There are things I can't discuss, so I can't respond to that.
EquALLity wrote:
Poetry-
Just because something is arbitrarily considered pretentious doesn't mean that it actually is. You're basically admitting that it's arbitrary when you say that song lyrics can work but poetry can't.
There is not really a substance of goodness or badness to these things. They are good or bad based on their consequences. The perception and opinion of the target audience is a big part of that.
EquALLity wrote:There's no actual difference between singing words and speaking them in terms of meaning, so it's inconsistent to consider one more pretentious and not take it seriously.
Sure there is. Singing takes more effort, talent, composition, etc.
Singing can be bad too, but most people can recognize if something is off key, and they don't pay enough attention to the lyrics to find them pretentious (or the music makes up for it, or backs up the claim to talent and quality that the lyrics make pretense to).
EquALLity wrote:In terms of activism, I was sort of aware of the connotation of poetry being pretentious, but I don't think it is as common a viewpoint as you seem to think. Modern art is like the poster-child for pretentious art. I think most people just think poetry is kind of boring.
Maybe, either way the trick to overcoming that is usually to make them laugh.