Why being different is bad

[DJRubberducky]

A while ago, for reasons I'd really rather not discuss, I found myself in an online community populated by adolescents.  Like, physically adolescent, not just purveyors of sophomoric crap (which is absolutely no barometer of age).

I'm sure this is a more widely spread phenomenon, but it was here that I particularly noticed the tendency for people to believe that the idea of "free thinking" or "not being mainstream sheeple" entailed a systematic rejection of everything they heard.

And this, frateres et sorores, is complete and utter merde de vache.

If you systematically reject everything you hear, then you're just as firmly imprisoned by it as if you accepted it unquestioningly - and you're not any more "cool" or "independent" because you're wearing your mental prison inside-out.

The happy medium, the REAL free thinking, which they all seem to be missing, is to *gasp!* actually think about everything you hear (and about everything you think about everything you hear), consider that it might be right, consider that it might be wrong, then decide which of those possibilities is more likely and go from there.

What's wrong with agreeing with something that makes sense to you?  Since when did sharing a paradigm with other humans make you a mindless drone?  There are only a very few people on this planet who don't, and they're what we call insane - totally unable to function around other humans because they experience life as something so vastly different from what we do.

There's nothing inherently wrong with shopping at Hot Topic.  There's nothing inherently wrong with agreeing with a poster here, or with a political candidate, or with whatever message a mainstream alternative band is trying to project through their songs (though you might chuckle a bit at the irony if they're trying to stir anti-establishment feelings).

What goes wrong is when you forget to periodically question why you're thinking the way you're thinking.  But what the hell; that's your problem.

[hooplala]

Truth!

[East Coast Hustle]

not bad at all.

I'll agree to disagree with you about shopping at Hot Topic, but other than that you made a valuable point.

[Zurtok Khan]

So, in other words DJ, freethinking isn't rejecting everything, it's considering everything?

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Damn! Does this mean we have to use thinking skills?

[Zurtok Khan]

Damn! Does this mean we have to use thinking skills?

No, that would kill most of the posters here.

Or should that say, "That would kill most of the posers here."?

Ehh, whats the difference?

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Damn! Does this mean we have to use thinking skills?

No, that would kill most of the posters here.

Or should that say, "That would kill most of the posers here."?

Ehh, whats the difference?

Don't take it personally. It's just the way Amerricuh [and the world, which is really Amerricuh too] is getting.

[illusion]

I like this rant. Sometimes I'm guilty of not wanting to agree just to be contrary and I need someone to point it out to me. So thanks for doing that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Best apology for Grayness evar.

[Brother Pavraki]

Does this mean that in an attempt to reject all things grey, one actually becomes a different kind of grey?

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

I was going to make a poser joke here but its just too late.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Does this mean that in an attempt to reject all things grey, one actually becomes a different kind of grey?

Nope.  It just means that the original post was an apology for Grayness.