This is a passive aggressive rant about passive aggressive rants. It's not addressed at any one person in particular, and I don't care if it sounds hypocritical. If you have something to say, say it. I'm baring my troubled soul, don't read further if you don't want to hear some cold, hard opinions.
Goodness knows I hate confrontation -- nobody hates emotional confrontation as much as I do! When faced with such an encounter I experience a high level of stress and anxiety, particularly when emotions are concerned. It's not as much of an issue in a professional setting, because in a professional setting no confrontation is (or should be) personal. It's logical, it's practical, it's business. But everything in your personal life is personal, if it wasn't it wouldn't be there. I avoid potential encounters and the anxiety that accompanies them. I'm not good at coping with it.
This flaw in my personality has lead to a tendency toward passive aggression. I'm a note leaver, door slammer, sarcasm speaker, under my breath talker, eye roller, rant writer, and occasional pushover when I feel like it is really just not worth the confrontation. Very few things in my personal life are worth that price. I buy things I don't want to buy, I go places I don't want to go, I have even dated people I didn't really want to date. It's a problem, but one I'm trying to deal with.
Nobody likes to disappoint others, nobody wants to be a jerk, but I've never really found a way to separate feeling like a jerk from telling someone no. Society grooms us to feel that way. I shouldn't have to apologize for my opinions, my preferences, or my disinterest.... but I feel like I should.
But even greater than I my loathing of confrontation is my abhorrence of the passive aggressive Facebook post. You know the one I mean, the one that's directed at someone in particular, or everyone in particular. If you have something to say to me, say it to ME. Don't post it to me and all the rest of the world. Even I am too much of an adult for that crap.
They say communication is only like 7% the words you actually speak, and the rest is tone and body language. I think that's partially why I prefer not to say what I feel, I feel like I shouldn't have to. I remember a quote that I've always liked:
Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.- Thomas Carlyle
That's what I hate about common speech, you often say things you don't mean (or mean 7%), and things that you mean only temporarily. Moreover, once you speak a word it's out there in the universe forever, you can never really take it back. It's a frightening thought, isn't it? Or am I the only one troubled by such a commitment?
So if what you are saying is irretractable, shouldn't you be even more careful about what you write, and especially careful about what you post on the internet? As entertaining as your soap opera of wrongs and opinions is, wouldn't it be more effective to communicate those wrongs and opinions to the person who can actually do something about them? What are you trying to accomplish by airing that crap on social media? Notoriety? Sympathy? You're acting like a juvenile and you look like a jackass. Grow up.
