Mmm. Consider it possible that I'm right? Not everything that sounds good stands up in the cold harsh light of criticism. Or as a great poet once put it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hzkBihaew): "Do you remember Rick Astley? He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly."

Update: heh, my fastest-downvoted comment. Yup, I'm definitely right.

> I'm definitely right.

That's really not how that works, kinda like how pirates don't prevent global warming [1]

[1] https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/hilarious-...

You can't be "right", much less "definitely right" about a subjective opinion on the quality of an artistic work.

That's just, like, your opinion dash2.

Oh, woah, just cool it krapp! Your last tape wasn't such hot stuff!

Seriously, sure, this isn't like a maths problem. But we can have reasoned opinions about art, just as we can have reasoned opinions about whether, say, a piece of software is well or badly written, given that it does what it's technically supposed to. I'm not just saying it's bad because it gave me a nasty feeling in my tummy.

In particular, poetry and art contain ideas. They express ideas powerfully and viscerally. It matters whether we have good or bad ideas, thinking or hot air, new understanding or stale clichés. In this sense, art isn't just like a bag of cheetos. It has consequences. That's why dictatorships have often censored good art, and supported bad art. Good art can express new thoughts. I think the US will need a lot of new thoughts in the next four years.

No, it's not that you're "right". It's that your techbro-ism is showing. Not a good look.

You've repeatedly broken the site guidelines in this thread by calling names, among other things. That's not cool—not in this comment, nor in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25862065, nor in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25862047. We ban accounts that post repeatedly like that. Fortunately, your comment history doesn't have much of it (in fact, I didn't see any other cases when I skimmed back a ways) and contains many good comments. Please stick to that kind of comment and drop this kind. The commons is vulnerable and fragile and we need everyone to help protect it.

I'm not sure what techbro-ism means. I don't work in tech. Do you mean that as a man, I ought not to criticize a black woman's poetry? I don't accept that.

It's inappropriate to make a pass at autism as the reason why the person may be responding in a manner one disagrees with towards a piece of art. For one thing, autistic poets and authors exist and can exist successfully, often with their neurodiversity actively enriching their art.

(Especially given the poet in question has a disability herself, I am criticizing the assuming a disability as a way to to criticize someone's response to art.)