Criticizing criticism

You can be criticized countless times.

You’re a loudmouth. You say too many obnoxious jokes. You’re insensitive to other people’s feelings. You’re rude, annoying and not funny. You don’t think before you speak.

You can tell someone this. You can tell someone that.

You can dig, dig and dig deep down to find any dirt you have on a person, just to stand victorious for a minute. You can threaten to get physical. You can take advantage of your super-loud voice to mute your rival. You can cry for sympathy. You can get your friends involved to stick up for you.

Just attack as hard as you can.  Whatever.

But when one says, “you can’t handle criticism,” take it as a compliment, because it means you’ve just won.

Your opponent is now on the defense. There’s nothing left to say. You argued to the point where the opponent is at a loss for words and is forced into playing the “you can’t handle criticism” card.

And if they use the lame “it’s constructive criticism” excuse, don’t buy into it, because there’s no difference.

In comparison, consider the phrase “no offense.”

“I hate your shirt, no offense” is equal to “I hate your shirt.”

The same concept aligns with criticism and constructive criticism.

When a boxer enters the ring, he’s not trying to win constructively; he just fights and does whatever it takes to win. And he certainly does not expect his opponent to stand there motionless and unwilling to defend himself. That would be a purely one-sided fight.

I want to reach out to those of you who constantly have people telling you “you can’t handle criticism.”

It’s a dumb defense mechanism.

For you people who use that dreadful line in an argument, get over yourselves. Just because your opponent didn’t react to your criticism the way you wanted surely does not mean he or she can’t handle it. Instead, the negative energy is embraced and fired back defensively.

They did handle it; they handled it their way.

There is no way to not handle criticism. Nobody is going to react exactly the same to it.

You have your thoughts and he has his thoughts.

The world would suck if everyone agreed on everything. I don’t mean to preach here, but seriously, who wants to live in a world where everyone’s thoughts are the same? There’s probably some weirdo who would raise his hand and say, “I do,” but I’m confident most of the population would not want that. There would be no personality diversity if all minds were exactly the same.

Share your thoughts all you want, but you’re not always going to receive a medal for it.
People need to speak their minds, and that’s understandable.

If it was agreed upon, that’s fantastic. If it wasn’t, get over it.

Call it criticizing criticism.