Analysing negative feelings at their root must have some value

[yvannairie]

So I know hating characters because they come "in the way" of your ship is bad, but I wish that was something we could at least talk about, you know? :/

I have certain characters that I'd probably like if they had zero contact with certain other characters and I've never seen conversations about why this happens, even though I've read a lot of smart people write a lot of smart words about why the opposite (i.e. starting to like a character based on their interactions with other characters) is such a common occurence.

The dynamics of liking things are discussed a lot more, which is pretty fascinating on its own. And I guess it might be asking a bit much because a) nobody really likes talking about things that make them feel bad and b) culture is so overwhelmingly negative at the moment anyway that reinforcing their happiness is preferrable to most people.

It just feels unbalanced because lately the "you can like ANYTHING for ANY REASON" message has been growing in volume, but it still feels like if you dislike something you're supposed to accept that you're Doing The Thing Wrong And Shut Up.

And that's unsatisfying.

(But then again at the moment we probably can't have sensible conversations about why things are Bad without it turning into a fight or posturing of some kind.)

Comments

[yvannairie]

(Please, call me Van, yvannairie is the person I pretend to be when I need to be competent, anyway)

>I feel like there'd be a lot less wank if negativity wasn't seen as a personal attack

I think this is an astute observation, and I don't know how to start solving it, because I don't think I've ever personally phrased negativity to be a personal attack? The only time I remember that happening was someone pointing out the Unfortunate Implications of a thing I'd said, which I found to be entirely fair. Like, it's just not a thing I do, I wouldn't know where to start addresing why it happens.

But it's definitely a thing! There is someone on this post expressing that they feel like the thing being called bad is somehow passing judgement on them. It is not self-explanatorily nonsensical. For frank discussions about why something doesn't work or why we don't like it, we'd first need to firmly establish that bad taste doesn't a bad person make, and that quality does not necessarily translate to enjoyability.

[wannabedarklord]

(will do :D I was just lazy about using the DW user tag)

Part of it is that tone is hard to parse over text, another is that everyone is so primed to defend themselves at the slightest hair trigger that they misinterpret and sometimes assign blame where there is none.

I think a lot of it has to do with the current cancellation/problematic/anti culture as well. If someone disagrees that this Thing is Good, then it is possibly Problematic! and we all know if something is Problematic, you are Bad for liking it. So you must prove it is Good so you will not be Bad.

Sometimes I want to nail 'bad taste doesn't a bad person make' to people's foreheads. in mirrored writing as well, so they can brush up on that lesson as well. But yeah, no clue how to stop it or start solving it, beyond being the change we wish to see in the world?

[yvannairie]

Yeah, like, at that point you're looking at a cultural problem, not a mere subcultural one :/ It sure is a steep hill we all have to climb.