What Uniform Do YOU Wear?

[LMNO]

This isn't a suit I am wearing. It's my tribes ceremonial battle garb, it inspires fear in my enemies and makes their women swoon. These wingtips are for stomping morons. They're refined, angled and engineered for swift kicks in the ass. This tie? I fucking use it to charm snakes before I sink my teeth into their bellies and poison 'em.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The great thing about being an angry mob is that we can wear all the uniforms at once.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I definitely wear a uniform. Or rather bits from several uniforms. Its a bit silly but a wants it that way. Its something for me to think about- i like the analogy that the uniform communicates something but ends up blocking signal as well. I have this acquaintance irl who everyone else in the band is friends with and think is awesome but the conversations i have  with him are dull and keeps him on the acquaintance level. This is an example of the uniform blocking response signals too. Im the rock guitarist so he always talks to me about eighties bands that i only casually listen to. But hes apparently a really awesome dude and i have to find other points of commonality. I must shed the uniform.

[Doktor Howl]

Im the rock guitarist so he always talks to me about eighties bands that i only casually listen to. But hes apparently a really awesome dude and i have to find other points of commonality. I must shed the uniform.

His perception of you isn't YOUR uniform, it's HIS.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Perhaps. Problem is is that i only really see him in musical settings. Shows and the occasional karaoke indulgence. Only once did i see him outside such a setting- Pat's (the other anarchangel guitarist) wedding. And that night was an irish uniform night.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am an ANGRY BLACK WOMAN railing against SOCIAL INJUSTICE!

It's great; not only do I not ever have to think about who I am or what I'm for, but it also gives everyone an AWESOME pre-packaged checkbox they can tick off when my opinions are inconvenient and they want to dismiss me. "Oh, it's just Angry Black Woman spouting about FEMINISM again."

That's the thing about ISMS and ISHS and ANS; not only are they uniforms you can don without having to do any of the uncomfortable work of thinking about who you really are, but they're also socially gracious, allowing others to avoid the uncomfortable work of thinking about why they disagree with what you're saying. Fuck that guy; he's Italian! Look at him! His political opinions are already pre-formed by the uniform he donned this morning, and that means that the political rebuttals were also pre-formed.

NO THINKING NECESSARY.

No wait! I'm Oppressed Native American! That means that I'm really into nature and the environment and the harmony of all things, right? And kabbalah and sweat lodges and buckskin and beads. All in a convenient prepackaged identity.

Or... Oh hold on! I've got it! I'm Orkadian, a badass Viking warrior with only contempt for your weakling ways, you puny wannabe Celts. Plus, I'm pissed off because you can buy YOUR prepackaged identities at gift stores in the mall with names like "Kathleen's of Dublin" and "Scottish Country Shop" and consume authentic imported ale and haggis and boiled bacon or whatever that slop is your kind eats at Kells and Rose & Thistle and Rose & Raindrop and Moon & Sixpence and Biddy McGraw's, but where the fuck are the Viking mall chainstores and authentic Viking restaurants for ME, motherfuckers? We raided, raped, pillaged and butchered your puny ancestors for generations, and this is all we get? We fucking WIPED OUT THE PICTS on the Orkneys, and nobody has so much as a whimsical corner gift shop with longship-themed crystal music boxes? We don't even get our own drinking-and-raiding holiday?

FUCK THIS.

[Cain]

Nigel, I know someone is going to regret this...but it's probably not me, so I am very relaxed about any potential outcome

http://angryblacklady.com/

It's like she's unironically trying to be the living avatar of the stereotype.

[Doktor Howl]

I am an ANGRY BLACK WOMAN railing against SOCIAL INJUSTICE!

I am ALSO an ANGRY BLACK WOMAN, but I'm railing against ANOTHER, MORE DIFFERENT INJUSTICE.

I have to live in a flyblown desert City, with pervert bars being the height of culture.  If I was WHITE, they'd let me live somewhere like Boston or Portland, where there's DIFFERENT SHIT TO DO ONCE IN A FUCKING WHILE. 

Also, I see that they have PEACEFUL BLACK MAN DAY, but not ANGRY BLACK WOMAN DAY, and that's fucking BULLSHIT, there's no GRATITUDE that Angela Davis LET YOUR PARENTS LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO BREED or that Gloria Gaynor didn't CHOP YOUR NUTS OFF WITH A BLUNT PIECE OF IRON.

They only want to recognize Black people that are all NICE AND SHIT, and never the ones that want to FUCK YOUR SHIT UP, you disgusting PINK-ASS PO'BUCKER.  And for THAT, I wish to beat you all to death WITH MY FUCKING OVARIES.

AGAIN, NO THINKING NECESSARY!  Just you DUCK YOUR FUCKING HEAD and hope to GOD that I MISS YOU IN THE CROWD!

Dok,
Just figured out that you can steal other peoples' uniforms.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Well thats part of the reason im comfortable in my irish uniform. I reject certain parts of it. I embrace it because my father would never really tell me much about it. Just that i was irish and he named me after a rebel. The only thing he ever imparted was the myth about Oisin went to tir na n-og and aged 300 years. I ended up rejecting unification rabid hatred of protestantism hatred of english and scots and catholicism. Not that he suscribed to any of that except unification and catholicism. But i kept the bits i wanted and worked for me. I dont accept it as a package deal.

[Doktor Howl]

Well thats part of the reason im comfortable in my irish uniform. I reject certain parts of it. I embrace it because my father would never really tell me much about it. Just that i was irish and he named me after a rebel. The only thing he ever imparted was the myth about Oisin went to tir na n-og and aged 300 years. I ended up rejecting unification rabid hatred of protestantism hatred of english and scots and catholicism. Not that he suscribed to any of that except unification and catholicism. But i kept the bits i wanted and worked for me. I dont accept it as a package deal.

I just don't see the need for it.  You're fine without the uniform.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

Brilliant. OP reminds me of some Doug Stanhope bit. Same "I'm not a blank, I'm not a blank, etc." kind thing.

Food for thought: Uniforms are a pretty easy way to be a boring person, but being legitimately you can also appear to be a uniform. There is obviously a difference between being YOU and being THEM, but if a person is just happier and more complete when they get to put on those...*sigh*...terribly annoying trip pants and hot topic nonsense, is that worth criticizing? Or would you argue that people can't be complete when they subscribe to some cookie cutter mold like that?

[Doktor Howl]

but if a person is just happier and more complete when they get to put on those...*sigh*...terribly annoying trip pants and hot topic nonsense, is that worth criticizing?

There is no excuse for trip pants.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Oh sure. I want to end up being irish without the uniform. But i think that maybe the uniform is somewhat necessary until youve successfully found a way to integrate the label without it being a label. Im still working on that. And its difficult here. Not only are you expected to wear the uniform but show up for drills.

[Doktor Howl]

Oh sure. I want to end up being irish without the uniform.

IF I DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE POST, IT CAN'T HURT MY BRAIN.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

but if a person is just happier and more complete when they get to put on those...*sigh*...terribly annoying trip pants and hot topic nonsense, is that worth criticizing?

There is no excuse for trip pants.

I can't see a reason to disagree with that.