Can someone explain this to me? - Democratic Underground

laconicsax

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Tue Jan-26-10 12:41 AM
Original message

Can someone explain this to me?

I've never understood the 'yeah? well let's see you do better!' response to criticism, especially with music and literature. I've seen top-notch professionals give some really boring performances playing exceptionally boring music and whenever I remark on how boring the performance or music was, I'm attacked with fiery-eyed vitriol and a variation of 'so you think you can do better?'

Does anyone actually think that 'so you think you can do better?'/'well let's see you do better!' is anything more than a meaningless statement of anger?

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CaliforniaPeggy

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Tue Jan-26-10 12:45 AM
Response to Original message

1. My dear laconicsax...

They say it because they feel challenged, and they want to blow that back at the challenger...

That's my take on it.

And yeah, they're angry too.

:hi:

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begin_within

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Tue Jan-26-10 12:45 AM
Response to Original message

2. No

Criticism can hurt one's feelings, some people take it as a criticism of themselves rather than the work. You never know how they will react. The natural response to being hurt is anger. So that statement is a reflection of the anger, directed at you, because you are the one that made the criticism. That's all it is.

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laconicsax

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Tue Jan-26-10 02:16 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. The people responding aren't ever the originators of the work.

If I don't like someone's performance, I just don't say anything about it to them unless they directly ask me for honest criticism. It's always other audience members who get all pissy that I didn't like the performance we just saw.

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Deep13

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Tue Jan-26-10 02:07 AM
Response to Original message

3. Well, it's an ad hominem attack...

...that diverts attention away from what you are talking about to you. It says nothing about the merits of your argument.

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laconicsax

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Tue Jan-26-10 02:18 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. That's what I thought.

I've just gotten it a few times in the last week and it's starting to bug me--especially when it's colleagues who start acting like I raped their children because I thought ill of a performance they had nothing to do with.

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