Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race

Greg Heffley is a spiteful sociopathic little shit who keeps a constantly updated autistic ranking of the popularity of every kid in his grade and will do anything to increase his perceived rank. He constantly belittles and abuses his only friend Rowley, seeing him as beneath himself, going as far as intentionally putting him in a dangerous situation for his own amusement which ultimately results in a broken arm, and then proceeds to not give an ounce of true sympathy, even growing to feel spiteful towards Rowley when his broken arm garners him attention. He bases all his interactions on how they will ultimately impact his perceived social status. Greg maintains this shit attitiude for the entire story, his forgettable redemption coming only at the very final pages.

Any adult can see Greg Heffley is clearly the moral antagonist of the entire story, but his character is presented to the reader in a way which is very personal and makes him feel extremely relatable. You are literally reading his diary. Many children formed a para-social relationship with the character of Greg Heffley at incredibly young ages, often before the age of 10. For many children, this may be the first lengthy, plot-driven book that they ever read. They may begin seeing Greg in themselves, ultimately behaving like Greg Heffley, becoming Greg Heffley. These children go on to high school where they become subjected to Holden Caulfield, whom they will inevitably feel a connection to. They will delude themselves into believing that they are somehow better than all of their peers. They will follow the path that comes as a result of holding these self-important beliefs which, if not averted, will always inevitably result in destruction. Of course, spiteful anti-social people have always existed, and would have continued to spawn even had Jeff Kinney never wrote his books. Despite that, I believe that the creation of these books played no small hand in the intensification of the incel epidemic in America.