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Wait, is posting about how there are objectively only two groups of people (“polite” and “impolite”) a polite thing to do or an impolite thing to do?

braingenious 4y ago
I’m genuinely confused by the downvotes here since nobody has responded. Am I to believe that lumping people into groups of polite and impolite as human beings is a polite thing to do, or am I meant to believe that lumping people into binary groups of polite and impolite is an impolite thing to do? Am I being downvoted by polite people or impolite people?? Is reductively judging people and putting them into antithetical groups based on offhand comments polite, or is it impolite? It’s a legitimate question.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  I certainly didn't downvote you, but I'm not clear about what point you're making.
  - braingenious 4y ago
    From the post I originally responded to: > when you have nothing nice to say, the polite people say nothing, and the impolite people say the impolite thing. I’m genuinely confused by this sentiment. Does this poster think they’re saying something nice? Or are they intentionally outing themselves as impolite by opting not to say nothing? It seems genuinely funny to assume the role of the judge of who is or isn’t “polite” while violating their own rules about who is “polite” To further rephrase that: That appears to be (without clarification) a very amusing moralizing statement that provides no value whatsoever other than to directly contradict its own premise. Usually I classify comments as polite or rude, not people. I guess GP is the arbiter of personality though?
jfengel 4y ago
I didn't realize it would be interpreted as an ontological statement about humanity. I'm referring to an old dictum of politeness: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." People breaking that rule are being impolite. I apologize that I wrote that in a confusing way by referring to them as "impolite people". It was intended as a more instrumental observation: in that instance, they are being impolite (at least by that particular rule, which is of course itself not universally accepted). It was not intended to make a categorical statement about them, but it clearly read that way.

braingenious 4y ago

I’m genuinely confused by the downvotes here since nobody has responded. Am I to believe that lumping people into groups of polite and impolite as human beings is a polite thing to do, or am I meant to believe that lumping people into binary groups of polite and impolite is an impolite thing to do? Am I being downvoted by polite people or impolite people?? Is reductively judging people and putting them into antithetical groups based on offhand comments polite, or is it impolite? It’s a legitimate question.

JohnFen 4y ago
I certainly didn't downvote you, but I'm not clear about what point you're making.
- braingenious 4y ago
  From the post I originally responded to: > when you have nothing nice to say, the polite people say nothing, and the impolite people say the impolite thing. I’m genuinely confused by this sentiment. Does this poster think they’re saying something nice? Or are they intentionally outing themselves as impolite by opting not to say nothing? It seems genuinely funny to assume the role of the judge of who is or isn’t “polite” while violating their own rules about who is “polite” To further rephrase that: That appears to be (without clarification) a very amusing moralizing statement that provides no value whatsoever other than to directly contradict its own premise. Usually I classify comments as polite or rude, not people. I guess GP is the arbiter of personality though?

jfengel 4y ago

I didn't realize it would be interpreted as an ontological statement about humanity. I'm referring to an old dictum of politeness: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." People breaking that rule are being impolite. I apologize that I wrote that in a confusing way by referring to them as "impolite people". It was intended as a more instrumental observation: in that instance, they are being impolite (at least by that particular rule, which is of course itself not universally accepted). It was not intended to make a categorical statement about them, but it clearly read that way.