Particularly in film criticism. When someone uses this word, I immediately think they’re unpleasable and will complain no matter what.
I am fine with it being used in the context of AI generated content.
Anything else and I agree.
That’s where it’s being overused the most. No judgement on merits, just kneejerk insistence that anything related is disqualified from redeeming qualities.
All meaning has been stomped from it, as some deeply boring people latched onto it as a haughty dismissal. You know they’re deeply boring because any form of pushback, however gentle or reasoned, sees them double down and smug it up. They get to feel like they’re participating in some grand moral crusade just by parroting a monosyllabic insult until they sound like dogs taking a drink.
There was a brief window where it caught on for specific AI content - the zero-effort spam shoveled toward you without even looking it over. But the self-proclaimed haters spat it at any use of AI, as a one-drop rule. Like an award-winning video game leaving a single temporary texture is indistinguishable from a Facebook post of a little girl hugging her pet tiger with all three arms.
That gleeful overuse has spread beyond any useful distinction. It doesn’t even reliably convey ‘I don’t like it.’ It’s all so Aladeen.