People are so proud of having nuanced opinions, even if they are not actually nuanced and are merely nit-picky. This irritates the hell out of me.
They sit in seminars and say "I think the use of dialect here is problematic," which is a completely inane statement because you're talking about Mark Twain and the dialect is the point, but by saying "problematic" they win points with the other pretentious idiots in the class who will then chime in and say "Oh, yes, I thought so too." All "problematic" means then is "I have no idea what I'm talking about so I'm going to say random crap but it will pass muster because I have cleverly set everyone up to expect a wrinkle."
The other villain here is "problematize." I almost used it once in an essay, and then nearly threw myself in front of a train. The word is "complicate," people. Don't make yourself sound like a jackass.
2 comments:
Amateur! I don't really lose my cool until it's used as a noun. "The central problematic." No shit...
"People are so proud of having nuanced opinions, even if they are not actually nuanced and are merely nit-picky. This irritates the hell out of me."
Really? Are you serious? Have you read this blog? :)
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