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It's not just the quality that makes someone or something known. "People, brands, and styles become popular because the right people have adopted it — rich people, celebrities, opinion leaders ... and we copy them in the eternal human quest to be fashionable and admired," said Douglas Holt, professor of marketing at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and previously a professor at the Harvard Business School.

According to him, cultural icons emerge because they express a particular ideology that society demands at that moment. However, not everyone might understand or agree with the messages that these beacons are sending. So when Reddit user The_Real_Garfield_ posted a question on the platform, asking others to share their favorite examples of the phrase "just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good," many obliged.

#1

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Fashion brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci. Well done, you're paying an extortionate amount of money for something you can get for half the price without the name at exactly the same quality. And half the time, the clothes/bags look ridiculous and ugly anyway! Why would you pay 3 grand for a bag you can't even get a fart into just because the label is "high end designer"?

The_V8_Road_Warrior , Erik Mclean/pexels Report

#2

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Headlights so bright that the owner is the only one on the road who can see anything.

RetinaMelter9000s , Egor Kamelev/pexels Report

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Lydsylou (she/her)
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Caused my cousin to have a fatal car crash. He had only just learnt to drive at age 17

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#3

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Religion. Scamming vulnerable people for centuries. Causing wars, women to be oppressed, bigging up the patriarchy. Putting the fear in people who are just trying to go about doing the best they can. Enforcing eternal sin and therefore causing people to feel guilty for things they haven't even done or that are natural things to do. Making people feel that they are bad or evil just because they are who they are. Using the cover of godliness to do unspeakable nasty things to innocent children. Stripping cultures of their individuality and enforcing the bland beliefs of mass religion onto them.

elderflowerfairy23 , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

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Trillian
Community Member
6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. And if you need religion to enforce your morals, then you don't have any. You are just afraid of punishment.

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#4

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Being horrible to people for no other reason than to make you feel better about yourself. At the end of the day you’ll just end up with less people liking you.

confusedghost42 , Keira Burton/pexels Report

#5

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good The whole uprise of “pranks”. I love a good harmless prank that’s fun for everyone involved, but a majority of what you see trending is just harassment.

sacredstoner35 , Keira Burton/pexels Report

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Trillian
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate pranks. With a passion. Unless you are 5 years old, it is not funny to laugh at people getting tricked.

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#6

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Cable TV. They should be paying us to watch commercials not us pay them.

Peterthinking , Karolina Grabowska/pexels Report

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Ephemera Image
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ditched cable fifteen years ago. Repetitive c**p with the price constantly going up.

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#7

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good The answer is 100% TikTok, I don’t get the appeal for it, from what limited I’ve seen of it it seems like a bunch of s**te.

ThisAccountForTalkin , Nordskov Media/flickr Report

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#8

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Starbucks. Burnt beans, c**p chemical filled snacks.

Margali , Osman SRAN/pexels Report

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#9

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Hate for Taylor Swift. It’s super trendy to hate on her. But the gal goes up on stage and actually sings and actually plays. That’s already not common in pop music. She writes her own songs; also not common. She has single-handedly gotten girls that cared nothing about football into football. She also single-handedly got young people to register to vote in America. She’s changed the world for the better. I get that people may not like her music, that’s fine. But there are people that straight up hate her simply because it’s trendy. And that’s ignorant.

prof_dynamite , Taylor Swift Report

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Lydsylou (she/her)
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fair enough to not like her music or even to not like.her as a person but people make it a whole personality and it's ridiculous. It goes the other way with people who are obsessed to the point of worshipping her and that's all they talk about as well. She's a human leave her alone for 5 minutes!

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#10

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Tik Tok influencers convincing gullible viewers to spend money on things they don't need like the trend of selling kids adult skin care.

Best-Camera8521 , Ivan Samkov/pexels Report

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#11

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Sequels, prequels, reboots, reimaginings etc.  Just stop. .

Substantial_Fun_2732 , Andrea Piacquadio/pexels Report

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ADJ
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wouldn't mind remakes, if they just try to remake bad movies, instead of great movies.

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#12

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Those damn Stanley cups. I got my wife one when they first became popular and our generic ones keep ice FAR longer.

RagingOtter28 , stanley_cups_world/instagram Report

#13

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Twilight book series. Had to tell so many people who tried to get me into those, just because it’s on the bestseller’s list doesn’t mean it’s good.

DantesInfernalracket , amazon Report

#14

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Beats headphones. Supreme clothing. Both marketing machines. Subpar products.

praefectus_praetorio , Titanas/flickr Report

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James016
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Beats are very expensive for what they are. I prefer my £30 Sony headphones.

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#15

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Drinking bottled water. For most of us, tap water is fine but we often opt to pay for water in plastic bottles instead. So many plastic bottles.

GoodGuyGlocker , Maurício Mascaro/pexels Report

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#16

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good An example of a phrase would be fast fashion. It's fashionable and affordable, but often comes with ethical and environmental concerns.

normallyharness933 , Mike Mozart/flickr Report

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Stygtand
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ive had the same 2 pair of jeans for 5-6 years now. My t-shirts and shirts about the same. I dont care about fashion, i just want to be comforteble. The only thing i buy new of fairly often is boxer shorts

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#17

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Never understood Twitter, the threads and replies are odd to follow. It should just uncollapse like Reddit. Never understood why people love it so much.

SQLvultureskattaurus , World's Direction/flickr Report

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Laura Williams
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm old, Twitter is a popularized version of a BBS board. Oh so, is discord . A BBS board let you talk to friends while online and follow everyone's conversations. Just like Twitter and discord.

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#18

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Those Monster energy drinks. So overpriced and taste like pineapple flavoured cough syrup. Absolutely repulsive, I say. The worst thing I've ever bought.

anon , Mike Mozart/flickr Report

#19

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good SMEG. It's a kitchen appliance brand known for their cute mid-century aesthetic that's super overpriced for their functionality and quality. I silently cringe to myself when people bring them up or I see them in the wild. Even the brand name sounds gross. Did nobody ever make the connection to 'smegma' before they decided on a name?

Insufficient-Iron , HS You/flickr Report

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trevor
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you've seen the Red Dwarf series you will discover the word Smeg is a cussing word.

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#20

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Drake. Guy hasn't put out anything worth hearing in years. Why is he one of the most listened to artists?

ninfan200 , Drake Report

#21

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good The Fast and the Furious series. The series had a few great movies early on (1, 5, arguably 3), but has gotten progressively ridiculous since then. But even when it's bad, they got family. 

Creofury , Universal Pictures Report

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Tracy Wallick
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you're watching F&F movies intending to take them seriously, you're doing it wrong. They're not supposed to be super serious, they're supposed to be fun to watch.

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#22

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Prime hydration drinks. It's crazy expensive, yet it's one of the worst electrolyte beverages around because it's low in sodium and high in potassium. It's also very low in sugar, which is NOT what you want when when you're trying to rehydrate quickly.

KentTheDorfDorfman , Harry Cavanagh/flickr Report

#23

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Video games that win awards based on revenue rather than highest consistent peak-player count and highest consistent user reviews.

You know who you are, Todd.

Barnacle_B0b , RDNE Stock project/pexels Report

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Nunya Bizness
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Selling power =/= quality. If it did, then McDonald's has the objectively best burgers on earth.

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#24

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good The fact that many people use credit cards and don't pay their balance in full. It's quite literally the worst way to be 'loaned money' since its often 20%+ interest. Loosing money for no reason.

I say this because there are usually ways to get loans 'when life happens' at much lower rates (maybe about 10% ish).

Yet, many, many people use this.

martinmoneytips , energepic.com/pexels Report

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Stygtand
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Being from denmark. Credit cards and credit scored have always baffled me. Why on earth to you need to “loan” money every time you buy something in order to be able to borrow money for a house/car. We do have credit cards here but no credit scores. And most people, not all, pay in cash or debit card.

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#25

“I Silently Cringe When People Bring Them Up”: 25 Popular Things That People Say Are No Good Baccarat perfume. I cant stand the smell.

Icy-Independence2410 , amazon Report