Well...It wasn't exactly an insult, but I think it still works. And I'll explain why verbal insults don't really mean anything anyway. But first:
Now, why are verbal insults meaningless? Well, either they're not true and thus are completely meaningless, or they ARE true. In this case, they're either something you can't change (and thus have no reason to feel bad about it) or you CAN change it, and having this character flaw exposed has paved the way to self-improvement. Or it's something that's true and you don't WANT to change it, in which case, it's still meaningless.
A little under a year ago, one of my 3 roommates, let's call him M, decided to move out. The problem is, he didn't tell anyone else. This is what happened: He randomly came home with a puppy. He works with kids at an elementary school, and some parents brought a bunch of them in a box. Knowing he was going to be living on his own soon anyway, he took one. The problem of course, is that WE didn't know he was moving soon. We thought he was just...planning on raising a damn dog in our house without any of our consent. Which is basically what he told us he was going to do. I honestly don't know why he didn't just come clean then. Needless to say, we weren't happy.
There was talk of just getting rid of her(the puppy, that is) one way or another (like a pound or something) when M wasn't around. We'd be well within our rights, since it was REALLY out of line to bring the dog there in the first place. In the end, we ended up telling him that either the dog goes, or he has to move out. And even THEN, he only agreed to try to find a new place, like it was OUR idea. We had to press him even further to find out that he'd been planning it already for months.
But it didn't end there. With one of our roommates gone, the rent went up. We actually needed time to find a new roommate, which M did not provide. We all ended up paying higher rent for several months before we finally found someone, though we were strongly considering moving back in with our damn parents by then. All because M, who I feel I should mention we've all known since were about 8 years old, decided to move out in the most obnoxious, selfish way possible. (OK, I guess he could've just bolted in the night. Whatever, it was still a dick move)
So I found that whole thing pretty insulting.
There was talk of just getting rid of her(the puppy, that is) one way or another (like a pound or something) when M wasn't around. We'd be well within our rights, since it was REALLY out of line to bring the dog there in the first place. In the end, we ended up telling him that either the dog goes, or he has to move out. And even THEN, he only agreed to try to find a new place, like it was OUR idea. We had to press him even further to find out that he'd been planning it already for months.
But it didn't end there. With one of our roommates gone, the rent went up. We actually needed time to find a new roommate, which M did not provide. We all ended up paying higher rent for several months before we finally found someone, though we were strongly considering moving back in with our damn parents by then. All because M, who I feel I should mention we've all known since were about 8 years old, decided to move out in the most obnoxious, selfish way possible. (OK, I guess he could've just bolted in the night. Whatever, it was still a dick move)
So I found that whole thing pretty insulting.
Now, why are verbal insults meaningless? Well, either they're not true and thus are completely meaningless, or they ARE true. In this case, they're either something you can't change (and thus have no reason to feel bad about it) or you CAN change it, and having this character flaw exposed has paved the way to self-improvement. Or it's something that's true and you don't WANT to change it, in which case, it's still meaningless.
Well said.
