Thursday, June 09, 2005

is this disgusting?

The word disgusting has come up recently, and I didn't think
disgusting was necessarily the right word.

According to Babylon the definition of disgusting is:
repulsive, nauseating, loathsome

My understanding of that definition is that disgustingness is very
objective. Such that something may be repulsive, nauseating or
loathsome to one person, but wouldn't be that way to another person.
Just to qualify this, a person who didn't find something to be
disgusting does not mean that they would enjoy it. Rather, they may
feel it is something they are not interested in doing, but it doesn't
repulse them or bother them in any way. An example of this is two
people making out in public. One person might feel that this is
disgusting and is truly utterly repulsed by the scene in front of
them. Another person might feel that this is not something he would
like to do, but it does not bother him that other people are doing it.
Obviously the couple who was into each other did not feel it was
disgusting or even wrong for that matter.

I had a discussion on a similar topic a couple months ago and the
other converser said that certain people felt that when you say
something objective it should be qualified, by "To me that seems..." Or "I
feel..." to make it known that you are not stating facts, but
opinions. However, in a conversation a few minutes after it was heard
stated by someone that "they would never..." and not "in my opinion
they would never..." so it seemed like a double standard was attempted
to be applied.

I personally feel that if you are going to say something that you
believe to be true, or at least is true to you, then you can say it
without any other qualifiers. If someone disagrees, they know that
they disagree and if they have to wait for something to be stated as
an opinion to disagree, then they need help in learning how to express
themselves.

In summation, if you feel something is disgusting, you should say so.
Or not. You don't have to talk about disgusting things if you don't
want to.

Wait, but lets say a person uses the word disgusting and you don't
think it is repulsive or loathing to them, you think they used the
wrong word. Then you should let them know that they actually meant to
say something else. Such as unappealing. A much better word for
something that you have no desire for, but you don't really find it
repulsive and nauseating.

6 comments:

2R said...

I fell in my opion that you are opening up to a whole new level of communication.

Rolling hills of green said...

so your saying that you would want to do that or that you personally wouldn't, but don't mind if others do??

rockofgalilee said...

I rather thought this was theoretical.

Just Shu said...

This post reads like an episode of seinfeld, it's about nothing

rockofgalilee said...

and millions of people watched seinfeld

stillruleall said...

You missed the point of the conversation. Its not just about the words, its about the inflection. Some people can say their opinion and it is understood that it is their opinion. you say your opinion in a tone that implies that it is fact. So for you, in order for it to be understood that it is merely your opinion being stated, you would have to preface with "In my opinion". Furthermore, after insulting members of the tribe, it was rude to then force your opinion on them. Thats why you needed to say "in my opinion"!!!!!!!!!!!!