>>52357198I don't like talking about Smogon here, but here's my main problem with them:
Whenever I try to talk to any nerds about Pokémon, they're either huge normies, really bad at the game, or Smogon/Showdown die-hards. Basically makes it impossible to talk about the game outside /vp/ without keeping the conversation extremely shallow and therefore a complete waste of my time. They're effectively the only institution that anyone congregates around when it comes to competitive Pokémon, so it's impossible to find any remotely likeminded Pokémon fans outside /vp/.
I'm just sick of their existence like how I'm sick of all the other dominating institutions in modern Western society. Even when I try to escape politics and other bureaucratic bullshit through video games, these toxic assholes already find ways to gain control of my hobbies one way or another.
