Anything popular must suck

Common theory among the people who believe that Capitalism urges you to define yourself through your purchases. The theory goes that if anything is being enjoyed by the masses, it must suck horribly, solely based on the fact that it is popular.

Closely related to such theories as 'Anything American must suck', 'Anything Japanese must rock', and 'My nonconformity is better than your nonconformity'.

Thought by many extremist non-comformists who are only "non-comformists" because anti-conformity is popular in their middle school or high school.

Some people asserted their individuality, perhaps did some things that weren't quite normal, and everyone else who wanted attention started doing the same thing.

Seeing how they are doing the right thing for the wrong reason, they don't know how to discern popular things which suck from those which don't.

Some popular things are popular because they don't suck!

Not every popular thing is popular just because some exec at MTV or Mattel wanted to make some money by starting a fad.

The moral: ignore popularity when judging things. Neither like nor dislike solely based on popularity.

Especially applicable to movies. Many people assume that popular movies cannot be good, because somehow they have been cheapened by all the constraints of Hollywood production. In their minds, only the small/independent films can have content that is of value.

I've reconciled this notion with the theory that popular movies can 'summon' already existing content. For example, American Beauty was based around rolling with the punches and not getting so worked up over everything. That's a philosophy that has always existed, the movie just brought attention to it. Just because American Beauty won the Oscar doesn't make a loose life style any less valid.