It continues to be true that the “both sides” argument is only made by:

Playing my rape victim card: I’ve been raped by a stranger in an alley. I’ve also had my boob grabbed by a guy in an elevator who was trying to hit on me, and a guy in a meeting touch my leg under the table, and a crazy homeless guy grab my crotch. I’m never going to tell you that being raped was better than those…

I’m not doxxing myself to win an argument on Kinja, but if you do any of your own research into recent Nobel Literature selections you will see that a positive political message is a strong criterion for the prize.

I thought this was a reasonable thing to say when referencing Dylan but apparently I’m an idiot who thinks he’s getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Still haven’t had many responses that weren’t “actually he deserves this because this isn’t the peace prize.” Well then let’s submit my Kinja history for the Nobel in…

People are angrier than I imagined but I think it’s telling their defense is THIS ISN’T ABOUT PEACE instead of “actually Dylan deserves it for x z and z good reasons”

I am extremely dramatic, I won’t deny this.

Ehhh I just meant that his ideological benefit is overrated, in my opinion. I actually don’t respect him as a lyricist, though I think he has a lot of good moments when he isn’t writing about women. There’s plenty of blatantly problematic music I enjoy as feminist—more problematic than Dylan—and I don’t think anyone…

“my criticism doesn’t take away his prize”

Oh my God I get it. You fell for Dylan’s shtick and want your musical taste validated. Well it was. By the Nobel committee. But not by me.

I was speaking to Dylan’s reputation as a social change maker. Can’t be more clear than that. Unless you think they’re giving it to him for pushing humanity in the direction of shitty guttural singing.

I think he deserves all the musical awards we can throw at him. But a Nobel over someone like Haruki Murakami or hell, even Joan Didion? This is all speculative of course, but look at who else could have theoretically been on the short list: https://newrepublic.com/article/137496/will-win-2016-nobel-prize-literature

It might feel flimsy to you to but I’m gonna have to shrug. Peace is what people know Bob Dylan for, full stop, and I’m saying it’s an unearned primary adjective.

Jesus Christmas are you people using that as a red herring. The “Peace” part of my comment is in reference to Dylan’s reputation, and what I imagine his “benefit to mankind” to be according to the committee.

No, see my response above.

I’m just recycling the common praise I hear for Dylan and the only reason I can imagine he is getting this prize based on the guidelines.

Yep. I’m a big Dylan fan myself, but still don’t think I’d make him one of my top choices for a Nobel in literature.

I hate Bob Dylan. I can’t stand his voice, I especially can’t stand his lyrics, which always creep me out re: women. I get that his music reached a lot of people but I don’t think it necessarily did so in a wholly constructive way. Not many of his songs are actually about peace.

This is not actually true. The US does not make up some alternative replacement birth certificate for refugees.....

You realize that many countries don’t have a very good system for recording births? It’s not uncommon for births to be registered years after the child is born, if at all.

But what about legal refugees that came here from countries where it’s impossible to get those records?