I've always been quite a negative person but in the past few weeks have been actively working on improving that. I've always been quite cynical of meditation and mindfulness and all that but recently have started giving it a go and it's been a breath of fresh air. I'm no expert, so I downloaded and subscribed to an app that has thousands of guided meditations and mindfulness activities for all sorts of different occasions and I have found it really useful and it has definitely helped me start to see the silver lining with a lot more ease than normal. It's only been a few weeks but my subconscious is becoming more positive too, I'm starting to instinctively react more positively, whereas all my adult life my default stance was to expect the worse.
Anyway, something that annoyed me today. I've had a leaking kitchen tap for a while, so today as I was working from home and my boss was away, I thought I'd use the opportunity to take a longer lunch than normal and do a couple of jobs that I've been intending to do. It's a mixer tap and the leak (just a very occasional drip) was only from the hot tap side. It needed a new cartridge, but nowhere, neither on online or in any of the nearby shops, sold just a single, clockwise-opening cartridge. So I had to buy two for both the hot and cold water tap. I replaced them both because I figured I might as well, but it meant a perfectly functional anti-clockwise-opening tap cartridge has been removed and thrown away. No biggy, just annoyed me a little bit.
Most of my negativity is self inflicted, or when its negativity toward others I've become much better as an adult at keeping my opinions to myself. The conversation throughout our society has become so negative and at some point I guess I figured out that sharing my two cents with EVERYONE, as everyone insists on doing these days, was ultimately pretty pointless.
Today's pet-peeve.... and I've had this one for a few years now, ever since it became way too common in online discourse.
I can't stand it when people qualify their comments with "As a" or "As an," as if it somehow lends more legitimacy or weight to their opinion. Its so infuriating. Its like saying "I'm am expert," when we all know that experts don't tell you they are experts, they show you with their knowledge and as a result you can see their expertise.
"As a sane person," I find this phenomenon infuriating. hehe!
Today I was annoyed by somebody commenting on my youtube channel calling Disney "woke." I don't pretend to understand all of the difference in people beyond my own straight, white, male existence.... but I also don't understand all the hate and dwelling on what other people think and feel. At this point in my life, when something annoys me... I just move on to something else.
(12-14-2023, 05:51 PM)General Ceel Wrote: Today's pet-peeve.... and I've had this one for a few years now, ever since it became way too common in online discourse.
I can't stand it when people qualify their comments with "As a" or "As an," as if it somehow lends more legitimacy or weight to their opinion. Its so infuriating. Its like saying "I'm am expert," when we all know that experts don't tell you they are experts, they show you with their knowledge and as a result you can see their expertise.
"As a sane person," I find this phenomenon infuriating. hehe!
I have to create "user stories" for work for software development projects, we're constantly having to us "As a.....I would like.....So that....".
The words haunt me.
My pet peeve today is with my Dad. He came round a couple of days ago and had a bottle of Scotch, a Laphroig that I didn't recognise. He told me he'd won it in a raffle but would let me have it and that "it's a really expensive one". I opened it tonight and it's pretty rank. I Googled it and it's not expensive at all; in fact, it's one of the cheapest Laphroig make. I don't mind that, I'm grateful for any gift, but I didn't like how he made out it was a really expensive one which got my hopes up. I was looking forward to opening it all day and then I took a sip and it's genuinely probably the worst single malt I've ever tried. And I only tend to try the cheap ones too!
So my pet peeve for today may or may not say more about me than it does about other people. But I tend to think that I'm expressing a legitimate frustration with people in general.
Dishonesty or Ignorance? - Are people liars and hypocrites or just plain dumb?
Allowing for the possibility that people might be asking the same exact questions about me, at this stage in my life, I'm having a difficult time figuring out who is deliberately being mischievous and who actually believes what they are saying? A general widespread negativity about everything that people across society seem to feel obligated to express complicates the whole thing.
Everywhere I go, in real life, or online, it seems the same. Polarized, extreme opinions. No moderation. But is any of it real?
What annoys me is how people seem to feel they have to block-select their beliefs. It's like, I consider myself left-wing therefore I believe in socialism, but also take all the other stuff linked with that; pro-abortion, pro-letting male born people compete in women's sports, etc. The reality is, no one philosophical or political ideology is going to be 100% correct, a pick n mix of different ideologies is likely to lead to a more harmonious and better functioning society.
In economic terms, I'm essentially a socialist. However, you talk to like-minded socialists and mention that you are un-easy with the idea that male-born people can self ID as a woman and access female-only spaces and sports, and you are instantly ostracised. It's like, you sign up to it all or none at all. That's not how the world works.
(02-05-2024, 11:49 AM)Danster Wrote: What annoys me is how people seem to feel they have to block-select their beliefs. It's like, I consider myself left-wing therefore I believe in socialism, but also take all the other stuff linked with that; pro-abortion, pro-letting male born people compete in women's sports, etc. The reality is, no one philosophical or political ideology is going to be 100% correct, a pick n mix of different ideologies is likely to lead to a more harmonious and better functioning society.
In economic terms, I'm essentially a socialist. However, you talk to like-minded socialists and mention that you are un-easy with the idea that male-born people can self ID as a woman and access female-only spaces and sports, and you are instantly ostracised. It's like, you sign up to it all or none at all. That's not how the world works.
I completely get where you are coming from. In my mind, it has to be some sort of weird new version of "tribalism." People have always divide themselves into tribes. But the human population has never been so high, while also having so much connectivity. This connectivity opens us up to influence. Now the people in power have the ability to pretend to be like us. So know the groups we divide ourselves into have become larger and more top down.
