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The label of “hater” is often attributed to someone who irrationally dislikes a public figure of some kind.
The label is commonly thrown around by those who make a living in the various media industries of the world. Whether on social media or in the art that they create and publish, some creative talents seem to develop an unhealthy relationship with their critics.
You may have witnessed your favorite artists address their critics in a variety of ways. Some of them elect to ignore all criticism and not give it the light of day. Others silently take criticism to heart, act on its truthful aspects, and allow their creative outputs do the talking for them.
There is a third group – which this article is about – that always attributes malice to be behind criticisms that others voice.
They label their critics as bitter, bully them with labels such as “haters”, and assign unattractive qualities to anyone who criticizes them or their work. In essence, these individuals attempt to bring down their current critics to dissuade other, neutral beings, from building up the desire to critique them in the future.
They exclaim that “haters” live in their mom’s basement with nothing else to do other than spread negativity online. They call them losers, virgins, and a plethora of other labels which would lessen an individual’s social worth in an effort to dissuade.
This article aims to explain why taking the approach of bullying your “haters” is a bad idea.
Giving Your Critics Something to Bond Over as a Group
Overlooking the presence of even the slightest truth in the criticisms you hear will signify you to be committing moral injustice. The people criticizing you will not feel justified for the truth that they bring to light about you. By bullying those who hit the nail on the head, you’d not only serve to deny that certain truth, but you’d go on the offensive against it.
In such a scenario, you’d be easy to label as someone akin to a sensitive dictator attempting to rewrite factual history. Your reciprocal attacks will encourage a battle for truth, even if that truth seems insignificant at the moment.
If your critics’ thoughts don’t have an ounce of truth behind them, your tendency to bully them for speaking their mind will once again define you as an assailant rather than a victim of mistruth. As the person with a following and powerful voice, what you may deem to be reciprocal, fair, and balanced counter-attacks are easy to interpret as an abuse of power and exploitation of privilege. As a public figure, your voice will inherently be louder than that of your critics’. What would seem to be a fair and reciprocal response to mistruths in your mind is easy to misinterpret as being too harsh, and too abusive.
Both of the scenarios above result in a desire in those who share similar beliefs about you to group together. In an effort to match your adversarial tendencies, the group of “haters” will either seek a certain justice to have their truth be heard, or they’d yearn to balance the power dynamic between yourself and your detractors.
Shutting the Nozzle to the Increasing Pressure of Negativity Is a Bad Idea
What makes bullying one’s “haters” an attractive approach, is the short term effectiveness of that strategy. Until your detractors group together or gather stronger evidence behind their criticisms of you, your acts of labeling them to be some form of losers will work.
They’d quiet down, as your online presence would trump theirs. They’d be careful in garnering more of your negative attention as you’d wield weapons more powerful than theirs from the social perspective. From the perspective of self preservation, they’d judge the situation to not be worthy of continuing to battle in.
As more and more of your critics face your harsh, bullying tactics, their desire to inflict damage on your reputation will transition over to arenas they deem you to have no power in. The pressure to disparage your name will continue building, and its power will be multiplied by these people’s tendency to group together.
Modern examples of this phenomenon can be observed in the comment sections on videos, photos, and posts that infamous individuals publish. Those who have a tendency to bully their critics in the content they produce ensure those they bully double down in their reception of that content.
In an attempt to inflict more damage to the reputation of a public figure who bullies critics, you’ll discover a tendency for those critics to create forums, discussion boards, and online communities about how terrible of a person you are. These groupings will be a result of the pressure which wasn’t released in a safe manner, but rather exacerbated by the public figure who tried to simply shut the nozzle abruptly.
New Fans Will Be Exposed to the Fringe Groups Early
The grouping of those whom you bully as a method of defense can have unexpected influence online. Since much of online content has the capacity to be rated, commented on, and shared, the burning desire of your angered “haters” will often outperform the love your loyal fans have for you.
Groups of individuals who feel as though you’ve not responded fairly to their critiques will be diligent in ensuring new perspectives of your work are tainted. The “haters” who you bully will be likelier to group together in their negative reviews of your work and their bashful commentary of your publications. They’d be set on ensuring the top comment on your videos is a negative one, and that their opinion is expressed in the rating score of your latest project.
As a result, those who stumble across your work will be directly exposed to the effects of your angered critics. Since these “haters” would have been encouraged by you to make hating you a sport, they will become good enough to influence others. Their initial feelings of having their, perhaps legitimate, opinions bashed and attacked by you will morph to powerfully influence the first impressions you set on others.