Something that really gets me pissed-off is when people say that I'm pretentious. First off, in what way am I pretentious? How am I presenting myself as more important than I actually am? I always admit fault, and I am never too good to apologize. Also, I almost never use more complicated words where simpler words would work just as well EXCEPT FOR very specific circumstances (tone, specific implied meaning, a joke, etc).

I think that I understand WHY they say things like this to me, and it comes from a place of no logic or reason. I personally think that all emotions should be supported with logic/reason even if circularly, and, most of the time, the people who say this to me are stuck in a loop of 'This person makes me angry. Therefore, they are pretentious.' Like. No. That's not how it works. Maybe 'This person uses words that they don't fully understand in place of words that would work WAY better. I think that this means that they're trying to present themselves as more intelligent than they actually are. Huh, I guess this means that they're pretentious.' would work, but the problem, as I stated above, is that I almost never do that. (I said 'stated' instead of 'said' as I wanted to emphasize that it was neutral; 'said' can be anything from 'I'm so excited for the new Frozen movie!' to 'I really fucking hate you.' Do you get my point?)

Anyway, it just really upsets me when people say that I act in a certain way and then can't logically support the idea. It pisses me off, though, when they try to support it, and they end up supporting it with these complete non-sequiturs. "Oh, you said that you needed to have your role changed. That's pretentious!" In WHAT WAY? HOW?! I needed a role change because I couldn't do it myself. And I needed it, too, because things had changed enough in my life that it'd be dishonest of me to keep the role I'd had. Both of these necessitate 'I need' instead of 'could I have.' If I'm saying that I need my role changed, the implication is that I'm asking for it to be changed. However, I am emphasizing that it needs to be changed because of changing circumstances AND that someone else must do it because I am not/was not a moderator/admin.

When I try to explain this to the people who accuse me of being pretentious, though, they continue obstinately protecting their views without bothering to listen to actual reason and logic.

Back to my example, I can understand where this person was coming from. 'It's rude to demand things!' is basically their argument, and saying 'I need my role changed' could possibly be misinterpreted as a command given to those of higher rank than me. However, I provided sufficient context that the person should have been able to easily see that it was not a command and it was rather a 1) statement of fact about the necessity of having my role changed and 2) a statement of fact about my inability to change it myself. Oh, and I'd like to add that saying 'I need X' doesn't imply a command; it implies a request that could either be left or taken by another person. It's really common for one to go to the butcher shop, for instance, and say 'Hi! I need 5 pounds of meat.' That's not a command. You're not commanding anyone to do anything. If it were a command, you would say 'You will give me 5 pounds of meat' or 'You need to give me five pounds of meat.' As I never mentioned a 'you,' there's no command, and the worst that it can be is an implied request.

BASICALLY: I'm not pretentious, and I'm sorry if you think that I am, but I generally have fairly good reasoning behind why I do what I do/say what I say, and it has NOTHING to do with misrepresenting myself as 'better' than I am. (Better = more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more talented, more high status, etc.)

Thanks for reading, and please have a nice day.