What grinds my gears!

[Cassiebsg]

AI and all needs to connect to the wifi these days... 

[Mandle]

People who post "inspirational" memes on social media that all directly contradict each other.

[Danvzare]

People who post "inspirational" memes on social media that all directly contradict each other.

What about those "inspirational" memes that tout the poster as being "different", despite them clearly doing the same thing as everyone else.

I mean, there's only so many times you can see something along the lines of:
"Some people don't like me because I'm unique. I say screw those people."
before you roll your eyes so much that they've done a full 360 movement.

You're not special. You're just an asshole.

[Babar]

What about those "inspirational" memes that tout the poster as being "different", despite them clearly doing the same thing as everyone else.

It took me many years to realise how horrible "If you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best" was 

[Mandle]

What about those "inspirational" memes that tout the poster as being "different", despite them clearly doing the same thing as everyone else.

OMG yes!!! AND those ones that were very prevalent back when the vaccine topic was raging that were like:

"It takes a special kind of genius to go up against what 99.9% of people blindly believe."

That CAN be true, IF the person going against the consensus has the suitable evidence to back up their viewpoint, but in the case of social media memes, this is NEVER the case. All they have is a massive case of Dunning-Kruger.

[Snarky]

When a movie has a plague in town, and dead bodies are littering the street.

That wouldn't happen unless the disease progressed so quickly that people would just keel over from one minute to the next, or they are somehow driven out of their homes, and there's nobody to clear up and dispose of the bodies. In reality, almost everyone would die in their homes or in a hospital or quarantine ward, and those few who didn't would be speedily carted away.

Spoiler

This objection brought to you by the movie Nosferatu, particularly comparing the original film (which gets it right) with the new remake (which does not).

[close]

[Snarky]

Here's one that genuinely annoys me a great deal: "There are only N stories." (Where N can be any number from two up to seven, usually.)

Why do people go around parroting such obvious BS as if it were some profound insight? You don't hear people claiming "There are only four types of painting" or "There are only six types of food." (Though you do occasionally hear people argue that similarities between different blues/rock/pop songs are inevitable because there are only so many riffs.)

So you can make up some number of general categories and then assign various instances to one or another of them. How astonishing! What penetrating insight that gives into the nature of the thing. Nothing more to know!

[Stupot]

Yeah, I've always had a problem with that too. Sure, any story can be categorised as one of N, but it's meaningless. It's just one of things repeated in writing advice that everyone has already heard a million times but people keep saying anyway, as if they have some special knowledge.

[fire7side]

I just wonder who is the person that finds a background and types an inspirational message on it so everyone else can just click share with your friends.  The unsung hallmark heroes of the internet.

[Stupot]

I just wonder who is the person that finds a background and types an inspirational message on it so everyone else can just click share with your friends.  The unsung hallmark heroes of the internet.

Theyre the dumbest inspirational-sounding but completely empty nonsense that anyone could fart out, but people share them as if they are the most meaningful thing they've read all year.

[Snarky]

When there are multiple announcement banners on the AGS Forums in an auto-cycling carousel, and they're not all the same number of lines, so that the forum keeps jumping up and down as it cycles, causing me to click on the wrong thing.

[Laura Hunt]

When "cinephiles" on social media post movie screenshots saying stuff like "best movie EVER" but don't post the title because that would be uncool for some reason; besides, if you're a cool cinephile like them you should know every single movie in existence from a single shot. It's like our "Guess the movie title" thread, but without any of the fun.

And while we're on the topic, people who say "wow, this movie looks amazing, I can't believe it's X years old", as if art were a linear progression and the new stuff should be "better" by default than everything that came before it. (Also, so much stuff that people call "ahead of its time" is so clearly a product of its time.)

Bonus gear-grinding: calling universally beloved and popular movies/directors/musicians/albums "underrated".

[Snarky]

Bonus gear-grinding: calling universally beloved and popular movies/directors/musicians/albums "underrated".

This is extra annoying because there's practically no way to object without seeming like an asshole.

[heltenjon]

This ties into terms like "cult movie". If it's popular enough, wouldn't that make it mainstream instead of having a "cult following"?

(Also, so much stuff that people call "ahead of its time" is so clearly a product of its time.)

The first people to do something that becomes popular should be "the first of its time", right?

"Hey, they did retro music back before it was retro!"

[Laura Hunt]

This ties into terms like "cult movie". If it's popular enough, wouldn't that make it mainstream instead of having a "cult following"?

Yeah, I guess there are degrees and shades of grey, of course, and a very well known work in a specific niche (say, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure") might be completely unknown by the mainstream, thus making it a "cult" movie for most people but a "what do you mean you haven't watched it you poser" for people in that niche. But calling stuff like Twin Peaks "cult" in our year of the lord 2025 is just ridiculous, for sure (rest in peace David Lynch).

"Hey, they did retro music back before it was retro!"

Ah, thanks for reminding me of another one of my pet peeves, which is people calling old things "retro". Something is retro not when it's old, but when it imitates an older aesthetic. So e.g., The Crimson Diamond or Urban Witch Story would be "retro", but The Colonel's Bequest or Police Quest are not. If anything, they would be "classics", but never "retro".

And one more complaint, since I'm letting it all out today Does the constant use of hyperbole on the internet (as in how everything is always "the best X EVER") get on anybody else's nerves? Doesn't it feel exhausting?

[heltenjon]

And one more complaint, since I'm letting it all out today Does the constant use of hyperbole on the internet (as in how everything is always "the best X EVER") get on anybody else's nerves? Doesn't it feel exhausting?

Yeah. It's the worst EVER!

I guess hyperbole goes hand in hand with the misunderstood Darwinism you wrote about:

as if art were a linear progression and the new stuff should be "better" by default than everything that came before it.

[Laura Hunt]

Bonus gear-grinding: calling universally beloved and popular movies/directors/musicians/albums "underrated".

This is extra annoying because there's practically no way to object without seeming like an asshole.

Just this afternoon I was watching a video from a hip hop duo I used to enjoy a lot in the early/mid 00s, and someone had commented "most underrated song on the album!". This was literally the main single from that album and the only one that got a music video! How can it be the "most underrated song on the album"? * sigh *

[Creamy]

And one more complaint, since I'm letting it all out today Does the constant use of hyperbole on the internet (as in how everything is always "the best X EVER") get on anybody else's nerves? Doesn't it feel exhausting?

Yes. And the titles stopped being informative long ago. Even some newspapers just write clickbaits and teasers in their headlines nowadays.

[Snarky]

When I floss, the dental floss often used to fray, and I would get fibers stuck between my teeth. Finally I found a brand where the floss wasn't made like thread, but instead a continuous strip of plastic that wouldn't fray.

I just bought a new roll of the same brand. They've changed it to the thread type. 

[LimpingFish]

When I floss, the dental floss often used to fray, and I would get fibers stuck between my teeth. Finally I found a brand where the floss wasn't made like thread, but instead a continuous strip of plastic that wouldn't fray.

I just bought a new roll of the same brand. They've changed it to the thread type. 

The bane of my life!* Waxed or non-waxed, makes no difference, they all shred. Now, to be fair, they usually shred between teeth where there isn't much leeway, but still... 

*Hyperbole