“I haven’t taken the time to look into it” can sometimes serve the role of redirecting the conversation, but doesn’t convey the general sense of “It’s a waste of both our time to even be discussing this.”
In the specific case of Woody Allen, you could try something like, ” I don’t know if he’s guilty, legally or morally, but either way I think the real problem is that we live in a society where it’s likely enough to even be plausible.”
But yeah—I don’t know of such a word or phrase. I think establishing one would be much easier in a community where most people were familiar with the kind of ideas in Politics is the Mind-Killer and Your Price for Joining. I say that because I think most people are viewing these kinds of discussions as being, not about the factual question but about tribal affiliation and group identity. In that context, just refusing to state an opinion either looks suspicious or like you’re trying to seem wise and high status, like a judge.
Tribally it’s the kind of thing people want you have any opinion on one way or another.
If anything I’m searching for, or maybe hoping to seed the idea of, a linguistic trick to get people to go from talking about an opinion one way or another on (for example) Woody Allen, and rather for them to have opinions about forming opinions one way or another on these kinds of things.
Like what is the teleology of forming or having an opinion on Woody Allen and Mia Farrow? If there was only some neat trick to get them there… like a word...
I’m probably obsessing about it too much. Obsessing about people obsessing… feeling so meta right now. :)
It’s very hard to have a word for a concept that doesn’t exist in the cultural milieu you share with your conversation partner. Here on LW it might be relatively easy, I’m sure we could coin one, and maybe we use it enough in our own circles and adjacent to those circles that it starts to trickle out. Words are paintbrushes, and all that.
For now I’m amused just imagining trying to explain the concept of “teleology of forming an opinion” to, say, some of my less inquisitive and curious aunts and uncles. I think (after the maximum amount of time I’d be able to sustain the conversation) they’d come away with something like “Oh, he’s not really interested in current events, and has his head in the clouds thinking about abstract things I can’t understand.”
That said, I think a lot of the people I talk to would understand if I said, “I think having an opinion either way is a distraction, since I don’t know enough to add anything that hasn’t already been said, and in any case it’s not something that I can affect or that affects me in any way. [This next sentence is one I would add, but may not apply to you, IDK] And since there are so many stories where similar things do happen, and others where they didn’t but people think they did, I care a lot more about why the heck these kinds of things keep happening.” Then the next time something comes up, like “What do you think about Meghan Markle?” or “What do you think should/will happen to each member of the Loughlin family?” you can say, “Remember what I said about Woody Allen? I feel the same way about this.” You change the local culture by putting that idea into the air enough times that it becomes a concept you can point to.
“I haven’t taken the time to look into it” can sometimes serve the role of redirecting the conversation, but doesn’t convey the general sense of “It’s a waste of both our time to even be discussing this.”
In the specific case of Woody Allen, you could try something like, ” I don’t know if he’s guilty, legally or morally, but either way I think the real problem is that we live in a society where it’s likely enough to even be plausible.”
But yeah—I don’t know of such a word or phrase. I think establishing one would be much easier in a community where most people were familiar with the kind of ideas in Politics is the Mind-Killer and Your Price for Joining. I say that because I think most people are viewing these kinds of discussions as being, not about the factual question but about tribal affiliation and group identity. In that context, just refusing to state an opinion either looks suspicious or like you’re trying to seem wise and high status, like a judge.
That’s true… and maybe part of my frustration.
Tribally it’s the kind of thing people want you have any opinion on one way or another.
If anything I’m searching for, or maybe hoping to seed the idea of, a linguistic trick to get people to go from talking about an opinion one way or another on (for example) Woody Allen, and rather for them to have opinions about forming opinions one way or another on these kinds of things.
Like what is the teleology of forming or having an opinion on Woody Allen and Mia Farrow? If there was only some neat trick to get them there… like a word...
I’m probably obsessing about it too much. Obsessing about people obsessing… feeling so meta right now. :)
It’s very hard to have a word for a concept that doesn’t exist in the cultural milieu you share with your conversation partner. Here on LW it might be relatively easy, I’m sure we could coin one, and maybe we use it enough in our own circles and adjacent to those circles that it starts to trickle out. Words are paintbrushes, and all that.
For now I’m amused just imagining trying to explain the concept of “teleology of forming an opinion” to, say, some of my less inquisitive and curious aunts and uncles. I think (after the maximum amount of time I’d be able to sustain the conversation) they’d come away with something like “Oh, he’s not really interested in current events, and has his head in the clouds thinking about abstract things I can’t understand.”
That said, I think a lot of the people I talk to would understand if I said, “I think having an opinion either way is a distraction, since I don’t know enough to add anything that hasn’t already been said, and in any case it’s not something that I can affect or that affects me in any way. [This next sentence is one I would add, but may not apply to you, IDK] And since there are so many stories where similar things do happen, and others where they didn’t but people think they did, I care a lot more about why the heck these kinds of things keep happening.” Then the next time something comes up, like “What do you think about Meghan Markle?” or “What do you think should/will happen to each member of the Loughlin family?” you can say, “Remember what I said about Woody Allen? I feel the same way about this.” You change the local culture by putting that idea into the air enough times that it becomes a concept you can point to.