I must be getting soft in my old age because after many years of disdain. I’m losing hate for Nickelback and Guy Fieri. That’s right. I mean I still don’t really care for them that much. But hate them. Meh. More like just don’t care to waste the energy on them. 

For a decade or so, hating NB and GF has become a National Pastime. It’s low hanging fruit and everyone has to hate something. 

I just read an article posted by a friend discussing what it’s like to be a Nickelback fan and there’s a great video of a comedian out there talking asking “What did Guy Fieri ever do?” which basically is a layering of the positive things GF has done with his platform. AKA, bring business and good vibes to most of the things he touches. What an asshole. 

Don’t get me wrong. NB’s music isn’t great, but as a musician, I’d trade my high horse and attitudes for one of their albums success. They have sold like 50 million albums, so as the article pointed out, someone apparently likes them. 

GF has an empire built on leaning towers of nachos, something called donkey sauce and shows on TV that seem to be omnipresent. Oh and he has an an Emmy. Sure, his hairstyle is from 1996, but the 90’s are bound to come full circle and be En Vogue again....what ever happened to En Vogue by the way? 

Do we dislike them because we are all a bunch of bullies and kicking something that’s already down is easy? Or, do we hate them because we hated what we were in the late 90s and early 2000’s and the only way to erase our own bad hair and clothing choices is to bash the last men standing who represent that?  It’s like hating Limp Biskit is too obvious and CREED  quit playing so we just moved on to the next guy in line.  

As I sit here writing this I wonder what Chad Kroger is going to do today. Is he waking up and spending 20 mins writing about a 47 year old guy in Baton Rouge, LA?  Does he ever see the hate and think “This is how, you remind me, of what I really am?”

Today, Guy Fieri may wake up in lovely Sacramento, CA and think. “Which shirt with flames on it will I wear today. I sure am concerned about what Pat Fellows will think about it. He with the speedos and giant Oakley’s.”

Of course the answer is not in a gazillion years to both of those questions. If they are smart, they are happy that they get to be whatever the hell they are and be pretty damn successful at it. 

I’m sitting here and trying to pinpoint my specific dislike and I’m coming up blank. Maybe I’m just soft and old and don’t care anymore. Or maybe I realize the amount of energy it takes to actively engage in arbitrary dislike.

Think about that. You have spent time and energy actively espousing your dislike of someone or something you have never met or know anything about. What if you put that towards being a better person. Tough to imagine,I know, because Photograph still exists and no one knows what the hell that is on Joey’s head. And the fact that you got that last reference means you listen to Nickelback. So there. 

Now who’s the loser?

#hugsandhi5s

PS- I still think Red Hot Chili Peppers are overrated.