Stop letting people enjoy things

Whenever I see Colleen Hoover's body of work on display at my local bookstore, a single shiver goes down my spine. Without fail.

- ANGEL MARTINEZ

The controversial author behind big-time bestseller It Ends With Us (and unsurprisingly, It Starts With Us) is lauded for luring new readers to the written word, in an era when screens take the lion's share of their attention span. The spike in organic sales is impressive; the number of supporters she has on BookTok, even more so. But I never saw this as a win, given her glamorization of domestic abuse.

I've felt the same towards the latest Marvel movies that are milking their audience's nostalgia, and our current batch of local love teams that are so devoid of chemistry. I hate them. Better yet, I want to critique them; throw all caution to the wind and write thousand-word think pieces on each of them.

Unfortunately, I can already predict the hate train that will follow. "Let people enjoy things." "Walang basagan ng trip." "It's not that deep." The sentiment is valid, to a certain extent. Pointless hatred is counterproductive if it becomes our sole personality trait. In worst-case scenarios, this escalates into below-the-belt attacks and straight-up bullying that causes us to clock out of the conversation completely. But when this comment is leveled against constructive criticism - an act that requires care, concern and social consciousness - it's an exercise in laziness.