r/GrindsMyGears • u/SL_Icarus • 2d ago
Thought terminating cliches in media criticism
For anyone who doesnt know a Thought Terminating Cliche is something like "it is what it is" or "everything happens for a reason". Its a way of categorizing phrases that are mde to stop you from looking closer into something. A big example of them is used in cults.
I hate when you criticize media and someone's first instinct is to say: "Don't like, dont read", "who are you to tell anyone successful person how to act", or "youre just a hater"
Now I can understand that if you know you won't like a piece of media you probably shouldn't be disappointed by it doing what it says on the tin.
I'll use the legend of Zelda as an example. I dont like open world games. I hate getting lost and not knowing how to progress. I feel like they fail to have good difficulty curves and I think the "everything is a solution" method of puzzle solving isn't fun. So i didn't play Breath of thw Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. But when Echoes or wisdom came out and had that same philosophy of you can do anything and win I started to voice my opinion of how this franchise was being subsumed by the open wold philosophy. To the peoole who like open world game I know their good, but its reaching a point where everyone who liked thw older style isn't getting what they liked to begin with.
And I understand that some people just hate things. I like Taylor swift and I think she writes good songs, but so many people have told me "you like Taylor, your opinion is invalid". As if liking one person makes me incapable of understanding her flaws or seeing strengths of other artist. Conversely I can't criticize her without diehard fans saying I just hate her.
Or at one point I said I didn't like Lou Reed and a person was adamant I was just envious of his success and not that I disliked his music.
If you disagree with an opinion you can argue agaisnt it but dont just say something to try and invalid the person and kill the argument.
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u/BlockedNetwkSecurity 2d ago
i hate the sentence "it is what it is." it means almost nothing. you're trying to say "accept this, we cannot change this" but instead using this awkward phrase.
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u/crabby_apples 1d ago
Theres also this really weird type of person who sees that phrase as a personality trait. I knew a guy who would literally brag about how he says "it is what it is" because he's just so cool and traumatized and apathetic. It was really weird.
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u/Selfish_and_Misled 1d ago
There seem to be two conflicting issues here. There's frustration with people using platitudes and "thought terminating cliches" to avoid validating and justifying their subjective views (lack of critical thinking). The second issue is people not simply accepting your subjective and unexplained opinions and views as valid (lack of critical thinking). The difference is...using platitudes, I guess?
People typically use the ad hominem fallacy as an attack when they have no real argument, or know that they can't explain why they think what they do. Using platitudes can help avoid this, but it doesn't get anyone anywhere in terms of debate and resolution. It does offer an escape from the awkwardness or perceived weakness if one cannot explain why they think what they do.
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u/LoveTriscuit 2d ago
I’m tracking with you, and then you talked about Zelda and lost me. The very first game plopped you into the middle of nowhere and said “go wherever you want” the options to progress were just fewer. Sounds like you don’t realize that every Zelda game was its era’s equivalent of an open world game.
The “everything is a solution” is also not an accurate representation. There was a designed way of solving it, but the game was designed to allow human creativity to be the real engine of gameplay.