Criticism and tact

I have read some articles during my awakening process that speak about the negative aspects of criticism. Supposedly, criticism comes from an intention of putting down another person for things that they cannot control. For example, “why are you so whiny?” The problem is that it is portrayed by solely focusing on the bad side of criticism.

There is such a word as “constructive”.

You will always have naysayers in life who end up choosing one of two choices; actually respectfully giving you comments and advice on what you can change, or say something that is absolutely unwarranted to the person’s willingness to change something. Whether you choose you receive the opinion is your own choice.

One time, I had someone tell me to shut up and go seek a therapist. That is NOT constructive because the person was clearly shunning me for talking about my problems. If they wanted to actually be received well, they would say “I understand your suffering, but we are not the place to vent. Please find another subreddit” without casually being mean and needlessly heartless. Then I got banned.

Many people are confused on the meaning of criticism because they have been mostly shunned and given unwarranted snarky comments one time too many. Their ego believes that criticism is solely about a negative connotation – about judgment. They have triggers concerning being judged so even an innocent remark can be triggering.

Judgment comes from the lower mind, discernment is more whole and uses your Higher Self.

People have the right to disagree with me, and it’s Godgiven so why would I even say it as if I’m a king writing a constitution. But please, do it with TACT. Don’t be byronic.

Is Garfield Byronic/Neurodivergent?

Byronism (as a real life personality syndrome) is laid on a spectrum of characteristics, symptoms and traits, so no two individuals display the same exact symptoms.

Some people meet only one or two of the three Byronic criteria: for example, one may mostly express strong traits in the negativism criterion. This makes them “byronesque”, aka have subthreshold tendencies of Developmental Byronism.

It is not a psychiatric illness nor a disability but a trait.

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Garfield is a Monday-hating, lasagna-addicted, orange-furred feline created by Jim Davis circa the 1970’s. As a comic strip, he was originally first published as a prototypal newspaper comic in the Pendleton newspapers in 1976 – under the name “Jon”. In 1978 the strip renamed itself to Garfield.

Here we study the generic allure of Garfield’s behaviors throughout the animated specials, movies, and strips: it mostly remains the same – and how they correlate with the byronic trait (syndrome, and not the literary trope)

Criterion A: Negativism in views and attitude

• This cynicism can make Garfield especially cruel and abusive towards Odie, Jon and other people, as a way of venting his anger. The worsening “existential depression” of Garfield can also be seen as “meta” due to the fact that Jim Davis’s creativity and humor have declined over time, especially circas the 2000’s. There are times where he refuses to even get out of bed for days.
• He dreads existentially enough so that he has hallucinations about his Birthdays due to angst.
• Garfield is known for his sarcastic sense of humor, and strong contempt.
• In the 1989 Halloween strip, Garfield reveals he is afraid of solitude.
• He copes with his chronic existential depression by overeating, drinking coffee, and sleeping.
• He has a large subconscious shadow self and possibly has potential to become a monster, mostly known by memes on social media and parodies.

Criterion B – Inflexibility of themes in beliefs and interests):

 Garfield is not so much known for any ideological extremes, and is quite adept at philosophizing. In fact, he ponders a lot. However, some Byronics are interested in philosophizing, but this is not enough to qualify Garfield as consistent with Criterion B.

Criterion C  – Adaptive aberrations:

Garfield is lazy, except when something indulges in his addictions. He indulges in addiction to cope with depression and existential dread. Both are characteristically common Byronic tendencies. He deals badly with his emotions, either suppressing them (such as when he is fearless, indifferent towards barking dogs, or apathic towards a suffering Jon), hatred, indulgences, anxious rumination (e.g. Birthday worries), overreacting (violence, throwing tantrums, abuse), using sardonic humor, or intellectualizing (philosophizing). However, he is very independent. Garfield’s adaptive deficits are more emotional and motivational, and not so much executive or metacognitive.

Garfield is consistent with 2 of the 3 Byronic traits, plus the fact that he is quite a philosophical wanderer can be a tendency part of the “broader” Byronic tendencies. He also seems to be intellectually precocious.

Garfield has a scientist alter ego.

Garfield therefore has possibly subthreshold traits of Byronism and is quite neurodivergent due to having a secret genius level intelligence, although Jim Davis said he is not very cultivated politically (somehow it could be another Byronic sign, but Garfield is not interested in politics and this was mentioned very early on in the comic strip). Other than for the Professor Garfield website (now defunct) it is not known why Garfield has two personalities, one with slightly above average intelligence but never can make an audience laugh (he does standup comedy shows at the local fence), and one who is a scientific savant. The backstory states that putting on Einstein’s old glasses activated something and allowed him to access infinite data.

Garfield is a byronesque covert savant and a “man in a cat’s body”. And yes, he’s male. That’s an established fact.