severe cases, the haters will make more serious and equally baseless accusations against the love interest — according to them, she may be unfaithful, destructive, abusive, and so on. Even if the haters are actually right about a creator's love interest being a bad influence, they still take their response too far — as above, death threats may occur. Most of these people aren't full-blown haters of the work; they either actually like it despite their complaints, or they used to like it but now don't because they think it Jumped the Shark (which they'll often blame the love interest for).
People with an irrational grudge against the author of a work they hate.
- The Wannabe Caustic Critic: Runs about nitpicking things — a misplaced pixel? This game is trash. An artistic choice that I don't like? The fans are morons. They will savage everything and anything about a media... without the wit, grace, and, worst of all, humor of the people they attempt to emulate. Everything in this work is incredibly, irredeemably shitty to them, and expect far more personal attacks than anything approaching criticism.
Somebody who only bashes a work because hating it is trendy.
- The Preemptive Hater: The Hate Dumb counterpart of the Hype Maniac. These guys really hate something, and seem to know almost everything about the object of their hate. The problem is, the work they hate hasn't been released. Often, it hasn't even been finished. These people are basing their hatedom on previews, teasers, and miscellaneous information floating around about the unreleased project; from it, they have constructed a picture of something they loathe intensely. In some cases, the hate may be based on information that was never conveyed in the first place, but is treated as confirmed fact. This is more common in the internet age, since people can get all sorts of false information (and true info, for that matter) from Fan Dumb and other Hate Dumb; and when release dates are staggered, there can be preemptive haters on the same board as people who do have access to the work. Remakes of works are frequent targets of this — people anticipate Adaptation Decay. On the bright side, the odds of getting a preemptive hater to see the work when the time comes is better than that for someone complaining about a extant show they don't watch.
Bashing a work despite never having watched/read/played/etc it.
A person who hates a work because they think it copied another.
A hater who finds any excuse to complain about their hated work.
- The Godwin's Law Enforcer The unholy cross between a Fan Hater and a Demonizer. A hate dumb will have these guys depending on how long the work/genre/animation has been around (if it's been around that long) and who were fond of that certain work. If the work/genre/animation was liked by someone considered horrible (or whom they consider horrible), then they'll compare the fans of said work to that person. See Hitler Ate Sugar.
Someone who thinks a work is a bad influence on the audience.
- The Review Troll. These are people who actively go on user review sites such as Amazon.com or Metacritic and post 1 star reviews for pretty much anything within their respective hatedom - an action known as "review bombing". They might have never even seen/heard/played the work in question. They'll usually just post a one to three sentence "review", saying that the work sucks without really describing why. In some cases, they might even create multiple accounts posting one star reviews for the work (or works) in question just to bring down the average review score. Alternatively, on sites that allow users to rate reviews as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful," they might hit "Not Helpful" for any positive (or even average) review of the work in question, regardless of how well written or informative the review is, while hitting "Helpful" for any one star reviews they come across (even the most poorly constructed ones). They might even create one or more alternate accounts specifically to write multiple one star reviews for the same work, hit "Helpful" for one of their very own reviews or for somebody else's (usually a fellow Review Troll's) one star review. Or to hit "Not Helpful" for somebody else's five star review. Review bombing can also occur due to disagreement with a publisher's business practices, such as one-starring a game because it has DRM or microtransactions, or one-starring a book because it wasn't made available as an ebook at the same time as the hard copy was released. Needless to say, such people can seriously bring down the quality of a review page and irritate prospective buyers or actual fans of the work. These people crop up in Fan Dumb as well. Both types of Aesthetic Stalinist are infamous for this, but right-wing ones especially so, presumably hoping to manufacture evidence of a backlash against a work they see as SJW propaganda; this got so bad that Rotten Tomatoes was forced to disable pre-release user comments and make the "Want To See" metric absolute rather than a percentage.
A hater whose main shtick is giving negative reviews and/or downvoting positive reviews.
Somebody who bashes a work for being "too similar" to another work.
- The Art Snob: Holy crap, look at this [insert media here]! It's got action and no drama and no symbolism! It's trash appealing to the Lowest Common Denominator and the reason (insert culture here) is turning into morons! There's no art in it! Some decry video games for "instant gratification" or music for shallow lyrics, but regardless, they'll sound like stereotypes of snobby art-house types. Sometimes, they're harder on works that are distributed for free or something they pirated like video games or movies.
- The Hardcore Elitist is a Challenge Gamer who takes their attitude too far. They'll viciously attack games that aren't difficult enough for their taste, and will bash other gamers for being "lazy" or "entitled" if their idea of fun doesn't include spending dozens of hours getting good at a game. They're often blind to the idea that the appeal of a game can come from something else than challenge, and tend to think their accomplishments are somehow devalued if someone else gets to play a game on Easy. Often overlaps with Genre Alien and Rival Fan, as they despise entire genres for not revolving around skill. Compare and contrast "Stop Having Fun" Guys.
- The "Mature" Snob insists that older teenagers and adults shouldn't consume works they deem too "childish" — whether it's a case of Multiple Demographic Appeal with more depth than it may seem, or it gets enjoyed because it's simply a fun way to unwind and not everything needs to be intense or complex. Often prone to conflating works accessible for kids (or even teenagers) with works that appeal solely to that group. Many of these haters are teenagers who want to seem more mature (even if the works they like are not all that mature either), though they're sometimes older. Often overlaps with the Negative Nelly ("Idealistic works are fantasies for kids, while dark and edgy works show how the world 'really' is!"), Art Snob ("Adults shouldn't waste their time on stuff I deem too lowbrow!") or both (True Art Is Angsty).
- While it's fine to favour works that just aim to be fun, the Casual Elitist viciously attacks shows simply for not falling under their definition of "fun". If you happen to like something more challenging or highbrow, they'll accuse you of being a snob (or, for games, a tryhard) who's probably only pretending to like it to impress other snobs. They simply don't understand why someone might enjoy analysing an art film or playing a competitive Fighting Game more than they'd enjoy a "fun" superhero movie or Party Game. This is the opposite of the Art Snob and Hardcore Elitist, and often comes from backlash against their attitudes. Compare "Stop Having Fun" Guys, who hate people who don't enjoy a work in the same way as they do.
Someone who hates not only the work, but anyone who enjoys it as well.
- The Mad Editor: This is a subspecies of the above. This person frequently suggests a complete rewrite of the work, but they view it as improving it, even if it involves Flanderizing or excessively censoring the work, completely derailing the characters, or complete genre-shifts and abandoning the work in its entirety. This very often overlaps with the Periphery Hate Dumb. These people often break out in vicious flamewars with types of Fan Dumb, making it hard to discern who is who. Remember, constructive criticism is an attempt to tell the creator how they can do it better the way they want to, not how you want to.
- Made The Wrong Turn: Similar to the Genre Alien, these are haters who are fans of a work that somehow directly offends their worldview or beliefs or something similar. Political conservatives who are fans of Star Trek or Stephen Colbert, for example, or homophobes that find themselves fans of Queen or X Japan, or fundamentalist Christians who somehow like Supernatural or Harry Potter. Often overlaps with the Mad Editor (in that they will deny or change elements of the work that upset their personal morals, even if that's the point of the work), the Aesthetic Stalinist (in that they will rail at whatever is offending them and the fans that are okay with it), the Demonizer, and/or the Mad Homophobe. Will become an Installment Hater if they notice these aspects in newer installments.
People who complain about the fundamental aspects of a work (for instance, saying a comedy movie has "too much humour" in it).
- The Mad Homophobe: A type of Hate Monger who frequently throws around accusations of homosexuality, mostly Gay. Typically, this is the first thing they say about a character, that they are gay with little justification. Someone is best friends with a member of the same sex? They're gay lovers. Someone isn't interested in romance? They're gay. Someone is asexual? They're gay. Someone is masculine? They're gay. Guy is Bishounen? He's gay. Anyone was portrayed as gay by fans? They're canonically gay. Often bizarre versions of Love Makes You Hateful — they'll be fine with any romance as long as it's not gay. If it is — oops, not for kids, or HOLY FUCK NOT CANON!!
- The Mad Heterophobe: Like the Mad Homophobe, they're convinced that everyone is gay. Unlike them, they consider this to be a good thing. They tend to take a Het Is Ew stance; any heterosexual pairing that becomes canon carries with it accusations of queer-baiting, even if the subtext for their preferred pairing existed mostly in their heads.
- Love Makes You Hateful: A mutation of The Mad Bride/Groom, these are usually self-proclaimed ex-fans who Rage Quit fandom when their favorite pairing was sunk, or worse, made fun of — whether or not the creator actually insulted pairings or not. Hate Fic, Die for Our Ship, all those good fandom-ruining stereotypes can be traced back to these brand of crazies.
- The Grudge Holder: Some Hate Mongers will hate a character solely because of something they did once. It doesn't matter that they never did it again, even if they apologised and/or vowed not to do it again, the bad thing they did was in an episode that can be skipped over, or even if the whole point of the story was that the thing the character did was bad and they atone for it, the Grudge Hater still hates the character for it. This may overlap with the Fan Dumb type "Mad Protector" if the bad thing was mistreating another character whom the Grudge Holder likes. On this wiki, Grudge Holders will often shoehorn their hated characters into tropes like Abusive Parents, Domestic Abuse, and Hypocrite based on the one thing they did.
A hater whose hate centres around a specific character.
Someone who only bashes a work because someone they're a fan of hated it.
A person who hates a work for being too popular.
- Closely related to the Entry Hater, who hates a certain entry in a franchise. A common example is the hater who hates a spin-off for being a spin-off, even if it has absolutely no effect on the rest of the franchise. They're often prone to saying, "They Changed It, Now It Sucks!".
A person who likes a work, but hates a certain installment of it.
Someone who hates a show for being too cheerful or comedic.
- The opposite is Nostalgia Inversion, when Hype Backlash (often as a result of the above Nostalgia Filter) and Once Original, Now Common mix. While it's okay to think an old work hasn't aged well, this hater doesn't even try to make allowance for it. They can't (or won't) put themselves in the correct mindset to watch a work made before its genre got deconstructed, or they expect special effects to look the same in the '50s as in the '00s. They ignore that a work that seems unoriginal nowadays can still have a lot of historical value. They may attack the work's creators for using a trope that would later be overused, or for not using technology they didn't have access to. In some cases, the hater doesn't even seem to realize that the work wasn't made in the present day.
A hater who hates newer works.
- I Was Just Passing Through: Obsessed haters who claim, not just that they hate the show, but that they've found something better. Yet, no matter what, they are true to their original Hate Dumb despite the new show. Their perverse attachment to the old hated work is often stronger than that to the show they claim to be a fan of — assuming they aren't Gushing About Shows They Don't Watch. These customers are like the above, but they make sure to let you know that your competitors are better... yet for some reason, keep going back to you. Very common in MMOs where you'll see somebody raving about how much better some other MMO is.
- The Revenge Troll: This is a hater who is hate-obsessed indeed, but they appear to have taken their hatred to personal levels. This may overlap with the Author Haters as well. Expect them to constantly wish for the work's demise, or for the author to retire, obsessing about it like they want revenge on something. They may often misblame the object of their hatred to have caused their favourite show to be canceled, or act more like the show or the author snuck into their house at night and murdered their family while they slept. However, in the more extreme examples, some people will even cross the Moral Event Horizon, wishing not just cancellation on the show, but wishing for the author or the creators and/or writers of the shownote to have terrible things happen to them in real life. This is even more off-putting because they are wishing this on other real people, not just characters from fiction. The ones who take it that far often overlap with the Internet Tough Guy (what better way to creep people out than to intentionally threaten or publicly wish harm on another human being?).
- The Chronic Flouncer: They are so done with the show, and they will tell you so with an epic post detailing just how much they hate it now and how much better the first season was, capping their post with a seemingly final goodbye to everyone because have we mentioned that they are completely and utterly done with this terrible show? They're dunzo. Finished. Over it. Until next week, at least, when they're back to complain yet again about the next episode, which they took the time to watch, then complain bitterly about its terrible quality. Afterwards, they announce yet again that they are done for really, really, real this time! Don't get too comfortable with their absence, because they'll be back not only for next week's episode but for the next season as well, which they will, of course, vow in their weekly farewell address to not watch even at gunpoint.
- I Can Do Better: This Obsessed Hater variety usually belongs to the 20s-30s age group and loves to tell you how the show sucks, its writers are idiots, and how they can write it well or create something else that's better. To illustrate their hate they like to constantly point at the perceived flaws of the show and overtly compare them to other works (even when they're completely different genres, styles or media), while they'll flaunt the fanfic they've posted (or in some rare cases, their self-published book) or the writing lessons they took or, heck, even their desire to become writers as "proof" of their writing competence. Expect them to linger on the show's fan message boards every time a new installment is released, constantly talking down to the creators of the show as if they're on the same level of success and prestige.
Somebody who obsesses over a hated work to ludicrous extremes.
The opposite of a Hipster Hater; someone who hates a work for being too *un*popular, or too unconventional.
A person who used to like a work, but grew to hate it due to the work not matching their ideal view of it.
- Overlapping very heavily with this is the Hypocrite Fan. This type of fan is from Fandom Rivalry more often than not, but they often hate trait(s) of other shows/genres, but at the same time, their own work does the exact same thing, too.
- One common Rival Fan is the fan of a different version of the work, often a fan of the source material for the adaptation. They tend to hold a grudge against the adaptation for every change it makes from the original (whether necessary or unnecessary). Take, for example, the rabid fan of Pygmalion who bears a grudge against My Fair Lady for being a musical romance instead of a social satire. Naturally, this tends to overlap with Pop Culture Snob (books are always better than moving pictures!) and Preemptive Hater (I saw a photo of the film shoot in Cinemafangique, I knew all along they were going to ruin the book!) Also overlaps with the Hardcore Elitist, who will attack a game for being more accessible than its predecessor(s).
Somebody who loves one work but hates another, and frequently compares the two works.
A person who excessively complains about inaccuracies in a work of fiction.
People who hate a work at least in part because they think the fans, or even other haters, are "doing it wrong" somehow.
People who pretend to hate a work they actually enjoy.
Haters who ignore anything positive about the object of their hate.