[Stream] What Even Are Haters??

The stream continued after that, and I finished answering most of the submissions that had come in through Bubble.

To put it simply, most of them were about 『Verchera Merisis herself』 or 『her streaming policy』, but there were also a fair number of posts from haters, and because the questions were being selected automatically, those kinds of comments occasionally came up too… Not that they hurt me or anything. It was just annoying having to pick another one.

There also seemed to be quite a few obvious haters in the comments, so while talking, I occasionally tossed them into the block list, reported the especially bad ones, and otherwise kept calmly working my way through everything.

There was also a setting that only allowed channel subscribers to comment, so maybe I could switch to that eventually.

“—Well then, I suppose it is about time to wrap things up.”

“Hmm, I saw a comment telling me not to ignore them, but I fail to understand why I should respond to pointless provocation… As I said from the very beginning, I believe only those who wish to watch need do so. If someone goes out of their way to complain every single time, could it be that they actually like me but act as though they hate me? Is that what you call a tsundere? A real-life tsundere is simply an exhausting person, you know?”

I felt like tsundere originally meant something like, 『Someone who acts all lovey-dovey toward one particular person while being cold toward everyone else』, but nowadays it referred more to 『Someone who starts out cold but gradually softens once they open up』, didn’t it?

The former was one thing, but I really thought the latter kind of tsundere only worked in fiction.

If you thought about it normally, the “tsun” part was just someone being rude, and choosing to stick around until that rude person eventually became affectionate seemed like the unusual choice.

Most people would distance themselves from a rude person before thinking, “This person is actually nice deep down.”

“No, I have absolutely no intention of mocking them. I simply find it baffling. A human life is short, you know? What does one gain by spending time on something one dislikes? If there is something I dislike, I do not watch it or spend time on it either. Likewise, I have no intention of wasting time on people I do not care about. Therefore, I simply do not engage with them. Is that not perfectly logical?”

This wasn’t even a case of trading insults; I genuinely couldn’t understand it.

For example, if this were public broadcasting where people were forced to choose from a limited number of available programs, then yes, I could understand the need for some consideration.

But this was the internet, where viewers were always free to choose what they watched.

And I wasn’t a Vtuber belonging to an agency, so it wasn’t as though my statements could cause trouble for other talents or for some larger group, nor did I have to be considerate toward viewers who flowed in from other members of the same agency.

In the end, I was the one personally providing the content.

So all I could think was, if you don’t want to watch, then don’t.

“Hmm. A question has occurred to me, so perhaps we should examine this more deeply. Our topic shall be: why do haters repeatedly involve themselves with people they dislike, and what are their intentions and objectives?”

“Jealousy? I do not believe there is anything about me worth envying… More importantly, what would one gain by envying a complete stranger?”

“Hmm. Belittling another as wrong in order to justify oneself, you say. But to whom does one then proclaim this newfound righteousness? Such tactics are common enough in political struggles, but if there is not even anyone whose acknowledgment would bring you some benefit, then is it not meaningless?”

For example, if this were a political struggle and people around you had to decide which side to support, then each side would have its own claims, and they might try to discredit the opposing side’s arguments.

Picking apart someone’s statements or verbally attacking them in order to win an argument could happen too.

But there wasn’t any objective like that here, right?

The other party wasn’t even appearing on the public stage in the first place, so our positions and circumstances were completely different, and more importantly, the haters and I weren’t competing over anything.

They weren’t even standing on the same stage, and as long as they could say whatever they wanted and then run away, they were hardly in a position where we could meaningfully contend as equals. More importantly, I had no obligation to accept their criticism in the first place.

…The more I thought about it, the less I understood what their goal was.

“I stream and speak according to my own values. Therefore, if someone dislikes that, they need only refrain from watching. I have said as much from the very beginning, have I not?”

“No, I am not blaming them. I simply wonder why they do such things in the first place. Their motive escapes me. I cannot unravel the logic. Even beasts bark for the respectable purpose of intimidation; they do not bark or bite without a reason. And so I am genuinely curious as to what purpose or motivation would lead an intelligent human being to complain at another person.”

Even beasts driven primarily by instinct had meaning behind their actions.

If humans possessed intelligence, then it stood to reason that there should always be some reason and intention behind their actions and words.

I found it hard to imagine humans doing something with absolutely no reason or intention at all.

There had to be some purpose behind it, I thought as I said that, but for some reason the comment section was getting strangely excited.

“Self-satisfaction, hmm. I truly do not understand. Belittling someone else does not increase one’s own value, nor does the status or greatness of the person doing the belittling change. So what exactly is being satisfied?”

Rejecting other people for the sake of self-satisfaction, huh.

Hmm. I really couldn’t understand that.

Most of the comments seemed to agree that it was self-satisfaction too.

If people were saying hurtful things and complaining about others just to satisfy themselves, then wasn’t that basically no different from those bizarre people you sometimes saw in videos who suddenly picked fights with complete strangers on trains for no reason?

…Wait, there were really that many people like that?

And everyone simply ignored them, like putting a lid over something foul, saying, “They’re just weirdos doing it for self-satisfaction, so it’s better not to engage.”

Meanwhile, the person being ignored got to keep saying whatever they wanted and hurting other people, and everyone simply tolerated it.

I couldn’t understand it.

What an incredible era.

Has this world become more demonic than the Demon Realm itself?

“Hmm. Judging from the comments, there do not seem to be many explanations beyond self-satisfaction… So from an outsider’s perspective, it truly is that meaningless an activity, then. I had thought perhaps there was some purpose I simply did not know about, but apparently not. How boring.”

I hadn’t started this discussion because I wanted to crush anyone or complain about them; I simply wanted to know what their objective was and what they intended to accomplish.

And yet the stream ended without me ever figuring it out.

Why this somehow resulted in people saying things like, 『Her Majesty shredded the hearts of the anti crowd into pieces』, was something I genuinely couldn’t understand myself.

Still, it did seem as though the number of anti-style submissions sent through Bubble and Monology had strangely decreased afterward.

As a bonus, Yuzu-neesan had been in an unusually good mood, praised me with a “Well said,” and even brought me a slightly expensive cake as a gift.

Yay.