Judgmentality

[osprey_archer]

This entry has set me thinking, and indeed I mean to post about it and its sister entries (it’s part of a set), but in the process of writing that post I stumbled across something annoying.

I kept starting the post with that thing - that thing people do, where they say “I’m not a follower/fat/Christian/gay/a Scientologist but there’s nothing wrong with people who are.” Good for them for thinking that. Pity they undermined it before even getting to the part where they say it’s okay to be fat (/Christian etc.) by reassuring everyone that, while plumpness might be okay for other people, they personally aren’t one of those people, those horrible fat people who they wouldn’t for a minute want to be mistaken for.

Alternatively, people say do that thing not because they’re deathly afraid of being thought X socially undesirable thing, but because if they aren’t they have more credibility to say that it’s okay. More people will take Skinny McThinson seriously than Fatty O’Chubknuckles when she says it’s okay to be fat, because the system is going great for her and thus there’s no way that she could be biased (except maybe in its favor, but eh, minor details). Or something like that.

…admittedly that has second train of thought has some validity. It wouldn’t be a good idea to let, say, rapists decide if raping people is okay; obviously everyone will decide such questions in their own favor and an outside view is necessary to check if it’s a valid judgment.

But the fact that an outside view is considered necessary on something as trivial as fatness is just ridiculous.

And I still think it’s at least half the “OMG please don’t think I’m fat!” reason anyway.

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

There is occasionally an, "I as a privileged person, and not being part of the group I'm talking about, may totally get some of this wrong, but I thought it was important enough to talk about anyway."

But it's definitely at least half what you said.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Ah, this is true. I had forgotten those people because they don't make me want to reach through the internet and smack them.

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

I willing to give you credit for noticing and acknowledging the faults in your own writing.

I'm not really sure why people tend to think that the "I'm not, but" introduction would make their argument stronger. It seems like most uses would translate pretty directly into, "I'm unqualified to have an opinion on this subject, but here's what I think anyway"--in the other cases, it's just a weak introduction because there's a legitimate reason for the rant based in their somewhere.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I wouldn't go so far as to say it means "I'm unqualified to have an opinion" - I don't think you have to be or have done something in order to have an opinion on it - but logically at least it ought to mean "I'm less qualified than an actual X to have an opinion, so take this with a grain of salt."

Except people don't seem to read it that way. Because people are silly.

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

Semantically, I don't think it means "I'm unqualified," but I do think that it ends up being used that way colloquially (to the disadvantage of people who understand what strings of words mean). It's become the equivalent of "no offense, but [something really offensive].