Who needs a unifying theme anyway?

jakec:

[SNIP]

I hate having to defend my tastes, and I know a lot of people feel the same way, just because they’re popular.

[SNIP]

Art-house? Boring. Silent films? Boring. The Godfather? Boring. These are my opinions. You may like them, I respect that. Unfortunately, at the moment, a lot of people are caught up in elitism and are incapable of responding with similar respect.

[SNIP]

You’re only being called upon to defend your tastes because you expound them so enthusiastically, and so (dare I say it) thoughtlessly.

You don’t like old films. You think Art House is boring. You think certain genres are bullshit. But then you call yourself a literate film buff.

That’s all cool and fun, but you can’t be belligerently ignorant and then expect people to take your opinions seriously. Your stance is basically “Here is what I like. What you like is shit. I am educated. Do not criticise me because it makes me sad.”

Fact is we do judge people by their taste in things, all the time. A person is the sum total of the choices that they have made. For example if you say you don’t like ‘Arthouse Shit’, I’ll assume you like seeing films that provide you with an experience for which you are prepared. You’re not open to the new, the confronting, or the difficult.

That’s not to say you have to love that sort of stuff, but you can’t act one way and claim a title that describes something else.

By the way, the idea that people have to respect one another’s opinions is namby-pamby montessori school bullshit. If one has opinions that are unpopular, one should not expect them to be respected.