This is not a progressive kindergarten, all right? It’s not: “You did a nice job, you tried really hard.” What you’re pursuing is excellence, is truth, is beauty.
A.O. Scott, on why criticism must be bare-knuckled. I would link to the David Carr/Scott video, in which Carr looks like a huge tool, but
Jim Emerson’s excellent dismantling of Carr’s reactionary logic is the better read.