[Zikes]

I quoted the article in an attempt to pinpoint a key detail which I felt was at the heart of the issue: that what people consider petty or captious is far too subjective. This, in itself, is a fairly obvious point which I don't think the article addresses well enough, and in fact uses my quoted metaphor to dismiss entirely.

The article encourages people to learn this word and to use it to dismiss people they feel are being petty. Rather than address those so-called petty problems or even the person themselves they are encouraged to write that person off entirely.

[jessedhillon]

The point of the pornography quote is to demonstrate that yes, there may be interpersonal variability in the definition of the term, but there is a strong area of agreement and overlap between us all. You seem to have missed that the point is to say: while we cannot firmly affix what constitutes pedantry and captiousness, we have an innate and largely convergent working sense for it.