... there is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds. – GH Hardy, with "men" sic . When someone raises points we don't like, there's always the temptation to spitefully psychologise them, to dismiss their points by reference to who they are, rather than the falsity or fallacy of what they're saying. * It is a universal trick; you'll probably have heard some version of it today ("yeah but he's a straight white dude "; " a syphilitic neurotic "; "ancestrally a victim of the British Empire "; " a woman "). In nominally rational subcultures like academia or literary society, there are some weak barriers to doing this (though Freud's brutal legacy continues to enable awful behaviour even there). In pop music and its journalism there is absolutely nothing to stop you. Here...