Never Lean on the Weird

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Humans.

Just look at them.  They are unbalanced.  They oscillate.  It is impossible to keep any number of humans in a rational state.  They wobble off to the left or the right so far that, when you finally locate them, they're standing there wearing nothing but a pair of rubber boots and a colostomy bag for a shower hat.

They need to be managed.  Problem is, who is here to do the managing?  MORE humans, who are every bit as fucked up as the humans who they're supposed to be managing.  And that's how we roll here on Earth, the stupid leading the blind, and they'll kill you for pointing that little fact out.

Humans vaguely realize this, and have come up with a few strategies to deal with it.  None ever worked of course, because - again - "humans".  They come up with "utopias", where they assume everything will go well if they can just get enough of the same kind of monkeys, jam them all in one place, and then expel or kill the ones that just can't do it right.  Sure, they start OUT okay...But so did the French Revolution.  And within just a couple of weeks, they went from trying to form a republic, to "sneezing into the basket", just as soon as someone got around to denouncing them.

The reason why this happens is hardwired right into the human brain.  There's a circuit in there that reacts to rules by grabbing a big fucking rock and mashing the rulers in the forehead with it.  Of course, today, not a lot of face-mashing occurs, which is kind of a shame, but instead the monkeys in question just get weird.  Smash humans down, and if they realize it's occurring, they just sort of squish out the sides.  It's really the only redeeming feature they have.

We, brothers and sisters, squish out the sides, even if we DON'T know it's going on, and sometimes even when it ISN'T going on.  We have been blessed with the fact that our "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO" circuit is stuck in the ON position.  We were born wrong, and that's alright.  We are not oppressed, because we grab that rock and start face-mashing.  Not that we won't COMPLAIN about the oppression, mind you, or even DREAM of SHUTTING UP about it.  It's not our way.

Our way is to assume that the default position of society is "telling us what", and so we have that rock more or less glued to our hand.  The really funny part about this is that society couldn't function without us.  Unless you want to live in, say, North Korea.  But we do not live in North Korea.  No.

So for us, speed limits are basically just "advice", laws are meant to be laughed at, and the alpha-male monkeys in congress and the board room are there to be poked, ridiculed, and shat upon, should ANY opportunity arrive.  And the TRUE MUTANT doesn't care as to WHICH of the so-called "sides" these monkeys belong.  There isn't any actual difference, on any practical level, because BOTH sides actually say the same thing:

"SHUT UP and help us build the Perfect State™."

What they don't know, or perhaps never even considered, is patently obvious to us...The Perfect State™ is the perfect NIGHTMARE.  Life on this ball of mud is hard enough already without same collection of brain-damaged primates dreaming up abitrary and nonsensical rules.  The part that makes me giggle all night long is that they are doing it for our own good.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't screech laughter at them when they do this sort of shit.  No, while I disagree entirely with using the force of the alledged "government" to shut people up, I DO believe in allowing society itself to heckle the offender at will.  It's only free speech if EVERYONE gets to legally run their mouth, isn't it?

THE MOMENT YOU TRY TO USE THE LAW TO SHUT PEOPLE UP, YOU HAVE JOINED THE PRIMATES IN THEIR ENDLESS BISCUIT GAME.

THE MOMENT YOU STOP POINTING AND LAUGHING AT THE HUMANS, YOU HAVE TACITLY AGREED TO THEIR RULES.

EVERY TIME YOU WALK ON BY WHEN BULLSHIT IS OCCURING, YOU HAVE SILENTLY VOTED FOR THE BULLSHIT IN QUESTION.

Needless to say, when you DON'T walk on by, when you point and holler "WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT", you ARE going to piss a bunch of people off.  Mostly, you will piss off the people who most desperately NEED to be pissed off.  Everyone needs to be pissed off once in a while, but some people are DESPERATE for it. 

And that's where WE come in.

Or Kill Me. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

PREACH IT, BROTHER ROGER!

Also, your new avatar. Perfect. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

PREACH IT, BROTHER ROGER!

Also, your new avatar. Perfect. 

That whole thing was basically a vehicle for this:

EVERY TIME YOU WALK ON BY WHEN BULLSHIT IS OCCURING, YOU HAVE SILENTLY VOTED FOR THE BULLSHIT IN QUESTION.

And it's hardly original.  It goes all the way back to the Samaritan parable, which is about 2000 years old, and is the single most important - and ignored - thing that gets said in the New Testament.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

More to the point, and this is true about just about everyone:

If you keep silent about the bad apples in your organization or affilliation, then you are one of those bad apples.  Stop being a bad apple.

It's worth noting that this wasn't inspired by the atheist thing (though it definitely applies), but rather than by hearing all weekend about how "Pat Fagan (or Diane Feinstein, take your pick, pull your lever) don't really represent our group, and I disagree with HOW they said it, BUT..."

What they really mean, of course, is:

"If I speak my mind about this egregious shit-knocker, I will be letting down the side, and possibly even admitting that I joined a group or belief system that isn't PERFECT."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

More to the point, and this is true about just about everyone:

If you keep silent about the bad apples in your organization or affilliation, then you are one of those bad apples.  Stop being a bad apple.

It's worth noting that this wasn't inspired by the atheist thing (though it definitely applies), but rather than by hearing all weekend about how "Pat Fagan (or Diane Feinstein, take your pick, pull your lever) don't really represent our group, and I disagree with HOW they said it, BUT..."

What they really mean, of course, is:

"If I speak my mind about this egregious shit-knocker, I will be letting down the side, and possibly even admitting that I joined a group or belief system that isn't PERFECT."

YES.

Call the bastards on their bullshit, ESPECIALLY when they are trying to represent YOU with it.

[LMNO]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

More to the point, and this is true about just about everyone:

If you keep silent about the bad apples in your organization or affilliation, then you are one of those bad apples.  Stop being a bad apple.

It's worth noting that this wasn't inspired by the atheist thing (though it definitely applies), but rather than by hearing all weekend about how "Pat Fagan (or Diane Feinstein, take your pick, pull your lever) don't really represent our group, and I disagree with HOW they said it, BUT..."

What they really mean, of course, is:

"If I speak my mind about this egregious shit-knocker, I will be letting down the side, and possibly even admitting that I joined a group or belief system that isn't PERFECT."

YES.

Call the bastards on their bullshit, ESPECIALLY when they are trying to represent YOU with it.

This is surprisingly hard for people, because it requires the guts to confront your peers, AND the willingness to walk away from said peers if necessary.

It goes against all the wiring in the primate brain.  You are risking expulsion from your tribe, which back in the year dot meant no mating and probably starving to death.

That being said, this isn't the year dot, so there's no excuse.  At least not for superior mutants.

If you allow a group - ANY group - to speak for you in terms that you don't agree with, then you have become a Pinkboy.  Or a Grey.  Or whatever term you wish to use to note a slave to your own ideology and/or subculture.  So anyone who does this can pretty much stop laughing at the NASCAR crowd, because that person is essentially mocking themselves in doing so.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

It's the worst when it's "your own kind" you're calling out.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

Or of Team Vodka, if it ever came down to that, which would be FAR harder than facing the fear of the squares.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

It's the worst when it's "your own kind" you're calling out.

"Worse", I'd say.  "Worst" is when you're calling out people who have rubber truncheons and jackboots.

And some people have done that exact thing.  The White Rose Society in Nazi Germany (all killed for it), Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, the list is longer than you'd think.

And if they can do THAT, then surely WE can risk a little social wrath, eh?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

It's the worst when it's "your own kind" you're calling out.

"Worse", I'd say.  "Worst" is when you're calling out people who have rubber truncheons and jackboots.

And some people have done that exact thing.  The White Rose Society in Nazi Germany (all killed for it), Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, the list is longer than you'd think.

And if they can do THAT, then surely WE can risk a little social wrath, eh?

I actually think that both socially and materially, an individual is at their most vulnerable not when they speak up against an opposing group, but when they speak up against their own group. Treason, after all, is punishable by death.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sort of like how if you try to leave a gang, or god forbid speak out against it, they kill you.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I really need to be more vigilant about this, and not fear the wrath of the squares.

It's the worst when it's "your own kind" you're calling out.

"Worse", I'd say.  "Worst" is when you're calling out people who have rubber truncheons and jackboots.

And some people have done that exact thing.  The White Rose Society in Nazi Germany (all killed for it), Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, the list is longer than you'd think.

And if they can do THAT, then surely WE can risk a little social wrath, eh?

I actually think that both socially and materially, an individual is at their most vulnerable not when they speak up against an opposing group, but when they speak up against their own group. Treason, after all, is punishable by death.

Yes.  Like lipping off to Nazis in 1939 Nazi Germany.  Or refusing to join the military in a culture that worships war.  Or making insanely unpopular decisions (Gandhi, on the division of Pakistan and India) that result in assassination by your own people.  Malcolm X comes to mind as well.

I think we're agreeing with each other, here.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Or, my favorite example, British subject Patrick Henry, giving the king two fingers and telling him to go piss up a rope...Knowing full well what the penalty was.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This all feeds into the standard American line of thinking, mind you...The false dichotomy.  "You are either WITH us, or you are AGAINST us."  Okay, if those are my choices, then I'm AGAINST you.

Example:  I am called a "phony liberal" from time to time, because I support the right of the individual to own a firearm (hell, an assault rifle, a flamethrower, or an M1A1 tank, if they can afford one), and because I don't give a shit about Israel or Palestine.

Never mind that I whole-heartedly support 99% of their agenda:  The social safety net, the presumption of innocence, prison reform, agricultural reform, etc.  None of this matters, because I didn't take the ENTIRE PACKAGE.

It's really simple.   If you agree with 60% of what I say, we're on the same team.  If you agree with 100% of what I say, get your head examined.