#i just scrolled through and blocked a handful of fucksticks

[invinciblerodent]

i had to step away from this entire goddamn website for a few days (it's not a good sign when you open an app and immediately feel the dread creeping up the back of your neck)(and it's not even my banking app, badum-tssh), but i just remembered that this is my private/public diary, and I can say whatever the hell I want, even if it means descending into beaver-madness. so.

this is not personal to OP or a commentary meant for them (which is why I'm not commenting on their post or going to them directly), it's not even about this game in particular, this is more just the clearest recent example I have of this wide, general (I might even get naughty with it and say global) phenomenon that I keep seeing, and it was the proverbial straw that broke my back.

Notice that in this poll, OP elected to pose a question as a closed, binary choice, yes or no... except the "yes" (and only the "yes") gets a qualifier tacked on top of it, as if to add a little asterisk, a footnote, a little "terms and conditions apply" acknowledgement.

And it's making me break out in fucking hives.

I'm beyond certain that I've said this phrase before to cushion an opinion (though in the past few months I have been purposefully trying to weed it out of my vocabulary), but I feel like I'm beginning to actually develop some sort of an allergic reaction to it.

These "even if I may have some criticisms/problems/gripes/complaints/etc." type filler-phrases, I hear them every single day, and I swear, nine times out of every ten, they mean nothing.

It's nothing. It doesn't move any conversation forward. It doesn't inspire a discussion, or add an avenue for engagement. Those who say it don't even tend to bother, more often than not at any point whatsoever, to say what those criticisms are. This phrase, it means about the same as saying that something is "problematic" without elaboration- a phrase so broad as to be rendered void of meaning.

What it does however do, is that it attempts to atone in advance for the speaker's ~mortal sin~ of admitting a positive opinion of something imperfect- which is all things in the world ever created.

All art has its flaws. One can have issues/complaints/problems with all art. That's like half the fucking point of it.

This empty slogan of a phrase, it's no more than a disclaimer- a complete nothingburger of a statement that might as well just be warm air escaping your head.

It's a yes or no question.

My answer is yes.

I want to be able to say yes.

Not only because I feel no shame over enjoyment and see no reason to qualify my words, or feel like I need to indirectly ask for permission to have a positive thought, but also because the thoughts I have about any of the art that I engage with, I express without also feeling a need to temper them by reaffirming the subject's natural imperfection.

I don't want to insist every time I open my mouth that, make no mistake, I do have some nonspecific negative thoughts and issues and nitpicks, I just won't say them and let them be judged based on their own merits (because god forbid I do, people might find them baseless or wanting!), but I still need you to know that I have them, because that's the best sign of intelligence, right??? Complaining about things???? Is that it??????

There is a lot more to go into when talking about this tendency for cynicism and this faux-intellectualism that's actually masking almost an anti-intellectualist sentiment, and I could go on for hours and hours. But at the end, my point will always come down to this: when we analyze art, we don't need to begin by apologizing in the same breath.

When I talk about my "criticisms/problems/gripes/complaints", I try to do so clearly and honestly, with concrete thoughts that I believe to be rooted in the source material rather than conjecture (hence why I insist on supporting my points with quotes from the source), and I do not feel shame or guilt for it. And I sincerely believe that if this was what we all did, even this fandom could be the powerful and inspiring place to be people love to say it is, instead of this feedback loop of hatred that hunts motivation for sport.

Yes. My answer is yes, and it comes with a period at the end.

Anything else I deem worthy of being said is also deserving of its own breath.

One of these days, the beaver dam of my self-control is going to break, and I won't be able to pull myself back at the last moment from going on a rant about why I fucking loathe the phrase "I have my issues, but", and I can only hope that it'll be in a controlled environment (an original post) and not some hapless someone's reblogs.

Like at some point it's that, or viciously tearing into packs of frozen fries with my teeth right in the middle of the supermarket freezer aisle. One or the other.