The “Don’t Like, Don’t Watch” Argument and its Flaws

“Don’t like, don’t watch/read” is an argument that is used often when people can’t agree on something. It’s used sometimes to tell someone to stop complaining about things they don’t like. Because why are you putting so much effort into talking about something you hate? Here I will discuss some uses of said phrase and whether or not it is valid.

This is a possible situation that might be able to use “don’t like, don’t watch” in a good way. Let’s say two friends watch a movie together one night. One person loves it and knows there’s a consistent quality to the film. The other watches half an hour and disagrees with everything. (In this situation, there is no wrong person. Opinions can’t all be the same, so if this happens to you, calm your little fanboy/girl heart.) But if the one who loves the movie said to their friend “If you don’t like it so far, you don’t have to watch the rest” it makes enough sense. Nothing is forcing them to watch this movie he hates.

Judging by their friend’s reaction to everything so far, they can guess that since the whole movie has basically the same tone, message, themes, etc. their friend won’t enjoy the rest. And yes, the reply I wrote in the paragraph above is a nicer and more detailed version of DL,DW, but that’s the point. If DL,DW was actually “don’t like, don’t watch the rest“, in situations like these, it could be valid. Emphasis on could. This could be wrong.

Let’s use DL,DW (the rest) in another scenario. Someone saw the Adventure Time pilot when it aired and he is not a fan. If someone were to use DL,DWTR in this case, would it make sense? No. Because how is he suppose to know the rest of Adventure Time will be the same quality as the pilot? How is Sam suppose to judge the entire show by only watching one episode he didn’t like? I mean, he could, but that would be an unfair judgment. (Side note: It totally is because Adventure Time becomes more awesome later on, but that’s my opinion…)

Sometimes it sounds like users of DL,DW are saying either “unwatch the thing you dislike” or “I don’t like your opinion, so stop voicing it.” I’m not saying the first one is true in any situation, that’s just how it reads sometimes to me. And the latter is most likely the way it is used most of the time. They just don’t explicitly say all that.

DL,DW can be used as a conversation stopper. It can be used when a debate has gotten to the point where Person A disagrees with Person B and they can’t find anything in common. Person A just says “DL,DW” because Person A doesn’t appreciate Person B’s thoughts on the subject and wishes to end the discussion. It also probably won’t work because people don’t like to be shut up and they’re not gonna stop just because you typed a few words.

And another thing!
How am I suppose to know I don’t like something before I even read or watch it?

Let’s say there was a fan fiction written about a homosexual relationship (Let’s say a Johnlock fanfic…just off the top of my head ’cause I’m currently obsessed with that show!) that had “don’t like, don’t read” in its description. Now, in other situations, this argument wouldn’t make sense. How am I suppose to know if I enjoy your story or not from the two sentences you gave me that describe the plot?

But when I see “don’t like, don’t read” in this kind of scenario, I understand what it means. It’s basically a shorter way of saying “If you’re a bigot, don’t read this story to just write hate comments about the main couple and not address my writing skills or anything that actually deserves critique.” And that’s too lengthy, so using “don’t like, don’t read” gives out that message a lot quicker.

 

Some of my main points are:

This argument is a form of censorship, and censorship is a whole ‘nother discussion, so I won’t go into detail here.

Don’t complain about something just for the sake of complaining about it. Do it because you actually care about the improvement of the thing you don’t like, or the improvement of anything related to it.

“If you don’t like it, then stop” should be used sometimes. But then you get replies like “Don’t tell me what to do!” so I dunno what to say…

Usually, people who say DL,DW are the ones voicing their popular opinions and they don’t want any negativity given to the thing they’re a fan of. But this is not always the case.

Everything can get better over time. It’s not an overnight change. And sometimes change may never happen. You never know what the future of something is for sure. The only thing you can do is give it a chance. But if it comes to the point where you have decided to drop a show or a book, that is entirely up to you. And if you want to continue watching or reading something you don’t like, that is also your choice but I hope you have good reasons.

If someone uses DL,DW too much, they may resort to just accepting problems in media without addressing them. When this happens, the people who consume media and are DL,DW users will not be as helpful. Without some constructive criticism, all of those things you used to complain about will have a hard time improving.

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(On a related note, there are times when valid points are being made by an audience and the creators/writers/whoever is in charge just does not listen. They’re stuck in their ways and that sucks.)

Now, in circumstances that take place in chat rooms and the like, I don’t think this phrase should be used at all. If anything, it should be replaced with “I don’t like that you feel this way, but I respect your opinion. I hope we can agree to disagree.” But the world will never become so polite.

This post was inspired by PIEGUYRULZ’s video on this very subject, and I recommend you check out his video and his YouTube channel. He makes a lot of good stuff.

What do you guys think? Leave your comments below and feel free to talk to me on social media.