What’s your hill to die on?

By Freshman Louisa Richardson

In the Blog’s continued exploration of controversial opinions, ace-reporter Louisa surveyed the Palm Valley scene and logged the following unpopular rants and raves. She had a good time. And she picked up a lot of sass.

A hill to die on is essentially a controversial opinion that you stand by. My fellow blogger Gil, in our class discussion of Controversy, used this phrase. It caught my ear. In order to unearth controversy, I decided to survey people, asking, “What’s your hill to die on?” Opinions these days are nothing short of controversial, whether it’s pineapple on pizza, or Donald Trump. The people have something to say. The middle/upper-school students and teachers, and my father, were all asked the simple question, “What’s your hill to die on?” (usually followed by an explanation of what the phrase means). These hills tended to fall into six categories: pop culture, politics, food, fashion, dogs, and school.  

Unpopular Opinions on Pop

8th-grader Jack Edelstein and the rest of the Podcasting class take passionate issue with Taylor Swift–not a popular stance. Jack leads the podcasting flock with the following statement: 

 “Taylor Swift sucks[;] she dates every guy ever and is still obsessed with them! She blames them for everything, making 99% of her songs the same. She acts like the victim in every relationship she is in. She has been with every weird actor you can name, and she always acts like she was the victim in the relationship. . . . [And,] 99% of her music is unoriginal. It goes from sad, depressed, angry music to then Love-“I-found-another” relationship, and repeat. Lastly, her fanbase sucks.”

8th-grader Ethan Brooks from Podcasting adds:

“Kanye MADE Taylor Swift.”

Other unpopular opinions regarding popular culture include . . .

“Avatar was not that good.”

–My father

“Spotify is terrible; it makes it hard to provide money as a not-so-popular artist, as the platform rarely even showcases new artists!”

–Mr. Hesson, Math/Podcasting Teacher

“Paramount Plus is better than Netflix.”

–Elijah Berliner, freshman

“Elijah is wrong.”

–Brooklyn Hatrak, freshman

“Joe Jonas is a dweeb.”

–Ms. Maguire, English/Creative Writing Teacher

Several opinions surfaced about School . . .

“Poems should be abolished; they are useless in the learning curriculum.”

–Tony Ratner, 8th-grader

“Essays are useless, and don’t teach anything.”

–Jackie Padgett, 8th-grader

“Reading can be fun; you just have to find the right book.”

–Zoey Guess, 7th-grader

“The snack shack is overpriced.”

–Hudson, Jack, and, again, the rest of Podcasting Class 

“PVS is the best!”

–Jerry Wang, senior

“Middle schoolers need to STAY IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL!”

–Anais Lee . . .  and the rest of the high school

Opinions on food were . . . interesting . . .

“String cheese with chocolate milk is delicious.”

–Ally Bankers, senior

“Fries are better with ranch than with a milkshake.”

–Coach J. Erenberg

“Mustard is better than ketchup, and there are no better Bob Dylan albums than THE Bob Dylan original.”
–Mr. Satterfield, History Teacher

“Fruits shouldn’t be in the dessert; if I am ordering a chocolate cake, and you give me cantaloupe on the side, I will be mad.”
–Abby Assefa, junior

“Vegan diets are just bad for you.”

–Zander Eaton, freshman

“Chocolate milk SHOULD come from brown cows.”

–Emerson Dunn, 6th-grader

People had strong opinions on fashion.

“Skinny jeans are ugly.”

–Lily Jones, junior

“Low rise jeans are actually the worst.”

–Morgan Richardson, 6th-grader

“High top Converse suck.”

–Olivia Puetz, freshman

And, while Grandma always said, “Don’t talk Politics at the dinner table,” we do.

“Banning books should be unneeded.”

–Addison Uhlhorn, 7th grade

“Donald Trump won.”
–Alex Kirov, 8th-grader

“The moon landing was fake.”

–Luke Sonderman, senior

“Asians aren’t yellow.”

–Edward Berg, 7th grade

A few of us had opinions about Dogs.

“Dogs should be allowed on the bed!”
–Ms. Zachik, English/Blog Teacher

“Chihuahuas are the worst dog breed; they are glorified rats. They serve no purpose in this world. When you have hunting dogs, and service dogs, Chihuahuas just shake. They all have three teeth and live forever. If there was one dog breed that had to go extinct, I would choose Chihuahuas. Chihuahuas should be banned. 

–Emma Murdock, Middle-School Receptionist

And, finally, Coach offered a little compassion . . .

“I don’t think anyone should die on a hill.”

–Coach Erenberg

People sure do have a lot of opinions. Controversial or not, this was the most fun I have ever had surveying.  Do you have a controversial opinion we missed? Add it to the comments.