Whatever.
I'm convinced that whoever claims this word as their favourite is, more often than not, an idiot. You don't have to explicitly claim it, you just have to use it. Indiscriminately, and more often than any other word.
"Never argue with an idiot," so a popular saying goes, "Otherwise they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." In the event that the overpowering validity of truth and tenacious compulsion of argument still proves too much for them to handle even at that level, one will still inevitably encounter an abrupt dead-end, most often in the form of the eight-letter-word "whatever".
"Whatever" effectively puts a stop to any further attempts at persuasion, because it signals that the utterer's propensity for considering further evidence has further diminished to zero, and ostensibly ends the argument on a triumphant note for him. He smugly thinks he's won the argument, has had the final word, and has issued a retort for which his opponent, no matter how brilliant, has no riposte. But in truth, it is nothing more than the hallmark of obdurate obstinacy, a bimbotic euphemism for "I'm right, cos I say so". And all because of something he can't understand nor comprehend, because he just can't be open-minded enough to consider that some point of view differing from his just might be the correct case.
What makes this word particular irritating is that it's impossible to argue against someone who chooses to rely on it as some form of magical defence. Observation has shown that only people who can't argue properly resort to "whatever" as their last stand. It's a fool insisting on his folly.
Recently I've had the distinct misfortune to observe this word in action. Just before a trip, a friend of mine was trying to explain to his girlfriend the hydrodynamics of wakeboarding. She kept insisting that it was easier to get aloft if she started with the board parallel to the path of the speedboat, whereas my friend used physics, hydroplaning and common sense to explain why everyone else started off perpendicular. It was quite obvious that she certainly wasn't getting it, nor was she even running through the possibility in her head; and then the dreaded word came: "WHATEVER." Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, the hollowness of the word echoing in the air.
My sympathy went out to him. Many people (most memorably my ex and The One Thing) have used it on me, and it pissed me off every single time.
"Whatever" is the final recourse of people who refuse to be swayed by logic and facts and insist that their askant beliefs are fundamentally and necessarily superior, which is why it is particularly galling to men of logic who consider arguments before conceding to them or rejecting them.
I'm sure many proponents of this "magical" word will undoubtedly take offence from this entry-more out of a guilty conscience than anything else, I suppose-and leap to its defence, raising a whole maelstrom of protests.
Yea, whatever.
§ Technorati tags:
online bitching
"Never argue with an idiot," so a popular saying goes, "Otherwise they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." In the event that the overpowering validity of truth and tenacious compulsion of argument still proves too much for them to handle even at that level, one will still inevitably encounter an abrupt dead-end, most often in the form of the eight-letter-word "whatever".
"Whatever" effectively puts a stop to any further attempts at persuasion, because it signals that the utterer's propensity for considering further evidence has further diminished to zero, and ostensibly ends the argument on a triumphant note for him. He smugly thinks he's won the argument, has had the final word, and has issued a retort for which his opponent, no matter how brilliant, has no riposte. But in truth, it is nothing more than the hallmark of obdurate obstinacy, a bimbotic euphemism for "I'm right, cos I say so". And all because of something he can't understand nor comprehend, because he just can't be open-minded enough to consider that some point of view differing from his just might be the correct case.
What makes this word particular irritating is that it's impossible to argue against someone who chooses to rely on it as some form of magical defence. Observation has shown that only people who can't argue properly resort to "whatever" as their last stand. It's a fool insisting on his folly.
Recently I've had the distinct misfortune to observe this word in action. Just before a trip, a friend of mine was trying to explain to his girlfriend the hydrodynamics of wakeboarding. She kept insisting that it was easier to get aloft if she started with the board parallel to the path of the speedboat, whereas my friend used physics, hydroplaning and common sense to explain why everyone else started off perpendicular. It was quite obvious that she certainly wasn't getting it, nor was she even running through the possibility in her head; and then the dreaded word came: "WHATEVER." Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, the hollowness of the word echoing in the air.
My sympathy went out to him. Many people (most memorably my ex and The One Thing) have used it on me, and it pissed me off every single time.
"Whatever" is the final recourse of people who refuse to be swayed by logic and facts and insist that their askant beliefs are fundamentally and necessarily superior, which is why it is particularly galling to men of logic who consider arguments before conceding to them or rejecting them.
I'm sure many proponents of this "magical" word will undoubtedly take offence from this entry-more out of a guilty conscience than anything else, I suppose-and leap to its defence, raising a whole maelstrom of protests.
Yea, whatever.
§ Technorati tags:
online bitching