# Can YOU Explain A Certain Mindset? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491 "2005-11-11T00:15:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/1 "2005-11-11T00:15:23Z")
In correlation to this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343762&page=1), what mindsets do other people not understand that you can explain either from personal experience or just because you got 'em figured out when (general) we don’t? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/2 "2005-11-11T22:17:15Z")
My one complimentary bump. Pleeeeeze don’t make my inferiority complex flair up again people! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/3 "2005-11-11T22:20:09Z")
This is a good topic … but people may not necessarily be willing to reveal their “dark sides”. ---
**Author:** ![gooftroopag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gooftroopag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooftroopag)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/4 "2005-11-11T23:20:51Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > This is a good topic … but people may not necessarily be willing to reveal their “dark sides”. My “dark side” is an addiction to sugar. I’ve had other “dark sides” that I’ve gotten over, like being a physics retard in high school, but the only thing I have not managed to break is my desire for sugar, it doesn’t matter the form it comes it - I just love it! From fruits to sweets, I’m bad. ☹ Now, I don’t think I can fully explain why I would crave sugar like I do, some claim its a nutrition deficiency but I think it has a lot more to do with it being in my comfort zone than anything else. Take oranges for instant, I can remember eating oranges with my mom as a kid, and later sharing oranges with my husband and friends in college. And don’t get me started on Coke – if I haven’t shared a Coke with you it’s because we’ve never met (or you don’t drink the tasty beverage)! And, while it may be weird that I associate sugar with a lot of happy moments in my life, I can’t recreate every happy moment in my life all the time, pictures and mementos help, but I can’t carry around a huge bag filled with them all the time, but oranges and Coke are cheap and I can have both everyday and almost anywhere! Plus, there’s always the added benefit of sugar waking me up. I’m not talking about a localize sugar high, I’m talking, I’m good for the rest of the day (till midnight or later) if I have a sugary snack mid-afternoon! So it’s crazy and absurd - but I almost always share (unless I’m alone: it’s not like I sit in a closet gorging, I’m a sugar sharer!), so it can’t be that bad, can it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/5 "2005-11-12T00:39:54Z")
I can explain pretty much any mindset you pick. For example, the OP in the original thread. The Aztecs honestly thought that their sacrifices were preventing an end of times. Their actions, to kill a young person for, in your eyes, no reason were completely justifiable. At least more justifiable than a lot of pre-emptive military actions that happen around the world under the pretense of self-defense “Ugh-they were going to attack” argument. Initiating a war under the pretense of self-defense is killing of youths to protect yourself, and somehow make your life better. So is abortion, technically speaking. At least the Aztecs had the decency to pick their sacrifices a long time in advance and then treat them holy for a long while before doing the deed. The youths’ modern counterparts do not get such a benefit. Anything else you want explained? P.S. I am in no way against abortion, war or human sacrifice. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/6 "2005-11-12T00:52:24Z")
> [@SNenc](#): > > People who aren’t into music. I’m not saying I don’t get people who don’t have the same musical taste that I do. I’m talking about people who just don’t care about music. They own only a couple dozen albums, and all of them are movie soundtracks and greatest hits compliations. What’s up with that? Guilty. Well, I don’t own any movie soundtracks. I like music. I just think there’s a time and a place for it, and that time and place is while I’m driving the car. Other times, I’m just too busy to bother with it. Plus, I have a real soft spot for the ol’ peace and quiet. Lots of times I think about buying some music, but then I realize that I’d listen to it about ten times and then I’d be tired of it. Besides, I don’t have a CD player in the car and it’s so difficult to find what I want on cassette these days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/7 "2005-11-12T01:01:08Z")
I have a very good friend who doesn’t have any music, and will actively avoid listening to ANY kind of music. Loves poetry, is a very good painter and generally an artistic person. Writes a lot of good poetry as well. Just completely indifferent about music, and will get annoyed at people who enjoy it in his presence because he can’t… grasp… why… would… people… listen… to noises and enjoy it. My theory is that the area of the brain that most people devote to music during development got developed into something else. So to him music doesn’t “do it”, and is not as distinguishable from noise. To him, all music is always out of tune (he can’t tell you if something is in tune or out, he doesn’t understand the concept). ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/8 "2005-11-12T01:34:13Z")
Seemed to me that thread drifted more and more from “Mindsets I don’t understand” to “Mindsets I deeply disapprove of”. But then I guess that was inevitaible. I’ll take one that was mentioned fairly soomn in the thread…drug addict. I don’t understand not understanding that. Life is painful and confusing. Ingesting certain subtansance will give you the idea that it’s not so painful…or that if it’s confusing you can certainly deal with it (and also Superman if he happens to show up). Trying to make life less painful and confusing is what people do. Drugs may be a BAD idea as far as solving that problem…but they’re not an \*ununderstadable \* one. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/9 "2005-11-12T01:39:08Z")
Just a few from the other thread: > [@Anne Neville](#): > > People who are against using birth control. “I was horny” is one of the worst reasons to become a parent that I can think of. In my own previously fundamentalist days, the reasoning behind this that I often heard was that if you _did_ use birth control, you were _planning_ on having sex and thus it was premeditated and therefore a sin. If it happened accidentally, it was instead an “oops!” and something you didn’t _mean_ to happen. I guess it made it somehow a ‘lesser’ evil. Or something. :o > [@Avarie537](#): > > I work for a property management company that mostly works with low-income folks. I don’t understand how a woman my age (25) can have 5 kids (the oldest being 8 or 9), each with a different last name. I just don’t get it! It’s really easy to NOT get pregnant, even if you are having sex. Would this one be due to low self-esteem? Ya know, “If I have a child with this man, perhaps he’ll stay.” Then, “Well, maybe this one!” And on and on and on. At least, that would be my best guess. > [@stuyguy](#): > > Line cutters. A sense of entitlement? Of course, that leads right back (for me anyway) to not understanding _that_ in the first place. Can someone help me out here? ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/10 "2005-11-12T05:44:56Z")
> [@](#): > > If you don’t worship your god this way, you are bound for hell. Y’know, we’re right and everyone else is doomed. Er, it seems to be a pretty common human thing, to think that anyone who agrees with us is wise, just, and probably good looking, and that anyone who disagrees with us is at best misguided - and a dupe - and at worst a pestilence to be eliminated. I’m always quite bemused, though I guess I understand, that we most of us have real problems with this objectivity thing. Well, that is, most of you have problems being objective. Me, I don’t need objectivity since I have Truth on my side. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/11 "2005-11-12T13:48:58Z")
From the other thread: > [@](#): > > I don’t get people who don’t try to look after their health. People who are chronically overweight or out of shape who don’t realize they are and or don’t do anything about it. My friend, I just don’t have the time. I go to work during the day and work on my second masters as well as my two fields of independent scholarship at night. Quality time with **Mrs. Fresh** involves sitting on the couch together studying and joking around. It’s quite a bit like undergraduate all-nighter study sessions. Working out would take a good hour and a half out of that time, once you factor in getting changed and cleaning up on top of the workout itself. I suppose I’m at the age where time is more precious than anything else, even my health. Someday, after all of this is over and done with, maybe I’ll get back to my old jocky self. “Someday,” however, is a long time away. And by the way, not to be snarky, but _everyone_ who is overweight realizes it. In fact, we get reminded of it on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![power\_sawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@power\_sawyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/power_sawyer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/12 "2005-11-14T21:43:55Z")
I can understand cannibalism, which some people reject so absolutely that they deny its existence, and try to refute direct reports from early explorers. Actually, I think it’s hard to argue that it hasn’t appeared on every sontinent and subcontinent in every century. Just a spite kind of ritual to insult your enemies, to treat them like wild boars or some other prey. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/13 "2005-11-14T21:58:12Z")
> [@power sawyer](#): > > I can understand cannibalism, which some people reject so absolutely that they deny its existence, and try to refute direct reports from early explorers. I really haven’t met people like that - who actually deny cannibalism as a phenomenon. I personally could easily be a cannibal if it wasn’t so illegal and unhealthy. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/14 "2005-11-15T00:55:01Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > In correlation to this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343762&page=1), what mindsets do other people not understand that you can explain either from personal experience or just because you got 'em figured out when (general) we don’t? “People will be people” ---
**Author:** ![meanoldman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@meanoldman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meanoldman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-a-certain-mindset/330491/15 "2005-11-15T01:37:56Z")
I sure can’t speak for all of them … but how about lottery players? Especially those that many of us think should be saving their money. “Lottery = tax for people bad at math” I say, not so. What if they save that 3 bucks or fiver or even a 10 spot each week. I say, yeah, so what?!? For days, weeks, they get to escape the desperation that is the routine of their existence. They long, they ache, they need to break free of the oppressive sameness of each day. Well, ok… I’m describing me. It’s cheaper than a movie, and depending upon when one buys a ticket, the feeling of being outside the dull grey of existing another day can last longer too. They get to imaginethemselves living a very different life. A life where they are near the top, not at the bottom and clutching, grasping, clawing to stay there and not drop even further. Let’s say these “bad at math” people save their $520 bucks a year instead of buying lotto tix. Well, they aren’t rich, so most “investments” that earn high returns are out of the question. So they can get maybe a savings account at 2% . Ok, they put that $520 a year into a 2% savings account each year. If I’ve done my math correctly, that comes out to about $41,730 after 20 years. 20 years. And with inflation, how much will that $41,730 be worth? If inflation keeps apace at even these low levels, one might be able to buy a used car with $41,700 20 years from now.