Why do so many people like this movie?

Rating: 1/10 (10 November 2019)

I had this movie recommended to me strongly as an instant classic, one of the best movies ever made. Not only was this movie not great, it wasn't even good. It was pretentious and heavy-handed, with a nonsensical story line trying so hard to mass itself off as gritty and profound. The swelling, dramatic orchestral music is horribly overused, along with such other tired cinematic cliches as unnecessary slow-motion to show the audience that they are seeing a pivotal moment, and black-and-white as a pseudo-artistic sign that we are seeing a flashback. The whole thing has a very cheesy after school special-type feel.
The dialog is awful, both in its writing and delivery. Every line is spoken in anger, and nearly every line by the main characters contains the f-word, which is spoken louder and slower than every other word for emphasis, so you know these are angry, mean people talking. The dialog is unrealistic and forced, and watching it leaves you feeling like it was written by Kevin Smith, trying to write a Very Special Episode.
The frame story is completely irrelevant and serves only to give the movie a title. The principal tells Edward Furlong's character that he will now be taking a special course called American History X, in order to learn the folly of liking Mein Kampf. Instead of seeing the progression of the character over weeks as he learns difficult, complex lessons about life and love versus hate, Furlong is told to write a paper about his brother (Norton), who is about to be released from prison after serving a long, three-year sentence for triple homicide(?). Over the course of the night, Norton tells everyone that he doesn't want to be a Neo Nazi anymore. Furlong doesn't take his seriously, and goes to a Neo Nazi party that evening instead of (but also apparently in addition to) writing the paper. Norton later tells Furlong that the Nazis were mean to him in prison, so Furlong changes everything about his outlook overnight and writes a paper expressing that. Then he gets killed by some angry black guys in the bathroom before turning in his paper, because that's apparently a fine substitute for an actual ending to the story.
I mean, it's a little more complex than that, but not much. It's not any less dumb than that, though.
If you like dramatic music, people being pointlessly angry, characters who are either completely one-dimensional or incredibly inconsistent, melodramatic music, people yelling "No!" in slow motion, black-and-white as an "artistic" choice, and being beaten over the head by an unbelievably obvious moral with very little human relatability, this movie is for you.