A little love and a lotta hate.

Today I'd like to address a more serious, more meaningful topic than I did yesterday, when I discussed dingbats running around accusing people of racism. I don't have time for that silliness on a Monday morning. No, today I wish to address those things on which there is no middle ground; things that generate devotion in a few while sparking hatred and disgust in the rest. 

What inspired this topic was this:

I accidentally brought home a bag of hazelnut coffee from the store, a bag someone had left on the shelf with normal human coffee. I didn't realize it until much later when I saw it in the cabinet at home. Then it went straight off to the local food pantry before it could cause any harm. 

I dislike hazelnut coffee more than any other flavored coffee. My wife does even more so, for reasons I discussed the last time I addressed the hazelnut menace almost four years ago. I actually like hazelnuts, but that overwhelming odor mixed with coffee is just no good. I think many people feel the same way. In fact, it's one of those things that a small group loves beyond measure while the rest abhor with a hatred that makes Emperor Palpatine look like St. Francis. 

What else fits this profile? How about anchovies? Fans of anchovy pizza are few but strong in their desires, which is why anchovy pizza can still be found. The Anti-Chovy party is just as strongly opposed. My wife has a friend in the former camp who can't get her preferred pie because the rest of the family is in the latter camp and won't stand for it. Just the odor ruins the meal, like the guy who nukes fish in the lunchroom microwave. Maybe that's just an American reaction, though; people in Italy seem to enjoy their anchovies. I wonder -- do other regional foods like surströmming, haggis, and lutefisk enjoy wide popularity in their native countries, or are they also mostly shunned as they are here?

Veganism as a class should fit into this, although there is a buffer group of vegetarians. Are the vegetarians further divided between those who think vegans are cool because they're hard-core and those who think vegans are jerks who act all superior because they snub ice cream? Since there is an in-between question, we'll have to say that while some vegan foods do fit into this little-love/lotta-hate divide, veganism itself doesn't.

So what does? Well, it's not just ingestibles that cause this strong divide. Many niche interests do. Without going into miscellaneous fetishes, I think we can list these:

Opera

Bridge (contract or auction)

Wicca

Insects

Swedish cinema

Fly-tying

Most of these are harmless pursuits, but all of them leave me cold. I'd rather spend a night in solitary confinement than have to deal with any of them for an evening. But I don't condemn anyone for liking them -- no, not even the Swedish cinephiles.

What do you think? Do you know of anything that a few people adore that all others despise?