For me it’s time signatures in music. I grew up playing instruments, played in several orchestras, etc. But no matter how many times someone tries to explain time signatures to me, it makes no sense. I don’t understand why people place such importance on it. To me, notes have a pitch and a duration, maybe some dynamics. That’s it. I don’t understand why people try to needlessly complicate it. It doesn’t give you anything.
My wife will hear a song and go “Oh neat, it’s in 5/8.” And I’m like “How tf do you know that, and why does it matter?”


Well the beauty of music is that you can do exactly this and it’s fine.
Pretty much all “music theory” is Western-dominated anyway and far from all-encompassing.
There was a really good YouTube video about this a few years back, by I think Adam Neely. Let me see if I can dig it up.
Edit: here’s the link - “Music Theory and White Supremacy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr3quGh7pJA
Very good video.