“Problematic” is a word that sees a lot of action when referring to socially-questionable implications. Some of us may remember it from the discussions on (HP:MoR spoiler) Urezvbar’f ‘Sevqtvat’. While it has a lot of legitimate function, it’s also a very effective way of saying “I don’t really like this, but don’t want to examine why, just in case my dislike isn’t as well-founded as I want it to be”.
I see it that both proponents and opponents tend to interpret or use it to mean “seriously, definedly bad” rather than the implied usage of “indicative of a problem”.
Usually, the only “it” in the conversation is the thing itself, not any additional fact about the thing, so that “It is problematic” under your second implied usage becomes “It is indicative of a problem about itself”.
That’s the problem with the usage. It doesn’t identify any actual issue, it just says “it has a problem”. “Blah blah is problematic.” How? Why? No indication.
“Problematic” is a word that sees a lot of action when referring to socially-questionable implications. Some of us may remember it from the discussions on (HP:MoR spoiler) Urezvbar’f ‘Sevqtvat’. While it has a lot of legitimate function, it’s also a very effective way of saying “I don’t really like this, but don’t want to examine why, just in case my dislike isn’t as well-founded as I want it to be”.
That’s odd. I’ve generally seen ‘problematic’ followed by an elaborate discussion of exactly how and why, often in excruciating detail.
I generally see it followed by an excruciating monologue, full of sound and fury, equally signifying nothing.
I see it that both proponents and opponents tend to interpret or use it to mean “seriously, definedly bad” rather than the implied usage of “indicative of a problem”.
“It is problematic.”
Usually, the only “it” in the conversation is the thing itself, not any additional fact about the thing, so that “It is problematic” under your second implied usage becomes “It is indicative of a problem about itself”.
That’s the problem with the usage. It doesn’t identify any actual issue, it just says “it has a problem”. “Blah blah is problematic.” How? Why? No indication.
PG gives roughly the same interpretation of “inappropriate”.
(Though I think it sometimes means “other people don’t like it”.)