Guilt in Criticism

I don’t know about you but I feel guilty a lot of the time. About almost everything. I also feel miserable a lot of the time, again, about almost everything. These are mental modes I have been led to understand are non-standard.

I have been reflecting lately on the nature of criticism in light of this.

There are people I know who are unhappy to hear criticism of anything they like, because it makes them feel bad. That is to say, they feel morally attacked when the things they like are called into question by criticism. I understand there is some general reaction to that of just deal with it, which isn’t really helpful as responses go.

Mostly I’ve been thinking about invoking guilt in media criticism.

I’ve seen some media critics who I consider, generally, to be closer to my views than the contrary who I have felt are criticising things in a way I think of as just ‘not even wrong.’ They’re taking issue with say, Doom being hyperviolent, or complaining that games that do exist are not games that don’t exist. These speeches ring to me of sermons from my youth, when a moral scold stood and made an issue, in as clear a word as they could, that if you liked this thing you were bad. Not this thing has bad implications or consider this message, but this thing makes you bad. That is to say, they were speeches designed to wield guilt, as a tool, and inflict it.

Some of us don’t really need that. And what’s more, when we’re talking about and criticising and engaging with media, especially from a mindset that considers the existing world to be full of problems like patriarchy, kyriarchy and media representation, your words can structure a mindset of pure, weaponised guilt. Everything is bad. Everything you could say is bad. Everything you think is bad.

I’ve lived in that mindset.

It isn’t fun and it can be crushing to people who are struggling with the existing emotional damage and pressure of this big cruel world. What I’m saying is: Consider trying to structure your message so it is not you are bad. That might help people who are already tense and anxious when engaging with your writing. And you don’t have to try and scold people into agreeing with you, into feeling pain because of how they have responded to media.

That seems, at the very least, to be a little crueller than we should be striving to be.