this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Witches VS Patriarchy
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A conversation and challenging someone are two different things. They didn't open up a conversation, they challenged the person with the T-shirts interest. They deserve to be challenged back, especially in a way that calls attention to the fact that they are abbrasive, intolerable, or worse.
My opening question is always: "Have you listened to that album?" You can take that as a challenge, or as an opening to a conversation. I suppose the tone used while asking is the most factor. I always ask it in a friendly manner.
Have you listened to yourself speak? The time, effort, and cost of listening to an album are nowhere near the time, effort, and cost of choosing and purchasing a shirt. Unless the album came out 3 days ago and isn't easily available online yet that question sounds ... unpleasant.
Every college student I've ever known has a Spotify account, and the classic rock albums that are usually on T-shirts are easily available on Spotify.
What? You wear shirt with stuff on it that you don't want to talk about? That's weird
A "no, I just like the art" is a valid response. But fighting strawman that probably are very rare irl and being mean to people who just want to talk isn't
Some people just don't want to have a stranger come up and initiate a conversation with them out of the blue, even if it might be about a shared interest