Pet Peeve: You Are NOT An Oracle.

[cali]

Yes, I'm wasting an OP on a pet peeve. Now, I'll get on with it.

You don't know that Hillary would lose in the GE.

You don't know that the Rezco trial is going to blow Obama out of the water.

You don't know that the McCain thing will solidify support for him.

You don't know that Obama will win the nomination.

Etc

Etc

Etc

I'm so sick of these absolutist predictions, unfailingly stated in terms of omniscience. Why pretend you've visited the future and returned in your magic little time machine? Why pretend you've got access to a working crystal ball?

At least try and preface these comments with "I predict that...." or "I believe that....". Because it's bullshit to say that you KNOW something that is completely unknowable.

phew. glad I got that off my chest.

[scheming daemons]

1. I PREDICT THAT your thread will get a bunch of rec's.

;-)

[grantcart]

2. and I predict it will unfortunately have little effect -

Although it would greatly improve the quality of many posts Thank you for it

[displacedtexan]

5. I predict you're correctamundo on that one, scheming daemons!

K&R'd!

[jkshaw]

3. Hear hear, cali!

I noticed one right away when I logged on earlier this morning -- something about Hillary WILL win ... etc. Not that the poster is wrong, but the use of "will" is wrong.

[Deep13]

7. shall?

:shrug:

[jkshaw]

8. Ha! Now you're asking!

We in the US appear to "misuse" will and shall as much as we confuse lie and lay, nausea and nauseous, would have and would OF.

But what I meant was, as cali pointed out, the poster should have made it clear that it was the poster's opinion by adding "I think" or "It's my opinion." Of course, the sentence would soften up a bit, lose it's punch. The fact that it wouldn't raise as many hackles (in my opinion) would also rob the thread of a lot of fun reading!

[jkshaw]

18. Sorry, I meant nauseous and nauseated.

I hear this often enough at the doctor's. "Are you nauseous?" though nauseous means something sickening like bad meat, or a sickening comment or picture. Nauseated is what happens after eating, seeing, hearing, something nauseous. Nobody seems to notice the difference and soon the two words will be interchangeable. Perhaps already are.

And yes, I remember being given the business about an excess of humility in one essay I sent to a journal while still in school -- enough with the "in my opinion" the editor said. It was on Virginia Woolf.

[iconoclastic cat]

4. "Wow! You really can see into the...present..."

/Lisa Simpson

[Deep13]

6. In fairness, a statement about the future is always speculative...

...so to some degree prefacing it with qualifiers is redundant. In college and again in law school, qualifying an agrument was considered to be an acknowledgement of its weakness. Consequently, I was instructed never to do it.

I just know Hillary will do better when Black History Month is over. :evilgrin: How's that for a novel excuse?

[tishaLA]

9. I predict you're going to get a snarky reply

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. That Didn't Take Long

:rofl:

Wait a minute... Hey!!!! You must be an oracle!!!!!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. I'm Not??? Fuck. Now I've Gotta Get My Business Cards Reprinted...

[mathewsleep]

11. i actually "am" an oracle.

i live in a monastery and have 100 monks who pray to me. i make daily predictions and they live their lives by them.

[cali]

13. How's that working out for them?

Sounds like a good gig for you.

[mathewsleep]

16. they go hungry a lot.

i predicted fall was the best time to plant crops. my bad.

[bridgit]

14. We don't know noth'n!! Check!

[blogslut]

15. I dunno

A psychic friend once told me I was an Oracle at Delphi in a past life. At the time I thought he was being silly. Maybe he was right!

[dmallind]

17. Why is it that people who visit psychics always turn out to have interesting past lives

I mean I can't remember anyone ever saying "I went to a psychic and they said in my past life I spent 45 years as a Guinness clerk 3rd class, eating inferior bacon for breakfast and wearing a worn out suit until I died".

[blogslut]

20. Pretty much what I think

Mind you, this was a friend. I didn't consult him or pay him. He just did a reading on me - of his own accord.

I tend to think most psychics are just really good at observing human nature.

[CreekDog]

19. Amen! Thank you so much for posting this.

I predict...

:rofl:

[damntexdem]

21. I'm sorry that I'm annoying you by not being an oracle.

The thing is, I feel more comfortable looking at the facts on the ground (11 straight primary wins, surging in the polls, excitement here in Texas) rather than act like an oracle -- and breathe the fumes coming out of the ground. I'll leave that to Faux News and GOP boosters.

(Wow, and I'm not even attacking Hillary or her campaign! Go figure!)

[H2O Man]

22. Oracle, missionary ....

no one's business.

[SteppingRazor]

23. Eh, I don't have that much of a problem with it.

When someone throws out a prediction without the modifiers "I think that" or "I predict that," I just assume that those modifiers are inferred.

Now, on the other hand, if someone writes "such and such WILL happen" or "I know that such and such will happen" or "I am 100 percent certain that..." then I'd have a problem.

But if you just say, "Hillary will lose the GE" or "Rezko will destroy Obama," I just naturally take that as opinion.