I Beg to Differ

I'm fascinated by the way people are afraid to disagree sometimes. For example, sometimes I hear someone voice an opinion, and I'll offer a contrasting one—not to be argumentative, just to explain that I see things differently. Then the other person will sometimes try to agree with me or come up with something conciliatory to say.

This also happens with food. It's perfectly fine if my wife doesn't like smoked gouda. She doesn't need to apologize about it (but sometimes she does anyway).
I mean, it's nice that we don't want to offend other people. But we have every right to our own opinion.

If you hate this post, that's great! I want to hear all about it.

Comments

)en said…
Hmm... that's interesting. What about when someone wants to express their feelings about some Vampire books? :)
September 26, 2008 at 8:01 AM
Joel said…
In that post I never said that I expected everyone to agree with me. And if you noticed, even the people who like the books were careful to avoid sounding like they disagreed too much.
September 26, 2008 at 8:04 AM
)en said…
Yes but you were too afraid to even say the NAME of it until we made you. :P
September 26, 2008 at 8:07 AM
Joel said…
Well, that went a little beyond fearing to disagree—I was afraid of actual bodily harm. But nevertheless, it shows that I'm not immune to this either.
September 26, 2008 at 8:10 AM
Erin Stones said…
I am not a very confrontational person (despite what you may remember about me from English at Eisenhower, do you remember anything?)- but I am also not afraid to express my opinion. Sometimes I get the look from other people, "What are you doing- don't say that!" That just makes me want to say more! If that's not bad enough my husband is even more so that way. The worst is that he loves to "argue" with my poor mom. She NEVER likes to upset other people, so my husband really likes to get things going with her to see how far he can take it before she snaps or finally disagrees. Poor mom! Oh well!
September 26, 2008 at 8:37 AM
Erin Stones said…
P.S. Is there a reason that your title is written "CeRebrate" instead of "CeLebrate" ? Just thought that I would point that out in case you weren't aware!
September 26, 2008 at 8:39 AM
)en said…
Ha ha. I would love it if Joel had a typo on his blog heading for that long.
September 26, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Joel said…
I would probably have to leave the blogging world forever over such a shameful mistake.
September 26, 2008 at 3:08 PM
)en said…
I know. That's why I try not to be grammatically perfect (though it's hard-HAHA) because i know i'll make mistakes sometime. probably. right? i mean, i am human. Heh.

I like how i typed all of that with lower case i's all over the place. you see?
September 26, 2008 at 3:15 PM
)en said…
p.s. down with blog owner approval. I want to see my comment immediately after hitting publish. i am a comment nazi.
September 26, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Joel said…
Hey, I'm usually pretty speedy at publishing them. Plus I like being notified when I have a comment; e-mail makes me feel important.
September 26, 2008 at 3:18 PM
Lizzy said…
I sometimes apologize to my husband about my extreme dislike of fish. I do this, however, because my dislike of fish limits the amount of fish he gets to eat in a year. Since I can't even stand to have raw fish in the house and I won't cook on or in anything used for fish. Like I said extreme. So although it might seem like someone is apologizing for one thing it might actually be another, Heaven forbid people always say what they mean, or even know what they mean.
Plus Joel you are just a devil's advocate type of person. We got to have 'em.
Random thought for the day: Moms should grow at least one new arm, or possible one set of arms, for each child.
September 26, 2008 at 5:07 PM
A Bunch of Roaches said…
Okay...I agree with Lizzy about the new arm thing. That would make life so much easier. Hey Joel, you seem experienced about this kind of thing. How do you make it so you have to approve comments. I'm new to the blogging world.
September 30, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Joel said…
You go to your dashboard--> settings--> comments--> comment moderation.
October 1, 2008 at 9:05 AM
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