Don’t randomly announce an unpopular opinion if you want to be popular! - ThreadSky

michaelhobbes.bsky.social • 57 days ago

Don’t randomly announce an unpopular opinion if you want to be popular!

The response to this is absolutely unhinged. Nancy's NOT saying that she interrupts people who want to be left alone. But she is saying that she wants to be welcoming to people and not zone everyone out.

Seriously, read the replies to her. WOW.

Comments

warrenterra.bsky.social•56 days ago

I think she could have expressed her fondness for talking to strangers in a way that wasn't unpopular! She chose to start by saying she didn't like how many other people were choosing to make themselves unavailable, and while she conceded that was their choice she didn't seem very sincere about it.

warrenterra.bsky.social•56 days ago

If she'd left them out if it entirely, said she'd had some great conversations with stranger on planes and was always delighted to sit next to someone who seemed interested in engaging with their neighbor, she might not have given the impression of wanting to harass people seeking to be left alone.

fancycwabs.bsky.social•56 days ago

Yeah, “unpopular opinion: I like meeting new people on airplanes” wouldn’t have gotten nearly the engagement she clearly craves.

Still unpopular, not nearly the sign of a sociopath.

unaha-closp.bsky.social•56 days ago

"Unpopular opinion: You, reader, are an obnoxious jerk. I, otoh, am nice and pleasant. I miss when everybody was like me."

archlichen.bsky.social•56 days ago

I guess the same meaning could be worded in a much friendlier tone.
🤷🏽‍♂️

heldsteady.bsky.social•57 days ago

People are being absolutely insane in the replies, though.

sashotodorov.bsky.social•56 days ago

This is a social media site that caters to people particularly enmeshed in the discourse, so there's naturally going to be an overrepresentation of the militantly anti-social.

nfinit.bsky.social•57 days ago

Some of us would rather be left alone if we are giving off multiple obvious physical hints (earbuds, books/tablets, sunglasses) that we'd rather be left alone rather than engage in random conversation and it's frankly rude to insist that we are obliged to interact.

heldsteady.bsky.social•56 days ago

But that's not what she said, is it? Reads to me more like she wished she had fewer people next to her with headphones so they could talk.

maladena.bsky.social•57 days ago

i got what she said and kinda agree, but she phrased it so so badly. if you're an author and have problems phrasing such a simple skeet, you probably deserve the replies she's getting lol

maskfairy.bsky.social•56 days ago

Can you explain what she meant?

michaelhobbes.bsky.social•56 days ago

It's basically "I used to chat with people on airplanes more than I do now and that's a bummer," which is a totally fine thing to think! She just phrased it in a weirdly scoldy way

fancycwabs.bsky.social•56 days ago

“I like meeting new people on airplanes” doesn’t get the engagement she clearly wanted, so now she’s history’s greatest monster.

giromide.online•56 days ago

Yeah it's just a lazy copy paste of "things used to be X and now they're Y, which I think it worse" and she's not considering most folks traveling or commuting haven't and don't want to socialize in transit.

fancycwabs.bsky.social•56 days ago

One presumes she wanted to go viral to sell copies of her book, so she posted a hacky “hot take” and now she doesn’t like the attention.

dukeofsus.bsky.social•56 days ago

We should all engage with the people we met more freely. Humans are social creatures, yet we insist upon minimizing interaction with strangers. The airplane presents a long period with nothing to do and nowhere to go, so why not socialize? (This is my read, not my opinion)

fancycwabs.bsky.social•56 days ago

His wife has the potential to be the first Bean Dad of Bluesky.

markekraus.com•56 days ago

Ugh. That holier than thou "asocial people ruin my day" really gets my goat. People are not required to entertain you, smile at you, or greet you. They are only required to not be a dick to you. Strangers have their own lives, you don't know them, and they owe you nothing.

acebojangles.bsky.social•56 days ago

I'm with David on this one. What she said wasn't that bad and the reactions are worse

dino-monster.bsky.social•56 days ago

People don’t get to have rage inducing takes and be like “strangers won’t talk to me”, no shit, I can see why.

acebojangles.bsky.social•56 days ago

All she said is she liked it when people were more willing to talk to strangers on planes. She even framed it as an unpopular opinion.

davedoyle.bsky.social•56 days ago

No.

acebojangles.bsky.social•56 days ago

Yes.

ghostyspook.bsky.social•56 days ago

She could have started by not being mad at people for using the hours they’re on a plane to read or whatever

ghostyspook.bsky.social•56 days ago

Omg
https://bsky.app/profile/juravaudois.bsky.social/post/3lnru773u7c2q

ifarmky.bsky.social•56 days ago

She could have said: I love airport books and find them deeply interesting and helpful. When I'm on a plane, I just want to share my new found wisdom with my seatmate(s).
Last week I met Peter and Michael but they immediately put on eye masks and ear buds. What is wrong with people.

mistermike.bsky.social•56 days ago

I know it's friendly banter, but this exchange is particularly oblivious. She takes his boundary (20 mins then alone time) and turns it into a personal challenge!

mrsmacwasmygma.bsky.social•56 days ago

Play is practice! Jokes become behaviors.

epistrophee.bsky.social•56 days ago

She knew it was unpopular but did it anyway. Does she even want French to do this? This is like your dad calling the kid who beat you up because you deserved it.

chronolynx.bsky.social•56 days ago

there are literally two possible outcomes to any post that begins "unpopular opinion": either it's actually a *popular* opinion and everyone congratulates you for being so brave, or you piss everybody off

giromide.online•56 days ago

a second French has hit Bluesky

j.wieche.rs•56 days ago

I have the sneaking suspicion most people who voice "unpopular opinions" are secretly convinced that they are suppressed very popular opinions and that they will be lauded by their peers for having the courage to express them. 🤔

meddlesomebeast.bsky.social•57 days ago

Me: I think everyone should have diarrhea.

Me 4 hours later: gee whiz, everyone sure seems to be understanding what I said perfectly and they hate it! Unhinged!

gbeason.bsky.social•56 days ago

If this is how she talks to strangers, no wonder people don’t want to talk to her.

holliethenerd.bsky.social•56 days ago

It just kind of staggered me how far she went out of her way to turn a wholly benign opinion - “I like chatting to people on planes” into a deeply snotty complaint that readers on planes are posers and she liked it back when people felt socially obliged to put up with being “inconvenienced.”

holliethenerd.bsky.social•56 days ago

Several people also pointed out it’s a bit weird that she’s an author complaining about people reading

wednesdaygj.bsky.social•57 days ago

Nancy is a monster

michaelhobbes.bsky.social•57 days ago

I think she’s probably a perfectly fine human being but it is a very bad skeet!

nfinit.bsky.social•56 days ago

Possibly not a good person, as it turns out!
https://bsky.app/profile/glennf.com/post/3lnqntuef2k2p

wednesdaygj.bsky.social•56 days ago

Her post suggests that she is self absorbed. If she tried that on me on a plane or train or in any public place, my discomfort levels would be so high.

winnerbowzer.bsky.social•56 days ago

She wants to talk about her lord and savior Jesus Christ

mournalisa.bsky.social•56 days ago

ngl I'm open to talking to strangers on a plane, but often ask myself "but what if... they're a Nancy?"

ghostyspook.bsky.social•56 days ago

I am happy to talk to all sorts of randos but I am also happy to read a book

haethre.bsky.social•56 days ago

I’m an extrovert who hates talking on airplanes. They are my time to be alone and hope my Dramamine works. I wear sunglasses and headphones.

bamamontana.bsky.social•56 days ago

How do you go about enlisting your husband to defend your honor online?

ranryu.bsky.social•56 days ago

The juxtaposition of this post and your posts criticizing anyone who thinks "defund the police" is a bad slogan is really something to see

kovarchi.com•56 days ago

I’m guessing she’s never started a conversation with someone who’s gone on to trauma dump so intensely that she’s felt trapped in a lesser circle of hell.

(Not that this is something someone pointed out I sometimes do to people, heaven forbid…)

auntfritzi.bsky.social•56 days ago

Honestly turning the tables on someone like Nancy French and just vomiting word salad at them when they force themselves on you on an airplane is such a power move
Nancy: Have you heard the Good News about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
You: MY MOTHER NEVER LOVED ME MY FATHER LEFT WHEN I WAS 3

astrokatie.com•57 days ago

I dunno I think randomly announcing an unpopular opinion is likely to be fine if you’re not super condescending toward people holding the opposing view while you do it

slappypantsgo.bsky.social•56 days ago

Yep. Total reactionary nonsense. Basically the “and another thing” class of idiocy.

todoscojones.bsky.social•57 days ago

I'm not going to all the trouble of espousing an unpopular opinion if it doesn't give me the right to claim the intellectual (and sometimes the moral) high ground and act all snobby to those with a less refined analysis.

I can't help it. It's a habit I picked up working with the Leninists.

nfinit.bsky.social•57 days ago

Which was the crazy part about people who insisted on defending her argument (if not Nancy directly because wow); telling introverts that we are being childish for not wanting to be bothered and smarmy shit like "when you go outside strangers will talk to you".

norbizness.bsky.social•57 days ago

I wonder who decides what person we're going to descend on like a plague of wasps to the exclusion of all others on any given day.

norbizness.bsky.social•57 days ago

What this ultimately pointless post with 1538 comments needs is a 1539th comment.

oujii.bsky.social•56 days ago

David and Nancy French are high profile reactionary Christian nationalists

caseyhartman.bsky.social•56 days ago

At the very least preface it with this so we all know what we're getting into:

haethre.bsky.social•56 days ago

People on the internet love to make their foibles normative.

my-random-name.bsky.social•56 days ago

Big time.

Come on, people. Get it right.

“I like (unpopular) because…”
^ acceptable. You do you.

“You are wrong because I (unpopular) ….”
^ very, very bad. Do not do this

420attychicago.bsky.social•56 days ago

Also, this just goes to show how little people really want to be bothered by strangers in confined spaces.

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