Boy, do I fucking hate this word. I try to avoid using it whenever possible because all the time I'll hear somebody else use it and it comes off as really snobbish. Am I a jerk for thinking this?

AAAAAAAARGH wrote:Am I a jerk for thinking this?

You're a pretentious jerk.

One of these days, Angry_Dragon, you will pay for your misdeeds

it's not fun being called pretentious.

it's one thing if you're joking around, looking to push someone's buttons, but it's another when someone legitimately calls you pretentious in an accusitory manner.

I have mixed feelings regarding this word. I hate the phenomenon of labeling art pretentious simply because it's different, or more specifically, different from what you’re normally exposed to.

I have heard people call the music of Nina Nastasia pretentious. To me, this is ridiculous.

I think about pretension, and what people are inclined to call pretentious a lot. Too much!

Crap.

You're basically saying someone is pretending to be more important or better than they are, or doing something that is above them. No one has the right to make that judgement of someone else. Not when they're creating art anyway.

........ I'm not sure if it is crap. It is a useful adjective which describes a whole lot of shit that's out there. Its main 'crap' attribute might come from the fact that there is so much pretentious shit out there that this poor adjective is in risk of being terribly overused.

I think a distinction is needed between judgements about a perfectly good word and judgements about its use and overuse. Some things and people are, at least some of the time, pretentious. If the cap fits, wear it (in a slightly skew-wiff post-ironic way with matching wrist bands).

I dont mind being called it, I'd rather be pretentious than play in a ska punk band. (which are usually the people who accuse me of it), in every scene there will be the people who want to segregate the people who want to do things differently.

Rotten Tanx wrote:
No one has the right to make that judgement of someone else.

Actually I (and I alone) have that right.