I HATE this argument and wish people would stop using it so much.
Say I start a pit thread about how much I hate reality television. Inevitably, someone is going to say something like:
“if you don’t like reality televison, don’t watch it.”
“Nobody’s holding a gun to your head and making you watch reality television.”
First off, I think it’s offensive because it implies I’m so stupid that I hadn’t even considered the possibility that I don’t have to watch it. As if I’m sitting around watching something I hate by choice because I thought I absolutely had tofor some reason.
Besides, it’s a completely fucking irrelevant thing to say. Maybe my boyfriend is obsessed with it and thus I am exposed to it that way, or my favorite bar has wall to wall TVs that display only reality television. I could leave my boyfriend and never go to that bar again, so that yes, I wouldn’t have to be exposed to it anymore. Despite this, I chose not to do so, because I think leaving my boyfriend over it is unreasonable, and I happen to love every single other thing about that bar. And you know why? None of thatt fucking matters. It doesn’t matter if there’s always something I can do so that I don’t have to watch it, and it doesn’t matter if I choose to put up with it anyway. Hell, it doesn’t even matter if I know I don’t have to watch it and choose to sit around and watch it all day anyway because I’m a masochist or something. Why? Because none of it changes the fact that I fucking hate reality television. Which is, you know, my whole point in the first place.
It’s also a stupid thing to say because, for all you know (assuming I didn’t state otherwise), I DON’T watch it at all, but am pissed because I still have to hear people talk about it constantly. For all you know, I don’t watch it AND haven’t been exposed to any idea remotely related to reality television in over 5 years, but the idea of it just popped into my head for some reason and I decided to post about it. Same thing applies as above: still hate it, and hating it is still my point.
In summary: don’t use this argument. It’s insulting. It’s irrelevant. And, no matter what the situation is, I have a right to express my fucking opinion about the subject regardless.
Clear?
While we’re at it, other things I’d like to see disappear from this board forever:
Having to add a million and a half stupid qualifications to everything said. If you don’t go out of your way to completely clarify every single thought or opinion you have on everything even remotely relately to the topic, chances are, you’re going to piss someone off or offend someone or get argued with about some stupid thing they assumed simply because you didn’t explicity contradict that particular thing. Stop doing this. Unless I outright say I think a certain thing is wrong, or don’t like a particular thing, or that nobody should particpate it particular activity, you are to automatically assume absolutely nothing about my thoughts on it.
Similarly, people who need to point out every possible stupid exception to a point, and every ridiculous bizarro situation where something might apply in a different way. Especially if you do it to prove that because something may possibly be wrong in one obscure case, it’s wrong in all of them.
Example? I feel like if I don’t come out and say something like, “I know people will sometimes specifically complain about having to do something they clearly don’t, and recognize that this argument is acceptable in such a case,” some smartass might point out/make up such an example and argue with me about it. This is stupid and annoying.
There. Now that I feel I’ve wasted enough of my life on something sufficiently pointless, I’m going to post this.
