I’ve been thinking about how many times I’ve had people demand me apologize in my life while simultaneously acting incredibly harsh and rude to me, so I decided to write down a little list of the things people have absolutely no business demanding you apologize for. These are from my personal experience, but they’re still generally pretty true regardless of who you are.
1. Drawing boundaries – I’m allowed to say I don’t like it when people do certain things.
2. Standing up for yourself when nobody else will – If nobody else will defend me it’s not my fault that if I end up having to do it myself and hurt your feelings. I’ve watched many people over the years avoid defending me because they like the person who’s angry at me. You can like both of us and still tell them to stop.
3. Giving yourself credit – I’m allowed to say I’m good at video, or even better than most at it. God gave me this skill, I know I have it. There’s nothing arrogant, or self congratulatory about saying that.
4. Not following the crowd – I’ve had people say “well I’ve got 6 other people who disagree with you” in debates and arguments most of my life. This is a logical fallacy
“Ad populum/Bandwagon Appeal: This is an appeal that presents what most people, or a group of people think, in order to persuade one to think the same way. Getting on the bandwagon is one such instance of an ad populum appeal.”
5. Expressing how you feel, especially whenever others seem to have no problem telling you how they feel about you, and your works.
6. Having expectations – A few years ago I was arguing with somebody on Facebook about how I felt angry at somebody and expected them to act differently. They said “That’s your fault for having expectations” and I’ve never forgotten how blatantly logic-less and stupid this reply was.
7. Saying the truth when nobody else wants to hear it – I got ignored for 2-3 years at one point for pointing things out to people who didn’t want to actually listen to me. Mainly because I was young, which is completely unbiblical.