this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

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If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 44 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (4 children)

It's funny how this post is just a greentext story about a guy trying to talk to a girl in class. But some of the comments are negative or have such divisive vote ratios: assume bad hygiene or "Seems like an appropriate response to a man who takes a womens studies course to try and pick up women"

Am I the only one that's surprised that the comments are so negative? The interaction from the greentext seems like a somewhat "standard" thing to happen in one's life

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 hours ago

It does seem to be a very 21st century thing to treat an unwanted romantic conversational overture as a form of assault.

I suspect it's even more so with terminally online people who are too socially awkward to be able to just brush someone off and move on, without being haunted by it for the next four decades.

I get that sometimes there are men who go too far and make a situation untenable, and absolutely fuck those guys, but overall I think we're going in the wrong direction in society where people just don't talk to each other any more.

as a man who went to university, and had women in my class, never had a negative reaction like that when trying to talk to girls about whatever is relevant.

never tried to pick up girls in class either.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 19 points 12 hours ago (5 children)

assume bad hygiene or “Seems like an appropriate response to a man who takes a womens studies course to try and pick up women”

I gotta say, I never had any of these problems in college. And I won't even pretend I had great hygiene or particularly good social skills. The trick with college is that 19 year old girls also didn't have great hygiene or well-developed social skills. We were all a bunch of clueless, fumbling, young adults trying to figure each other out.

Let's set aside the fact that OP is probably lying. When one guy gets ostracized by an entire classroom of other students, it's safe to assume one of two things:

  • The classroom is full of bigots who hate This One Guy for a very particular cultural reason (maybe you made a mistake going to South Confederacy Technical College as a black guy looking to meet white chicks)

  • The guy is so universally obnoxious that he can't get the time of day from the second biggest loser in the room

Am I the only one that’s surprised that the comments are so negative?

If it was posted on anything but 4chan, maybe. But anyone who knows the reputation of the average 4chan user can come up with a host of reasons why people are avoiding him like the plague.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 2 points 2 hours ago

Honestly, I have seen many classrooms in which no one was talking to anyone. There would be a break in the lecture, and the lecture hall would be absolutely silent for 10-15 minutes until the lecture resumed. Other classes were a bit more chattery, or even way more. As a teacher now, it seems anecdotally that the problem is getting worse, but that’s what every teacher always said (“these younger generations!! Mumble mumble”)

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 11 points 11 hours ago

The trick with college is that 19 year old girls also didn't have great hygiene or well-developed social skills. We were all a bunch of clueless, fumbling, young adults trying to figure each other out.

Brother, ain't this the truth.

I didn't make any friends with my same-age classmates just by casually talking.

Then I went to night classes with full grown adults and i was invited to dinners and birthday parties immediately.

[–] AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The post says that people weren't avoiding him specifically, but no one was talking to one another at all.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

The post implies the 30% of men in the class weren't giving him the time of day, either.

So, maybe it was an entire room full of NPCs. Maybe they were all psychic and he was just the odd guy out. Maybe it's a Greentext and you shouldn't take it at face value. Who can say? But as anecdotes go, the "everyone acted like an emotionally sterile zombie hobbling from class to class in a daze" sounds... out of line with my experience in virtually any social setting. Nevermind one with dozens of teenagers all packed in together.

Like, I've got a few friends who teach high school. And the "I've got these kids who won't stfu during class" stories are a regular part of the "how was your day?" conversation. What magic is happening between Senior HS and Freshman College that turns everyone's most pernicious socializing instincts off in this one guy's classroom?

Now, if I'm someone's parent and I'm talking to my kid after school... and I ask how their day was? Did you make any new friends? What's your homework? Can you name any of your teachers? Do you remember what grade you're in? And they just give me nothing because they're burned out? That's extremely normal.

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 12 hours ago

I agree. If this were a screenshot from pretty much any other app/site that isn't 4chan, the response would be different.

Seriously, if someone were to create an account and tell this exact story on Tumblr or something, and screenshot it here on Lemmy, they'd get completely different responses.

[–] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 2 points 12 hours ago

Thank you for a civil and thoughtful response :)

[–] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world -1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Lemmy is filled with incels who are in denial. It's kind of like how the most rabid homophobes are closted gays.

[–] passwordforgetter@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 hours ago

Whoa there frend-o, that's a yikes from me. I may be a neurodiverse no-pussy guy from Lemmy, but I played Magic The Gathering at the comic con once and while I was explaining the cards to this girl, our hands accidentally touched and she laughed.