I don’t know what I was doing—probably looking at roomporn, or watching GIFs that get better with every loop—but I came across an innocuous statement that revealed why I like reading YouTube comments. Someone posted the following somewhere on Reddit: “I never read YouTube comments to save my sanity.” I thought to myself, that’s precisely why I read them.
In a similar way to my near-obsession with the underbelly of human nature, with disasters and delusion, it’s taught me to be a better human. Sure, I’ve accrued a certain cynicism by reading about Nazis, gulags and evil. But rather that than fooling myself into thinking that us humans are infallible and unerring. And if reading such things puts me in touch with humanity, I’m sure that reading the supposed “cesspool” that is YouTube comments will help me preserve my sanity. Because being consistently exposed to irrational, impulsive, erratic thinking reminds me constantly to not be like that.
Swell & Cut 