# How unique are you? Opposites at play

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 23, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649 "2009-01-23T15:46:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649/1 "2009-01-23T15:46:34Z")

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Inspired by the doppleganger thread, I got to thinking: how unique do you guesstimate to be? Don’t know if this is just a dead-end solo excercise in mundane stuff, but here goes:

I’m a human male. Three billion others are. No points there.

I haven’t done military or civil service (95%+ of healthy males go here), yet I own guns. As the non-goers typically are hard-core pacifists, eco-anarchists, suffering artists etc., I must belong to a very small minority.

I don’t have a driver’s license (98% of my demographic group has it), yet I know a lot about cars and am interested in them (especially sports / performance cars). Not many in the 2 % who are into automobiles, for sure.

I have a lifelong, passionate interest / semi-pro hobby that app. ten thousand people world wide participate in. Within that group I belong to a minority sub-group with maybe (honestly) 100 or so applicants in the world.

I am an avid sports fan, I work out, follow certain sports on the TV etc. Most men in my demographic group are. But I have absolutely no clue on the rules, happenings etc. of any team sport (ie. soccer, basketball, baseball, football, hockey).

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**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649/2 "2015-11-29T11:30:13Z")

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I’m not too unique because I have siblings. For example, I have a particular diet that 2% of the population follows, so my siblings switched to the diet. And so on.

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**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649/3 "2015-11-29T11:43:25Z")

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> [@Toxylon](#):
>
> I haven’t done military or civil service (95%+ of healthy males go here)…

Am I misunderstanding you, or are you suggesting that 95% of healthy males have served in the military or civil service? Where in the world did you get that idea? Perhaps you’re not in America? Only about 14% of all living American males have every served in the military.

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**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-unique-are-you-opposites-at-play/482649/4 "2015-11-29T12:29:36Z")

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Zombie thread locked at OP request