Weirdos: Gotta Catch 'Em All! (jacked from "Today I learned" thread)

[the other anonymous]

complaining about how ones weirdness is a burden in social interaction seems terribly 'high school' to me.

and upon further consideration complaining that complaining about how ones weirdness is a burden in social interaction seems terribly 'college' to me.

but, now, complaining that complaining about complaining about how ones weirdness is a burden in social interaction?  That indicates that i am now a normal fully mature adult.

I must be a senior citizen, cuz all I do is complain about you!

[Elder Iptuous]

Fixed.

Thank you, brother Nyx.

[Richter]

As soon as I meet a "Normal", I intend to bag them and take them into the EPA.  Once we prove the species still exists, we can get them put on the endngered list.

Fair "My own experience" dose here, but just about everyone will take a jaunt unto the weird form time to time.  Like dressing up fancy for a good dinner, or "slumming it", they put on the face for awhile, and then take it off once they've had their fun.  What makes the "US" different from the "THEM"?  Tolerance, maybe.  We have more for the us, less for the them.  We can tolerate the atmosphere that the rest of them breath and give majority positive reviews too for a time, but we still have to shove our faces into a puddle or gutter every so often to catch our breath.  Dry, flavorless air and the flat sky full of fake stars that most of THEM love, it just dries out and chafes on me after awhile.  

I doubt there even is an us or them anymore.  The freaks are too prosaic now, the normals too strange.  

[The Johnny]

As soon as I meet a "Normal", I intend to bag them and take them into the EPA.  Once we prove the species still exists, we can get them put on the endngered list.

Fair "My own experience" dose here, but just about everyone will take a jaunt unto the weird form time to time.  Like dressing up fancy for a good dinner, or "slumming it", they put on the face for awhile, and then take it off once they've had their fun.  What makes the "US" different from the "THEM"?  Tolerance, maybe.  We have more for the us, less for the them.  We can tolerate the atmosphere that the rest of them breath and give majority positive reviews too for a time, but we still have to shove our faces into a puddle or gutter every so often to catch our breath.  Dry, flavorless air and the flat sky full of fake stars that most of THEM love, it just dries out and chafes on me after awhile.  

I doubt there even is an us or them anymore.  The freaks are too prosaic now, the normals too strange.  

From an abstract concept of "what is normal" there are two main positions/stances:

Group A believes "what is normal" exists, and actively tries to be it.

Group B does not believe "what is normal" exists, and thus doesnt try to be it.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'd call both groups pretty fucking normal.

Black sheep are still sheep.

[The Johnny]

As soon as I meet a "Normal", I intend to bag them and take them into the EPA.  Once we prove the species still exists, we can get them put on the endngered list.

Fair "My own experience" dose here, but just about everyone will take a jaunt unto the weird form time to time.  Like dressing up fancy for a good dinner, or "slumming it", they put on the face for awhile, and then take it off once they've had their fun.  What makes the "US" different from the "THEM"?  Tolerance, maybe.  We have more for the us, less for the them.  We can tolerate the atmosphere that the rest of them breath and give majority positive reviews too for a time, but we still have to shove our faces into a puddle or gutter every so often to catch our breath.  Dry, flavorless air and the flat sky full of fake stars that most of THEM love, it just dries out and chafes on me after awhile.  

I doubt there even is an us or them anymore.  The freaks are too prosaic now, the normals too strange.  

From an abstract concept of "what is normal" there are two main positions/stances:

Group A believes "what is normal" exists, and actively tries to be it.

Group B does not believe "what is normal" exists, and thus doesnt try to be it.

Proposition: Everyone should be awake during the day, and asleep at night.

Group A says: Yes, it is our biological imperative, for we are diurnal creatures, and also because thats when work happens and all businesses are open.

Group B says: No, just because we are biologically diurnal creatures, does not mean that the biological part of our being dictates everything, for we are also cultural beings that surpass that. Besides, theres no noise pollution at night, or sunlight to distract me from what im doing.

[The Johnny]

I'd call both groups pretty fucking normal.

Black sheep are still sheep.

I think thats an oversimplification in the context of this thread. And you fall under my abstract categories as Group B (does not believe "what is normal" exists).

Thus, from your worldview that thinks that "what is normal does not exist", the definition of "normal" for you changes to "ones own quirks" instead of "the desired behaviour/thoughts"

[Darth Cupcake]

Very nice Cainad!

I feel self-conscious when I talk about this stuff because of the us vs. them dichotomy, but at the same time I have realized that it's healthy for me to recognize it because I need to protect myself from getting emotionally engaged with someone who will inevitably, ultimately, tire of me.

Yes. I HATE having the "us vs. them" idea, because I really don't think it's that clear cut or simple. However, it's true that you can find people who share your "weirdness," people who are entertained by your "weirdness," and people who are entertained by your "weirdness" and therefore want to share it. The first and the last are gravy. It's the ones in the middle that you have to watch out for.

I am not holding freakishness up as a higher state of being, because it often comes with drawbacks, sometimes major ones. Being high-strung or struggling or just plain crazy are not really things to idealize, and frankly, being weird in ways that permeate your life is not usually something that makes you feel good all the time. It's hard on you, and hard on your loved ones. And you get down on yourself, especially after the hundredth time you really liked someone and thought you had a connection with them and then they tire of your amusing antics and find someone else to spend time with.

But now is probably a good time to stop being down about it, and look around in the world at the other freaks, and realize that we're totally fucking okay, and not collectible novelties. We're not cute. We're not funny. We're just regular people who don't quite fit in with the other regular people.

Drawbacks are part of what keep weirdness a novelty item, though. If there weren't drawbacks, everyone would be weird. But the worst part is, the drawbacks become almost fetishized--like the idea that you can't be a really talented writer or artist or musician or whatever if you aren't depressed and tortured. So people will foster problems in the idea that they'll become weird, and they'll fetishize these drawbacks in others. Until they realize there's reality to it, and the drawbacks aren't just another novelty.

Did that make sense? But anyways, I LOVE the "we're just regular people who don't quite fit in with the other regular people." That's great.

From an abstract concept of "what is normal" there are two main positions/stances:

Group A believes "what is normal" exists, and actively tries to be it.

Group B does not believe "what is normal" exists, and thus doesnt try to be it.

I love that way of looking at it.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'd call both groups pretty fucking normal.

Black sheep are still sheep.

I think thats an oversimplification in the context of this thread. And you fall under my abstract categories as Group B (does not believe "what is normal" exists).

Thus, from your worldview that thinks that "what is normal does not exist", the definition of "normal" for you changes to "ones own quirks" instead of "the desired behaviour/thoughts"

Maybe not expressing this the best way. I'll try from another angle - normal only exists if you care about normal. If being normal is not important to you then there ceases to be such a thing. "Normal" people may well disagree with you about this but fuck 'em, they're weird.

[Richter]

"Normal" is where you decided to stop screaming 

[The Johnny]

I'd call both groups pretty fucking normal.

Black sheep are still sheep.

I think thats an oversimplification in the context of this thread. And you fall under my abstract categories as Group B (does not believe "what is normal" exists).

Thus, from your worldview that thinks that "what is normal does not exist", the definition of "normal" for you changes to "ones own quirks" instead of "the desired behaviour/thoughts"

Maybe not expressing this the best way. I'll try from another angle - normal only exists if you care about normal. If being normal is not important to you then there ceases to be such a thing. "Normal" people may well disagree with you about this but fuck 'em, they're weird.

Everyone is weird.

I was waiting all my life
to start living
when I am a child
I understand living

Everyone is weird
Everyone is weird
Everyone is so very weird

Then they all
with hand-me downs
destroy living
I was waiting all my life
to find my home

Everyone is weird
Everyone is weird
Everyone is so very weird

We were all handed-down an idea of "normal" that doesnt work. (In varying degrees, depending who the person is and what "normal" is trying to be imposed.

[Elder Iptuous]

I'm normal to the floor...

Iptuous,
surprised nobody has made a stupid 'normal' joke yet...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm normal to the floor...

Iptuous,
surprised nobody has made a stupid 'normal' joke yet...

No.  You were normal, before you cut your mustache off.

[Elder Iptuous]

I got a full beard on now...
mustache just isn't curly...

Iptuous,
curious as to whether TGRR got the math pun.

[Cainad (dec.)]

As soon as I meet a "Normal", I intend to bag them and take them into the EPA.  Once we prove the species still exists, we can get them put on the endngered list.

Fair "My own experience" dose here, but just about everyone will take a jaunt unto the weird form time to time.  Like dressing up fancy for a good dinner, or "slumming it", they put on the face for awhile, and then take it off once they've had their fun.  What makes the "US" different from the "THEM"?  Tolerance, maybe.  We have more for the us, less for the them.  We can tolerate the atmosphere that the rest of them breath and give majority positive reviews too for a time, but we still have to shove our faces into a puddle or gutter every so often to catch our breath.  Dry, flavorless air and the flat sky full of fake stars that most of THEM love, it just dries out and chafes on me after awhile.  

I doubt there even is an us or them anymore.  The freaks are too prosaic now, the normals too strange.  

I can attest to the existence of at least one Normal; I met him in a chemistry class one day. He wasn't a Normal based on any intrinsic property, characteristic, or genetic defect (in fact, he's seen as a bit strange by many people); he was a Normal because of his attitude.

I agree that nearly everyone takes a jaunt into the weird every once in a while. As I said in the OP, nearly everyone needs a little bit of it every once in a while to stay alive.

The PD does say, after all, that cabbages are simply dressed up as human beings by Greyfaced orders, not that anyone who is boring or not a Discordian is a cabbage. The horrifying part isn't that we're a few lively humans surrounded by cabbages; it's that we're a few humans with a high tolerance for new and unusual experiences surrounded by humans with a low tolerance for that sort of thing. Or maybe it's not horrifying. I suppose that depends on whether or not it bothers you to be sharing a species.

"Us" vs. "Them" in this context is not a real, arbitrary boundary between people who are somehow inherently deviant from the mainstream and people who spend most of their time in the mainstream. Hell, we've often discussed whether or not there even is a mainstream anymore in the Strange Times. I would propose, as a tentative definition, that the people we are casually sticking with the label of "Them" in this context are people who DO believe there is still a mainstream to follow, and that they feel most comfortable when they think they are following it (regardless of how much time they actually spend directly following it; after all, doing everything exactly opposite the mainstream is the same as following it, since you're still using it as your primary point of reference).