u/ElderMillennial1985

This rant has been a long time coming. Let me say this louder for the crybabies of Reddit in the back 🤣🤣 you ain't protected under any law from being recorded in public. NO one needs your permission to record you or take your photo in public. I’m so sick of watching these First Amendment auditors standing on a sidewalk minding their business. Practicing their first amendment right. Then some random ass person walks up and freak the hell out like it’s some cardinal sin or massive invasion of privacy.

Meanwhile, these same people don’t care that the government, the NSA, other agencies, and every major social media platform have already been caught recording them, saving their photos, training AI on their data, tracking them, selling their info to data brokers, and basically building a full profile of their life. But God forbid some random dude with a camera is standing on a public sidewalk or park exercising his First Amendment rights..... That’s when people suddenly find their outrage. That's when people speak out. Don't even get me started on all of the internet devices that we use everyday. That track and monitor are every waking move. A smart TV company which I can't remember the name of was literally caught recording audio of its clients. But nooooo 🙄

You don’t have that same energy for the government or corporations doing far more nefarious shit with your photos, videos and data . You only care when it’s some guy on the sidewalk because it gives you this illusion of entitlement or power, like you have some special right to privacy in a public space. You don’t. Anyone can look you up through public records. Anyone can take down your license plate and figure out who you are most of the time. That’s just sorry. Sorry not sorry. Your information is out there. Go live off the grid if you're that inclined to freak out.

These auditors are out there recording, exercising their rights, and then someone wanders over and starts melting down like a baby about not wanting to be filmed or “put on social media.” And I’m just thinking. You’re already on social media. You’re on Facebook. You’re on Instagram. Your cell phone is tracking you and possibly recording your calls. Your TV is tracking you and also recording your calls and I hate to break it to you, smooth‑brain Redditors, but your IP is tracked, your browsing history is tracked, and even if a site claims they’re not doing it, you have no way to actually know.

So why not direct your outrage at the big bad wolves at the white house, the social media giants, the ad networks, the government agencies, these big electronic conglomerates, instead of some dude with a camera on a sidewalk? When you walk into a store, you're recorded. Sometimes your audio is recorded. Traffic cams record you whenever you walk into work, you are being recorded. Restaurants you are being recorded everywhere you go. Every facet of your life you are being recorded. So.....

If you don’t want to be recorded and you don’t want to end up online, then don’t have a dramatic reaction. Just walk away. You’re not special. You’re not important. This one person isn’t going to do anything nefarious with your photo. Is it obnoxious? Sure. Is it rude? Sometimes. But I’ve never reacted like these people do. The few times I’ve been recorded, I just walked over, said hello, told the guy I know what he’s doing, and acknowledged he has every right to record whatever he wants in public.

Because the truth is simple: none of us myself included have real privacy anymore

I miss physical keyboards on smartphones. I missed the tactile sensation and knowing you're pressing the button you actually meant to press. Not the touch screen sensitivity detecting you touch another button.

I also miss when keyboards had a little mini d-pad. It made it much easier to navigate your text when you were trying to make edits or corrections.

Reddit users are some of the most hateful, close‑minded, predatory people I have ever met in my life. You make one post about PTO three days out of the year without telling your partner and Reddit users will act like you are Jeffrey Dahmer, like you are a murderer, like you are Chris Watts. They will lose their mind as though it is a divorceable offense. Reddit users will stalk your account, stalk your old comments, and try to dig up dirt on you for simply posting in a confession forum.

I had one guy dig up some post I made about some fetish thing that I made up just to build karma points so I could get into a subreddit that I actually wanted to be a part of. This whole community is filled with judgmental, toxic, unreasonable individuals, and to think some of the things I posted in the confession forums and others are reasonable for users to get on there and say I do not know anything about you or who you are, but because you did this one thing your wife and family hate you and they should divorce you and leave you immediately. It is absurd.

The level of comments I would get were just absurd about the most mundane post. I cannot believe it. This place is ridiculous, which is why I just use Reddit to post my most intrusive thoughts. If you actually met me in real life I would give you gas money if you needed it, if you needed a ride home, if you were behind on a bill, but going off the comments I get on Reddit you would think I was the most evil person in the world. And don't get me started on the admins and moderators of subreddits. They gatekeep who can post and say what and when they don't like a user gaining momentum on their subreddit they will literally dig up dirt and repost it in that thread and other threads to silence you. They don't like people who come on there and they want to build up karma so they can actually get into the subreddits where they want to have actual discussions and conversations. They block you from doing it one of those individuals did this to me in the confession subreddit he had over 300,000 karma who sits on Reddit and wastes that much time to dig up old posts from years ago to use to exploit and blacklist you from a subreddit

I use Reddit as a safe space to spew out my most intrusive hateful thoughts. And stories over the year that have bothered the crap out of me. Sometimes I don't give out the exact dates and times because I don't want some of my friends and peers who use Reddit to figure out that it is me because I have told these same stories to them. Everything I posted and have talked about has been true. All the most hateful sexist mean thoughts that come to my mind when people treat me a certain way. I come up here and I post and talk about it. I can come on here. Talk about old stories, things that really bother me and how much I have such a disdain for certain people here unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it feels more personal on Reddit

Tired argument. I get so sick and tired whenever people bring his name up proclaiming him to be the wealthiest person to ever exist.

I think he was the king of a very small tribe that went on a pilgrimage across the desert to Mecca with a small amount of gold.

Then people came up with this exaggerated story that he crippled the economies of Europe because he had so much gold.

It doesn't add up because most of the Mali Empire was underdeveloped. So if he in fact had this wealth beyond belief, why didn't he build roads, aqueducts coliseums and churches??

I do believe he existed and that he did have a large quantity of gold but I get so sick and tired of articles, and videos proclaiming him as the wealthiest human being to ever exist. It's just not true....

Back in the early 2010s I went to a lot of big party cons like DragonCon, MAGFest, Momocon, ACEN, and ColossalCon. At one of them, my girlfriend who is now my wife and I were at a room party and took a goofy photo with a cosplayer who was standing on a chair. It was harmless, just a silly con moment, and I never thought about it again. Great night all around.

Fast forward years later. I randomly ran into the same girl at this nerd bar called Beercade. I recognized her and walk over to said hi and she brushed me off. I figured she thought I was hitting on her, so I mentioned we had met at a con and showed her the photo to jog her memory. Right as I was about to tell her I ended up marrying my girlfriend and how awesome her cosplay was, she flipped.

The second she saw it, she started screaming at me to delete it from my phone and my social media. She yelled things like “Who are you? I don’t know you. Why do you have a picture of me?” and even called me a creep. I tried explaining we had hung out at that room party for hours talking about anime and games, but she acted like I was some random old guy who secretly took her photo.

I tried walking away, but she and her friends followed me around the bar. The picture wasn’t inappropriate at all and my girlfriend is literally in it too, so I had no idea why she was so angry.

I told her no. It was my phone, my photo, and a memory from a con I enjoyed. Since she was being so rude, I doubled down. She got louder, her friends surrounded me, and they all called me weird for having a picture of a “random girl.” She followed me for several minutes yelling at me to delete it.

She even got a bartender involved and accused me of taking photos of her without permission. Eventually she called the cops.

When the officers arrived, I explained everything and showed them the photo. They told her nothing illegal happened. She still demanded I delete it in front of them. I refused. It was a harmless memory, and by then she had embarrassed me in front of the whole bar and even had a bartender trying to grab my phone and demand my passcode.

If she had calmly explained why the photo bothered her, I probably would have deleted it. Instead she treated me like a predator over a normal con photo from years ago.

Honestly, I left feeling like she reacted that way because of how I look, which hurt. I didn’t care though. I kept the photo and made it the background of my lock screen right in front of her just to spite her. I also told her I was never going to delete it and that I was going to make it my profile picture on all my social accounts.

So AITAH for refusing to delete a photo?

Update: I wanted to clarify a comment I made earlier. She wasn’t actually screaming or shouting like I initially implied. She was more assertive and firm about wanting me to delete the photo. She did get up and follow me around the bar to make sure it was removed, but she wasn’t acting out or being rude. She just seemed like someone who was genuinely concerned about a random person having a photo of her. I still think it was a bit excessive to call the cops.

And now that I think about it cuz it's been awhile since this happened, the photo was probably from 2016-2017. I honestly can't remember. At this point I'd have to go dig the photo up.

Since Justin Roiland’s departure from the show, it has been in a tailspin. It’s not funny, it’s not edgy, and the character of Rick has been all but neutered. I’ve seen episodes where Jerry has bested him. That’s not the Rick from seasons 1 through 4. I didn't want to bring this up but the new voice actors are terrible.

For me, and I know this might be unpopular, it’s Pokémon. Not just Pokemon but any game that resembles its mechanically. I don't know how but right after pokémon heart gold I just stopped playing the games all together. I still like the idea pokémon, the characters, the creatures the stories, but I have no desire to play the game. Or any game that resembles it? Am I the only one that feels this way?

Somewhere over the last decade, I’ve slowly morphed into this person who defaults to negativity. Reddit became my dumping ground — the place where I unload every intrusive thought, every knee‑jerk criticism, every “this is dumb and I hate it” reaction. And the wild part is, if you met me in real life, you’d think I’m the nicest guy alive. Polite. Chill. Easygoing. But inside? I’m constantly rolling my eyes at everything.

It’s like I’ve trained my brain to reject joy. Especially when it comes to anything new. new shows, new movies, new trends, new ideas. The second something drops, I’m already labeling it “woke” or “lazy” or “another pointless reboot.” I don’t even give things a chance anymore. I just dismiss them. Automatically. And honestly, it’s exhausting.

I don’t want to be this person who hates everything by default. I don’t want my first reaction to be cynicism. I want to actually enjoy things again.

I want to feel curious instead of irritated. I want to stop assuming the worst about every piece of media that comes out.So I’m throwing myself at the mercy of Reddit: Does anyone have suggestions? Advice? A reality check? Anything that helps break this cycle of constant negativity?

Because I’m ready to change. I just don’t know where to start. All this nihilism is killing me 🙄

Since it’s Reddit and no one will ever find out who I am, back in the day when I went to Columbia University in Chicago, I would sometimes miss my midterm or final because of the excessive amount of drinking and partying I did.

The only way they would let you retake a miss tests was if there was a family emergency like a car accident or a death in the family or some kind of medical situation. So if I missed a final or a midterm, I would go to my professor and tell them I had a family emergency, and usually if I said it was a death in the family, I could get out of it and retake it at a later date.

What I would do was find local funeral homes and see who had died recently, close to that week, and if I could att

end the funeral, I would go to get a pamphlet. Sometimes I would go in and tell the workers at the funeral home that I was a family member who missed the service and ask if they had any extra brochures for me to keep. This usually worked, and I had to do it about three or four times. I never got caught.

This was a great strategy because it would usually give me a couple of extra days to really study 😂

For the past two or three years, I haven’t actually worked a full Saturday even though I’m scheduled for them. I work for a small division of an industrial manufacturing company that creates solenoid valves and fluid pumps. and Saturday shifts are optional. I still go in, clock in, answer a few emails, maybe do 10–30 minutes of real work, then walk across the street to a coffee shop and diner where I spend the rest of the time gaming.

I feel guilty because I tell my wife and teenage kids I’m going into the office, but I’m basically doing nothing. The company is run so poorly that no one notices. HR is two people who don’t really pay attention, and the office is empty on weekends, so there’s no one to verify anything. Like my previous post.

I want to feel bad but I'm getting free money and sometimes if I time it correctly with my workload during the week I get paid overtime a couple of hours for the Saturday. Been milking this system for years but God the fear of getting caught. It's a rush.