# Trivial, yet controversial views (What are yours) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196 "2019-02-25T19:04:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldris_bal_Comar)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/141 "2019-02-28T17:06:58Z")
> [@Haldurson](#): > > There’s no such thing as ‘common sense’. It makes me cringe every time I hear someone ask why people don’t have common sense. My answer is that there is no such thing. What usually gets labeled as common sense is either not common, or sensible, or both. It’s just something that the speaker invoking common sense was too lazy to actually research, and so he invokes common sense and thus YOU need to just accept it as true also… It kind of depends of the context…“common sense” is a poor replacement for research and facts in most debates, but it’s definitely an important skill in daily life. I would call things like navigating an unfamiliar city’s subway, or figuring out how to do minor household/car maintenance, that sort of frequent occurrence that might not be entirely familiar but has plenty of resources available to help you understand it, to be an application of common sense. I guess it would be the idea of being able to look at an unexpected situation and figuring out a productive way to deal with it. A couple weeks ago there was a guy at my work who found that the lock on the door to the locker room wasn’t working and he couldn’t get in. He did not go to the managers office a hundred feet to his right, nor did he go to the security office a hundred feet to his left. He kicked the door down, and was promptly fired. That’s what I would consider a failure of common sense. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/142 "2019-02-28T17:46:57Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > F. Scott Fitzgerald is a bad writer. . . . I thought this was common knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/143 "2019-02-28T18:27:16Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Wile E. Coyote (who spoke, and pursued Bugs Bunny) and the Coyote (mute, and who chased the Road Runner) are not the same character. And there is no “Taz” in the classic Warner Brothers cartoon universe; he is the Tasmanian Devil. The characters are not the same individual, but are played by the same actor. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/144 "2019-02-28T18:59:10Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Blasphemy! Conan O’Brien has been funny for a long, long time. Oh, you poor, deluded soul. You had no other options besides Conan and stayed with him out of loyalty. That’s how he mentally controls his audience. You need realignment counseling. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/145 "2019-02-28T20:03:19Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m neither a dentist nor an immigrant — just as I’m not left-handed, and I’m also not Catholic, and I’m also not a Civil War veteran, and so on for quite a long list of other designations. And my father, as it happens, is also none of those. And his father was also none of those. And _his_ father, likewise. > > Now, my father and my grandfather and so on — they’re all related to someone who was each of those things. But I don’t much care that some of those things sure are different from others; what matters to me, what I want to emphasize, is that I don’t happen to be any of those — just as my father wasn’t, and his father wasn’t, and _his_ father wasn’t; plenty of us in this nation happen not to be any of those (or the child of someone who was, or the grandchild of someone who was). Who says _We’re a nation of immigrants_? It should be: _We are a nation founded by immigrants_ and _We are a nation built by immigrants._ ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/146 "2019-02-28T20:13:32Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Who says _We’re a nation of immigrants_? It should be: _We are a nation founded by immigrants_ and _We are a nation built by immigrants._ And if they do say “Nation of immigrants”, it’s just short hand for those. They’re not saying that everyone is a literal immigrant. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/147 "2019-02-28T20:22:32Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Anyone who sports a tattoo immediately loses points in my overall assessment of them. > mmm My controversial and trivial opinion: I like (most) tattoos on women. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/148 "2019-02-28T20:50:16Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > \*The Last Jedi _is one of the best, if not THE best, Star Wars films. And I’m saying that as a 44-year-old man who sleeps on Star Wars sheets_. Dammit, this was gonna be mine! I’m agreeing with you as a 44-year-old man, but no Star Wars sheets. Okay. If you ever see roadkill that’s really been sitting out in the sun for a few days until it’s partly liquified, and you pour off some of that liquid into a bowl and stir in some rubber cement, and paint that mixture onto some clover, you’ll have a pretty good substitute for arugula. Milk chocolate isn’t as fancy as dark chocolate, but it’s more delicious. Chocolate with sour milk added, such as Hershey’s, is mighty fine eating. White chocolate is just fine for what it is. Adding more hops to your IPA doesn’t require an enormous penis, nor does it prove you have one. It just makes your beer taste extra bitter. Harry Potter isn’t in the top ten best-written children’s fantasy series. It’s a solid B+ of a series, though. Blazing Saddles, like so much of Mel Brooks’s catalog, is mildly amusing at best. Robert Heinlein was a lousy writer. Starship Troopers was vastly improved by being turned into a movie; the book is a long political screed broken up by incoherent action sequences. Scalzi’s books are fun, but if you’ve read that book by him where a plucky underdog triumphs over superior forces through the use of wit, sarcasm, and profanity, you’ve read every single one of his books. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/149 "2019-02-28T21:37:40Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > F. Scott Fitzgerald is a bad writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a great writer - and drunken sot, as many great writers were - of non-entertaining and/or soap opera-like novels filled with uninteresting characters (esp. _The Great Gatsby_), but just because his novels and characters sucked doesn’t mean his prose did; i.e., he was a bad novelist, not a bad writer. Conversely, his comparatively few entertaining works - the short story “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz” and the Pat Hobby stories - do not qualify as “great writing.” Norman Mailer was a terrible writer and drunken sot, as terrible writers often are. _From Beyond_ is a better movie than _Re-Animator_. Director John Ford, _The Searchers_, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart are all way overrated. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/150 "2019-02-28T22:08:18Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Most - like 99 percent - of craft beer is absolute garbage. Craft beers are much likelier to be terrible than common consumer brands. Let’s expand on that sentiment: alcohol of any sort, whether it be fermented from wheat, barley, grapes, apples or anything else, tastes bad. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/151 "2019-02-28T22:16:37Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _From Beyond_ is a better movie than _Re-Animator_. But wasn’t it Re-animator that had that “giving head” visual pun? Hard to beat that. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/152 "2019-03-01T01:21:20Z")
I like ketchup on hot dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/153 "2019-03-01T02:47:58Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > On scones, jam first, cream after. > > In tea, milk after. Always. > > Toilet rolls should be hung so you pull from the front. > > (At least one of those will usually start a stramash over here.) You…you…you _bounder_! I don’t actually have an opinion on scones, or tea; it those seemed so terribly, terribly English controversies, that I couldn’t resist… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/154 "2019-03-01T03:07:47Z")
Star Wars sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/155 "2019-03-01T11:10:46Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Adding more hops to your IPA doesn’t require an enormous penis, nor does it prove you have one. It just makes your beer taste extra bitter. I’m going to go even farther and say: craft beer sucks. “Extra hoppy ale” isn’t a brilliant artisanal creation; if I wanted something that tastes like a bowl of rancid potpourri left to ferment in the sun for six weeks I could make that myself. “Milk chocolate orange stout” may sound nifty but it tastes like you mixed cocoa powder, orange-scented dishwashing soap and two-day-old coffee grounds together. Stop trying to make beer taste like something other than beer. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/156 "2019-03-01T16:02:54Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > F. Scott Fitzgerald is a bad writer… Well, if that passes the trivial test, I’m going with \*Charles Dickens Was A Better Journalist Than Novelist. \* Evidence: [Reprinted Pieces by Charles Dickens](http://www.dickens-online.info/reprinted-pieces.html) - see particularly The Detective Police; Three Detective Anecdotes. j ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/157 "2019-03-01T16:20:35Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Well, if that passes the trivial test, I’m going with \*Charles Dickens Was A Better Journalist Than Novelist. \* - Great Expectations \*is quite possibly the worst novel I have ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/158 "2019-03-01T16:46:45Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > - > > Great Expectations \*is quite possibly the worst novel I have ever read. You probably started it with inflated expectations. You were bound to be disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/159 "2019-03-01T16:53:23Z")
_Life of Brian_ is a better movie in every way than _Holy Grail_. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196/160 "2019-03-01T17:05:40Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > - > > Great Expectations \*is quite possibly the worst novel I have ever read. On the other hand, [Lowered Expectations](http://www.poprewind.com/90s-moments-you-forgot-lowered-expectations/) was a great dating site. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-yet-controversial-views-what-are-yours/830196.md?page=9)