shinelikethunder:

can we please bring back “in poor taste” as a concept

Because at some point it got folded in under “problematic,” and now every damn thing that has Unfortunate Implications or deals with sensitive topics indelicately enough to raise hackles or gores somebody’s sacred cow is treated as a grave injustice or a threat to society. Online activism culture has lost the vocabulary to express “this deals with touchy stuff in a way many people might find inappropriate, and you should probably avoid it if insensitivity on this subject gets you angry/upset, but it’s not promoting hateful ideas or demeaning people or affecting anything but my opinion of the creator’s sense of tact.”

Lol, it’s a funny coincidence that just today some people were talking about the widespread hate for Taylor Swift and I said “I don’t hate her, I just find her distasteful.”

Let’s bring back a normative notion of taste, which is distinct from the moral but is up for reasoned dispute, to an extent, and can be judged better or worse. David Hume implores you. (And is judging you.)