Triviality vs. Vitriol

[missroserose]

Recently, I read someone's observation about the inverse relationship between the relative importance of a binary choice and the vitriol with which they would defend it. Which is to say, when someone has two options (toilet paper over/under, HD DVD/Blu-Ray, one/two spaces after a period), the less important their ultimate choice is, the more earnestly and angrily they will defend it.

At the time, I thought it was a cute koan, but a bit simplistic and not likely to apply in most situations.

Now, having read (or started to read, and ended up skimming) a good fifteen pages of people arguing over the superiority of Macs vs. PCs (with the obligatory mention of Linux in there too), I'm starting to believe it...

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I was going to take the idea of the binary and yet unimportant idea (that the less important a binary choice is, the more vociferous the defense) and then vociferously deny it. But it's far too complex for me to do effectively this early in the morning.

So this is a bookmark where I can come back and try it when I'm more awake.