The Year Everyone Wanted to Kill Justin Bieber

2011 was peak Bieber backlash—the point where the internet had collectively decided that this specific teenage boy from Ontario represented something that needed to be destroyed. "Bieber Slayer" merch existed, was for sale, was being worn unironically. The hatred was outsized and weirdly personal for something aimed at a kid who’d done nothing more threatening than sell a lot of records and have good hair. The shirts said more about the people wearing them than about him. They still do.