I shouldn't shine my negativity onto the internet - baby Jesus knows there's enough out there already - but there are a couple of things that irritate me to no end that I have to get off my chest:
I HATE when someone expresses their opinion and then ends with "Period." or "End of story." No, that is NOT the end of the story because your opinion is not the only one that matters! Really, it's just so arrogant. I love reading the gossip on Gawker but the supercilious commenters on that site are always doing that. Drives me crazy. Who do you think you are?
The other thing that drives me crazy is when someone says, "You can't understand/comment on __________ if you haven't experienced it yourself." Now, I see how sometimes this could be appropriate. I do. But I hate when it is used as a blanket dismissal of one's opinions. To be honest, this comes from my regularly being dismissed by friends/family for having the audacity to comment on children. Children, children's behavior, anything having to do with kids. According to some of my friends I am not allowed to have any opinions on any children or on any parents in the world because I have not given birth. Well, you know what? I don't live in a cave. I know children, I know parents, and I am allowed to have opinions on them. It's not like I'm sitting around passing judgment all the time, either, but it is so rude to tell me that I am not allowed to talk about it. I haven't ever... let's see... I haven't ever been the victim of a terrorist attack. Can I have an opinion on terrorism? No? I haven't ever suffered child abuse, or rape, or run a marathon. But I guess I am not allowed to think about those things or express any sort of opinion on them, because I haven't actually experienced them.
I guess I'm feeling like I'm being dismissed lately. But you can't shut me down, annoying Gawker commenters and my friends! So there. Period. The end.
October 08, 2010
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1 comment:
I'll send Alice and Jane out for a visit to give you parenting street cred. In MY opinion, you are definitely entitled to have an opinion on children, parenting, etc, I too lived through many years where my opinions were dismissed with a 'just wait until you have kids of your own'.
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