Tonight in one of my final criminology classes I'll ever take we discussed language. This struck me as an interesting topic because it's clearly a tool that people use to their advantage everyday. Now I could cite some cliches or cheesy lines about the power of words but that's not at all what I want to talk about. I want to talk about specific colloquial language that really ticks me off.
"I'm not going to lie..." - People often use this sentence to segway into what they actually think. You know if I'm talking to you, I'd hope you WOULDN'T lie.
"Don't take this the wrong way/ No offense but.." - Under what circumstances are you ever NOT offended by a statement that starts like that? Why bother saying that? Skip a step and say what you think or don't say anything at all.
"Just Sayin'" - This is probably my most hated of the colloquialisms I hear amongst my friends and even myself up until I realized that it's just an extremely fake and lame way to validate stating your opinion. People say it as a scapegoat to protect themselves after they've said something offensive. I don't understand why we chose to have opinions if we're just going to hide in our own language.
Like I said, I'm probably the guiltiest of using these colloquialisms but I really try not to do it because I've always prided myself on saying what I think or not saying anything at all if it's going to be offensive.
I've talked about this before but I'm talking about it again because it's necessary. People who can generalize a genre of music. "Oh I HATE country" "I despise rap and R&B" "Dubstep isn't even a genre" "I hate anything that's Top40" - Seriously? When did we become such snobs when it came to music. It's turned into so much more than just the tunes you chose to unwind to, it's more about the image/label that we associate with certain genres. A couple of summers ago I found myself being a little offended when I said that I loved all music and didn't discriminate and one of the women in the office said "Yeah you probably listen to whatever is on the radio..." And I responded with "Why do you say that like it's a bad thing" and she rolled her eyes and said "Absolutely nothing is wrong with that it's just a little predictable, but don't worry honey, I'm not judging" UM clearly you are, and if you took the time to ask you'd know that I listen to MORE than what's on the Top 40. She made it sound as if my poor 19 year old brain was incapable of appreciating music that wasn't fed to me "from the man". I can appreciate finding new songs or straying from the path when discovering a great song but does that mean that turning on the radio and jamming to the newest Gaga or Britney song makes me a sellout? If that's the case than I'd rather sellout now than try to live up to some music snob facade. It's just ridiculous. Even with my friends I'm reluctant to give them my ipod to play at parties because you never know what song will play when you push shuffle and it'll be revealed that I'm a closeted Justin Bieber fan (it's come to that! A closeted fan because it's just not socially acceptable?). It's like I develop a paranoia about what they're gonna find on there and exposes something so personal. When people make fun of your music on your mp3, ipod or whatever you use to listen to music, it becomes so personal and you can't help but feel vulnerable. Why? Because besides judging eachother on the list of things we already do, we just HAD to add music to the party. I for one want to start to petition to stop that. We already hate on each other for being too fat, too skinny, too pale, too tanned. Do we really need another instrument for judgment?
And on that note, I give you:
And I don't care who knows.
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