Comment by khazhoux
2 months ago
Have you ever said about someone, "that guy's an asshole"?
If so, you reduced them into a caricature, and you should have instead said "that guy behaved in the manner of an asshole, though I trust that he is otherwise a fully-actualized individual with a life of his own, and with factors outside my visibility that impact his decisions and behaviors."
Was this intended to be a "gotcha"? I might be giving people more credit than they deserve but I'm pretty sure most people don't relegate folks to "simply an asshole and nothing more". It's just a quick way to say "that guy was being an asshole just then."
Also, it's not apples and oranges comparing a spoken remark in the heat of the moment to a thoughtful, written out blog post.