Look, I agree that it's wrong to be the stereotype of a Karen, and it's wrong to be rude, entitled, or to bully servers or make any customer service rep feel bad for doing their jobs. But I also feel that, ever since the rise of "Karen" becoming a derogatory term and viral videos became a thing, the pendulum has swung too much in the other direction. It now feels like no one is ever willing to accept any criticism.

Sometimes, a server does need to be told "You weren't paying attention" or "You can do a little better." And while we criticize customers for being rude, no one ever acknowledges servers are sometimes rude as well.

I recently saw a TikTok video mocking a supposed Karen where the server is just literally not taking her order (maybe he had a valid reason for this, but based on what I saw, it looked like he just didn't feel like dealing with a customer). They had a dialog exchange in that video that summed up how I feel perfectly:

Server: "You're being entitled."

Supposed Karen: "This isn't being entitled. This is being a customer."

Again, I understand no one likes dealing with customers who have an attitude, but at the end of the day, customers are choosing to be customers at a restaurant or business for a reason and expecting some level of salesmanship is just the bare minimum.

My ex-girlfriend actually got annoyed with me when she found out I use Yelp and leave reviews. I pointed out that I write positive reviews in addition to negative ones and that Yelp is a useful tool, but she was just annoyed with the concept of Yelp altogether.

TLDR: While being a cruel or unnceccesarily rude person is wrong, sometimes people need to hear fair criticism.