What's a phrase you hear a lot, but disagree with?
What's a phrase you hear a lot, but disagree with?
One that comes to mind for me: "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is not always true. Maybe even only half the time! Are there any phrases you tend to hear and shake your head at?
"Boys will be boys"
How about you teach your kid how to behave and respect others so they don't grow up to be an entitled asshole.
"Can't be helped."
Your attitude is why things don't change.
"It's human nature" used to describe something horrific like war or rape.
It's not. Human nature is as when we were children, playing with friends and loving each other.
Militaries have to condition humans to do violence to each other and to follow orders from "superiors". Half of school is quashing kids' creativity and making them follow arbitrary rules because "the adults" say so.
"No pain, no gain. "
As someone who's been running for over 30 years and working ou for 20, if there is pain, there is injury. When there is injury, you take a break and regress. People may say that muscle pain or stiff muscles are a sign of a good workout, not an injury. However, even with those your risk of injury is much higher, and you'll eventually hurt yourself. "No pain" should be one of the outcomes of smart exercise, not an admonishment for not working hard enough.
"Practice makes perfect."
Let me tell you about my 7th grade all county band audition, where I showed up and skillfully played 40 measures of not what the sheet music said because I misread it and practiced what I misread.
"Practice" needs some kind of mechanism for feedback and correction, such as a coach or instructor.
"Well it can't get any worse" And "Well, you gotta do something"
The first is almost always dead wrong. Trust me, you can make anything worse.
As for the second, it's shockingly coming that in a given scenario, the best action is to not do anything different at all. It may seem like things are bad and something has to change, but changing your strategy at this point can still definitely make things worse. Sometimes inaction is the correct action.
"everything has pros and cons"
I usually give the CGP Grey's legendary answer: "...but it's hardly ever the case that all the pros and all the cons all PERFECTLY balance each other out, right?"
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," It's like nails on a chalkboard every time I hear it. There is a very limited context where it may be applicable, but mostly it's used to give up trying or mock someone for failing a task. Have you never gotten better at something over time? Learned an instrument? Played a hard video game? Learned to ride a bike? It stops problem solving dead and kills motivation making it less than useless. Oh and its misattributed to Einstein like every other shitty quote
When people try to give bad news to someone and say, "there's nowhere to go but up" as if they know that person has reached rock bottom.... That has never been true in my life. So many times have I seen things get shittier and shittier for people. Fuck that stupid cheer up bs.
"Boys will be boys" Oh yes, what deep insight, nicely expresses the lack of parenting that let little Billy here become a FUCKING BULLY that regularly kicks, punches and intimidates other children. Even worse when adults agree that "shitty and violent" is just how boys are, you know boys will be boys.
Well done being a role model guys, not only does that excuse the bully, it openly communicates to the victim that 1) he's allowed to be like that, 2) they should be bullies too and 3) nobody has any intention of actually helping them and changing the situation.
And then you make them shake hands afterwards and both have to apologize, the bully and his victim.
GRRRRRRRRR makes me so angry! Complete abdication of your responsibility to actually parent your little monster.
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Who wants two birds in their bush? I don't even want one bird in my bush; they might peck at my worm!
"like this comment if you think this post is especially good"
"Collectivist society" and "Individualist society"
Whatever doesn't kill you only prolongs the inevitable!
"He/she just tells it like it is" No, they are just saying things that resonate with you, but have no actual alignment with data, facts or morality. Simply saying things with no filter doesn't equal "like it is". I find it is usually attributed to, at best, oversimplified or completely ignorant statements, at worst, misleading and/or hateful statements.
“Cheer up, it may never happen”
I’m sorry but if I’m not in a good mood or I’m sad it’s because something has happened to make me feel like it.
"Good vibes only".
I don't agree with it because if your life is trying to be only good things, all the time, then that means you don't know what bad times are. It means everything in your life is artificial and you have no perspective on the world around you.
It's not human to expect only to feel good all the time. It tells me there's a drug induced artificial happyness that's probably a bigger problem then just having a rough day.
"... tells you everything you need to know" if you have all of my same prejudices.
I'm so sorry! He/She's (never done that before)/(usually so much better behaved)!
Said by idiot dog owners who either let their dogs run off leash, or don't pay enough attention when they are leashed, which then attack people or other dogs.
If you don't have enough time or care to raise your dog properly such that it obeys basic commands and is familiarized with the world beyond your apartment/yard, you should be exercising far, faaar more caution and restraint.
Personally I don't think such people should even be allowed to own dogs if they can't train them properly.
So many people just take their dogs to a dog park and let em loose!
life is beautiful.
no, it's not. it's an ugly, parasitic process that accelerates resource consumption merely for its own pointless existence. the heat death of the universe will come all that faster only because of the presence of life.
and, for sure, humankind is the pinnacle of this selfish and greedy outcome of biological evolution.
“It’s all good”
Who you kidding, chief?
"Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
God I hate that quote. I can't tell the difference between a spruce and a pine, but that doesn't make them indistinguishable, just means I don't know what the fuck I'm looking at. Magic and tech are definitively distinct. Our monkey brains might mistake one for the other, but like the spruce and pine, that does NOT make them indistinguishable.
Edit - Bruh what's with the downvotes?? We're here to express an unpopular opinion, cut me some slack!