The part that gets me is there's this weird offshoot in the comments that happened when a very old friend of mine mentioned a story about being unfriended (or is it defriended?) over a comment about a pair of shoes being 'ugly'. Oh no you di'int!
Essentially, another friend of mine attacked her for being 'hateful' because of that comment on the shoes. Then yet another friend came to the defense of my first friend. These three are all real-life friends of mine whose friendships I do value, so it certainly put me in what rocket scientists like to call a real shit-pickle. On one hand, I'm running with the idea that it's silly to take such offense at a comment about a pair of shoes being 'ugly'; on the other hand, as much as I feel the urge to rush to the defense of my first friend, I'd hate to do so by alienating my second friend who I've never really had any real disagreements with. And on the third hand, my friend is pretty tasteful, so they must have some ugly fucking shoes.
It kind of brings me to that idea of personal taste. Is it wrong for us to say what we think just because someone put a lot of time and effort into something? I'd like to think not. (Well, in the case of my blog it is totally wrong for you to criticize me but that's different.) But we're talking about aesthetic here. I mean, lots of people put an incredible amount of time and creative effort into Ke$ha's last album but it doesn't bar me from saying that it's literally an abomination put upon this earth as punishment for our shallow callousness. It doesn't bar me from saying that I don't even like pronouncing her name because a dollar sign isn't a letter. It doesn't bar me from saying that she's probably the most talentless hack I've ever seen in my life and I fear for the future of mankind if this is what we call entertainment. I am allowed to say this because it's what I think. And it's true. But mainly because it's what I think.
Where does that put us? Shoes can be ugly. Someone designed every pair of shoes on this planet, so that's automatically bringing someone's hard work into question (and the possibility of that 'someone' being a small Sri Lankan child - but I'm not sure they'd read my blog anyway since they don't get a lot of free time). In the end, it's important that people say what they think because if they don't, we just become a bunch of homogenized assholes who don't challenge viewpoints.
Unless it's about my blog. Shut up.
It kind of brings me to that idea of personal taste. Is it wrong for us to say what we think just because someone put a lot of time and effort into something? I'd like to think not. (Well, in the case of my blog it is totally wrong for you to criticize me but that's different.) But we're talking about aesthetic here. I mean, lots of people put an incredible amount of time and creative effort into Ke$ha's last album but it doesn't bar me from saying that it's literally an abomination put upon this earth as punishment for our shallow callousness. It doesn't bar me from saying that I don't even like pronouncing her name because a dollar sign isn't a letter. It doesn't bar me from saying that she's probably the most talentless hack I've ever seen in my life and I fear for the future of mankind if this is what we call entertainment. I am allowed to say this because it's what I think. And it's true. But mainly because it's what I think.
Where does that put us? Shoes can be ugly. Someone designed every pair of shoes on this planet, so that's automatically bringing someone's hard work into question (and the possibility of that 'someone' being a small Sri Lankan child - but I'm not sure they'd read my blog anyway since they don't get a lot of free time). In the end, it's important that people say what they think because if they don't, we just become a bunch of homogenized assholes who don't challenge viewpoints.
Unless it's about my blog. Shut up.
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