12-07-2018, 04:15 PM
(12-07-2018, 12:25 PM)fredtoast Wrote: That is not true around here. The people with pessimistic outlooks are the ones that cry, excuse me, "vent" the loudest. They are the ones that take the Bengal failure as a personal affront. Instead of criticizing the Bengals football acumen they make personal attacks about appearance or character. They are not satisfied claiming that the Bengals are a below average team. Instead everything about the Bengals has to be the absolute worst in the league. They can't just be disappointed. Instead they have to be victims of embarrassment and derision from the rest of the league. When the Bengals win a regular season game it is meaningless because "only playoffs count", but when the Bengals lose a regular season game it is a source of endless outrage.
In reading through various threads each day during the time I have available, I have noticed some trends in your style of argument that seem to undermine the points and assertions that you seem to be putting forth. I've noticed that you often declare yourself and your arguments to be among the very few --- in your opinion -- that are reasonable and logical. However, I have found many of your arguments to be rather faulty in that they are often very fallacious, contradictory and usually straw man reliant.
Let's take, for example, the arguments you've offered in this thread alone. You seem to be proclaiming that people should have hope -- as it provides a higher grade of life -- and that being pessimistic is somehow detrimental to a person's happiness.
The obvious conflict in this assertion is that optimism and pessimism are in no way contradictory outlooks when it pertains to the overall context of a particular subject. In this case, the subject is the Bengals. One can easily be very optimistic that the Bengals will win a playoff game at some point in the near future. However, at the same time, they can retain a certain amount of pessimism about the reality of that happening based on previous experience. Therefore, a person could have hope, though it is reasonably tempered by certain realities.
You seem to also conclude that a person who is cynical, critical or persistent in voicing their dissatisfaction must in turn live a sad, depressed existence and that they are using the failures of the Bengals as an excuse to claim for themselves a personal grievance and victimization. However, this is an inference that excludes other reasonable options such as:
Extended periods of disappointment which leads to lowered expectations.
Cynicism that is derived from continued results that reaffirm negative conclusions.
Having one's opinions and judgement tainted by emotional, financial and time allocations that they no longer find rewarding.
The very nature of what it means to be a Bengals fan; where a certain level of disappointment and irony can reasonably be assumed in advance.
There are many factors that can lead to one becoming hyperbolic and over-the-top in their opinions and they don't all conclude that the person is necessarily looking to play victim or leading a miserable existence. Sometimes, the person may just be incredibly jaded or discontent to the point where hope, as it were, seems to fly in the face of reality to the point where pessimism seems a more rational outlook.
Another area where I've noticed you often -- very often in fact -- defeat your own proclamation of credibility is the use of straw man arguments. Even if the points you are making contain elements that are are valid and reasoned, your continued exercise of asking people to defend positions that they didn't necessarily take -- and that you purposefully created for them -- they are lost in the context of your disingenuous tactics.
I hope you don't take these critiques personally. They are merely meant as constructive criticism of your argument style and not of you as a person. I think you make some very sound and interesting points but they often get lost in the problematic nature of your composition.
