You’re Not Going to Like This—Or Maybe You Will

Off Topic — A Pet Peeve

To manipulate someone...involves a subtle influence on that person's actions, beliefs, desires, feeling, or values, which in turn inhibits rational deliberation. It may involve the falsification or omission of information, or it may involve a play on one's non-rational impulses. But it is widely characterized by an element of subtle and often deceptive persuasiveness.¹

— Raymond S. Pfeiffer

I am weary of writers telling me I’m not going to like the content they’re going to present. It’s a passive aggressive way to say, “I’m smarter than you, I understand this better than you, I know what type of person you are, and you’re not going to like this because you’re an idiot.”

You know what? Just write your high and mighty thoughts and spare us the condescending bullshit. Maybe I won’t like it, I’ll make that decision. Maybe I will like it, I’ll make that decision too.

But don’t preface your elitist prose with this rubbish in an attempt to build yourself up before your readers have had a chance to evaluate your stunning erudition. You may be 100% right with your unspeakable eloquence and intelligence, but let your readers decide if they like it or not, if they agree with it or not.

It’s a subtle attempt to gaslight readers. The unstated insinuation is, if they like this, this thing the writer hasn’t revealed to them yet, they’re smart like the writer, but if they don’t like the idea the author is keeping hidden from them for now, well, they’re a little dense and just don’t get it and probably never will. Without any facts or arguments readers are supposed to feel like they should agree with what’s coming because this smart, astute writer just told them if they don’t their understanding of the topic is ignorant and juvenile.

Respect your readers!

Finis.

Notes

1. Levering, Robert, A Great Place to Work: What Makes Some Employers So Good ( And Most So Bad), Random House, New York, 1988. p. 124.