THINGS I CANT ENJOY IN THE BUS

The one bad thing about living in a society is that people will assume things about you just by seeing you. And sometimes these assumptions will be negative, earning you either disapproval in the form of dirty looks and people cringing at you, or unwanted approval by freaks who think you are one of them.

And the worst part about this is that media is full of questionable elements that will lead to bad assumptions about you by onlookers even if the media itself is actually perfectly innocent, especially if they're unfamiliar with said media. Sometimes it's due to certain undesirable groups ruining the public perception of a piece of entertainment, - such as how everything German was ruined by the Nazis, or how My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was ruined by Bronies and children - while other times the piece itself is just weird as shit and you like it as a guilty pleasure.

THINGS I CANT LISTEN TO IN THE BUS

My favourite band. At some point, some dumb mfs who can't read German nor be bothered to paste the lyrics on Google Translate made listening to Rammstein their thing, and now nobody can listen to it without being assumed to be some brand of neo-nazi. The association is so strong even I am guilty of wondering about the racial opinions of strangers on the street because they were wearing a Rammstein shirt or blasting Engel in their car. I thus have to keep my love for men (who make somewhat intimidating-sounding music in German) far deep in the closet, ashamed of an identity I never chose that is unfairly shunned by wider society. Rammstein fans truly are the most oppressed minority.

Rock 'n' Roll [REDACTED] by Patti Smith: Self-explanatory.

Anime OPs/EDs/any Japanese music in general: Look, I wouldn't be ashamed of liking anime if the fanbase didn't intertwine so much with Libertarians. I don't mind being considered cringe, but I draw the line at being lumped together with people who masturbate to 7000 year old dragons who look like kindergartners. I swear I don't even know what the age of consent is in my own country!

Italian partisan song Bella Ciao: I DONT LIKE MONEY HEIST IM JUST LEFT WING

Breaking the Law by Judas Priest: I can't just confess I download music from random blogs like that.

Anything by Nirvana. You never know when someone will ambush you to quiz you on your Nirvana knowledge.

Buddy Holly by Weezer. Can't allow people to think I'm a Weezer fan. I swear I only like that one song.

California Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedys, self-explanatory.

The VDV song. Why does it have to be so good?

THINGS I CANT WATCH IN THE BUS

YouTube, not for the videos themselves, but for those fucking half naked anime girl ads I keep getting. I cannot for the life of me comprehend why I get those ads. I use incognito mode for my dirty business.

THINGS I CANT PLAY IN THE BUS

Wolfenstein 3D. Dear people looking at me play Wolfenstein: I am not the Nazis, I am the guy killing the Nazis, it's not my fault that the map designers put Hitler portraits everywhere D:

Moemon, that one Pokemon ROM hack that turns all the 'mons into cosplaying girls. I don't think I should play it at all in fact. What are the ethics of catching wild girls in cosplay to then force to fight other cosplayers?

THINGS I CANT READ IN THE BUS

Discord because I swear someone always posts something weird when I'm in public

Anything about the war in Ukraine. Between the actual Nazis who seem addicted to the camera, the weird dog profile pictures, the deranged takes half of the internet seems to have on the conflict, and Ramzan Kadyrov's mere existence, it's hard to read about this shit without someone catching you reading something like a Z-adjacent take on how, actually, raping Ukrainian children is justified. Even the silly dogs are weird enough to warrant looks.

Literally anything about World War II: Self-explanatory.

Twitter. Everyone there is weird. You can just go in to read news and accidentally click on the most racist thing you'll see in at least a month, disturbing memes, Ben Garrison cartoons, or someone's nudes.

Reddit. I'll admit this is my fault for subbing to r/medicalgore.

This website. What does the court of public transport opinion think about poorly designed websites full of assets ripped from Doom? I don't know, but for the sake of my temporary reputation in the minds of strangers in a bus that will forget about me throughout the course of the day, I'm better off not testing it. The passengers may forget, but the cringe will exist forever in that corner of my brain that only activates whenever I can't sleep.