Whenever I hear a One Direction fan call another One Direction fan a “carrot” with a negative connotation, I kind of feel bad for them. It reminds me of a John Green quote about the negative connotation with the word, “nerd.”

Because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself, love it… when people call people nerds mostly what they’re saying is “you like stuff” which is just not a good insult at all, like, “you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness.”

In general, ‘too-cool-for-school’ness is kinda like not how I personally want to live my life. But if that’s what you want to do, then go for it! Censor your excitement! Don’t take part in inside jokes that bring a music-loving community together! That’s fine. You do you! I’m fine with that. But don’t bash other fans for being a different kind of fan. Generally speaking, being intentionally mean-spirited toward other people isn’t like… uhh… cool. We all slip up from time to time and do mean stuff, me included - but that doesn’t mean we can’t be nicer next time.

At the end of the day, we all just enjoy quality boy-band music. Why not let that bring us together, not divide us? Okay, cool, yay, now that that’s done, I think it’s time to go back to watching “One Way Or Another.”