It really grinds my gears how negative people in the WxTwitter community are towards people with any sort of artistic passion. The gatekeeping mentality is just obnoxious and impacts a lot of young enthusiasts. It impacted me as a youngster getting interested in the field.

Calling other people’s enjoyment your “pet peeve” is only gatekeeping disguised as a hot take. Imagine being a young enthusiast and seeing a professional just dump all over something you’re excited about? Can we not be more encouraging?

I’ll even take this to defending Inga. Her photography is not my taste. However, clearly she is passionate about her art and she loves it. It also clearly resonates with other people, or she wouldn’t have any reach. The constant dumping on her by everyone is just as bad.

In HS it was “storm chasing is too easy because of smartphones. There’s no skill. This new generation of people is awful.”

In undergrad it was “good luck getting a job, too many majors”
Cannot tell you how many times my enthusiasm has been deflated by jaded people like you.

This community does nothing b spew toxicity, participate in gatekeeping, and take every chance they can to squash the passion and enthusiasm of the folks coming in to replenish the ranks. If I hear “don’t take other opinions too seriously” one more time I’ll snap. People listen.

Moral of the story: if your “pet peeve” is someone artistic enjoyment, and the fact that it’s accessible to the masses is the peeve, you might wanna do some internal searching