Just a random entry talking about my slight dislike for overly critical, smartass people - those who seem to always think they can do better than experienced or skilled talents, like how almost every Singaporean (me included) criticise Singaporean shows and talk about how much they suck. I think we would've only have earned the right to do so when we are able to make shows that actually suck less than those that we condemn.

Sometimes we (me included) criticise too much. We set our expectations so high and we actually feel like we deserve to have those standards met. But we shouldn't.

This is especially so for things that other people are doing for us; TV show making, game design, education, politics, cooking, etc. People we interact with may mess up and not do their job well, or their products may not be up to standard. But still, if not for them, we would not have gotten our shows (although you can argue about choices...), our education, our food, etc. It's actually pretty disgusting how ungrateful we can be at times.

I think that it's okay to voice our opinions and stuff. It's in our nature to give feedback, complain, discuss about how much you hate a show, and so on. But there's this fine, undefinable line we should not cross. It gets too much when we start bringing the creators into it - things like "what's the government even doing?" or "the editor is lousy", or "this stupid teacher doesn't know her stuff" - because when we criticise, we are only one unit each giving the "attack". The receiver receives so much more.

If you think of it like a game, maybe each enemy takes away 1HP from you, and you have 100HP. Have 50 of those enemies and it won't be long before you're dead.

What's worse is when people criticise without thinking. Smartass people who analyse a lot and criticise a lot as a result is one thing, but people who do not think before they shoot, especially keyboard warriors, are on another level altogether.

People who expect the newest chapter of a manga to be a certain way and get all pissed when it doesn't go the way he/she expects it. Those who complain without offering solutions. As someone in a One Piece forum best puts it: "How else would you have handled this character development?"

It's easy to say "this sucks", or "stupid policies that don't make sense", or "this chapter is by far the worst One Piece chapter ever", but how else would you have done it? What sucks is that the critic does not have an answer.

Labels: preachy, rants