padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
but look, to the real point. it's not like on the one side there's purely objective fact and on the other side there's purely subjective opinion and there's nothing in between. in an ultimate sense yes, all things which cannot be physically measured, like speed or mass or density, are subjective. but obviously in practice when it comes to things which cannot be objectively measured humans usually try to find ways, with varying success, to agree on what qualities make something good or useful or whatever. which is what you're saying, basically, only you're doing this very zhao thing where you accuse everyone of having a crazy extreme view that no one (here, or probably anywhere) actually holds.
when I say "all opinions about art are ultimately subjective" (which is what kicked off this shitfest to begin with) what I mean is they're value judgments. if you want me to qualify that by saying that all such judgments are basically determined by our circumstances - that we're the product of our influences (including genes) - then yes, absolutely. I didn't say that to begin with b/c it should be assumed.
when I say "all opinions about art are ultimately subjective" (which is what kicked off this shitfest to begin with) what I mean is they're value judgments. if you want me to qualify that by saying that all such judgments are basically determined by our circumstances - that we're the product of our influences (including genes) - then yes, absolutely. I didn't say that to begin with b/c it should be assumed.