So I see this too much:
“if you don’t spell out that something is good or bad, no one will know” in the context of writing for adult audiences.
If you’re writing for kids, it can still be a little insulting to their intelligence, but the tiniest of babies might benefit from some extra guidance.
But an adult? If they seriously at this point need to have it told to them “this is good” and “this is bad,” hoo boy they are a lost cause. I would not even trust that kind of reader with Fox In Socks tbh.
I was in Special Education classes for years and teachers pulled this shit all the time. We seriously spent an entire afternoon pausing Willy Wonka over and over just to point out “that kid was being bad.” I remember leaving the classroom with some friends and we were honestly just so confused why we, as eighth graders, were being sat down to have the obvious spoon-fed to us. It was one of the first times I ever felt genuinely insulted.
To urge writers to treat adult readers lower than a kindergartner honestly sounds like some deep personal issues and a lack of proper parental guidance growing up. (But then again most of the people suggesting this are from the age of oblivious parents letting their 7 year old play M rated games, so I mean…)
Maybe I’ll change my mind if there are any news reports of a demon possessed Smurf doll who happened to read The Poop That Took A Pee, but until then, I kindly ask to stop infantilizing grown adults who were raised properly.
The Sims of San Myshuno 