# If there is something as a foreigner living in the US has thought me, is that... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 23, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398 "2018-02-23T06:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398/41 "2018-02-24T23:09:34Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > But maybe you might be one of those guys who feels like he is superior to other people and works at trying to rub it into their faces. > At least, so I would judge from what you just said, which is exactly all I have to go on, just like the people who only see you only have that to go on. This part would be interesting if I understood what you meant. I don’t tell people I’m not what I appear, you’d have to drag it out of me and usually they find out from someone else. I just like to wear comfortable clothes and don’t give a rat’s ass what people think about my appearance. I guess that part might be an attitude of superiority, I do kind of enjoy it, but it’s mainly just indifference. > [@](#): > > Clothes are social costumes designed to indicate a lot of information instantly, such as social class, subculture, education, occupation, gender, sexual availability, and many other things. Maybe you should dress like a slob but hand out informational brochures about yourself. This is the part I consider a problem and am happy to on occasion redirect people’s thinking as a result of my appearance mismatching those signals. It’s easy to lie through appearance, wearing a good looking suit doesn’t indicate anything important about it’s occupant. I don’t care much about a person’s class, everyone has problems, everyone has to deal with life, I don’t tailor my treatment of people based on what they wear or whether I’m wearing my comfy clothes or decked out in a suit. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398/42 "2018-02-24T23:30:18Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > This part would be interesting if I understood what you meant. I don’t tell people I’m not what I appear, you’d have to drag it out of me and usually they find out from someone else. I just like to wear comfortable clothes and don’t give a rat’s ass what people think about my appearance. I guess that part might be an attitude of superiority, I do kind of enjoy it, but it’s mainly just indifference. > > This is the part I consider a problem and am happy to on occasion redirect people’s thinking as a result of my appearance mismatching those signals. It’s easy to lie through appearance, wearing a good looking suit doesn’t indicate anything important about it’s occupant. I don’t care much about a person’s class, everyone has problems, everyone has to deal with life, I don’t tailor my treatment of people based on what they wear or whether I’m wearing my comfy clothes or decked out in a suit. I thought very much like you once, but my excuse is that I was eighteen, and a self-righteous insecure snob who thought I knew how shallow other people were. What’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398/43 "2018-02-25T00:19:35Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I thought very much like you once, but my excuse is that I was eighteen, and a self-righteous insecure snob who thought I knew how shallow other people were. What’s yours? I don’t know what I need an excuse for. I wear clothes that are comfortable and I don’t judge others by the clothes they wear. Maybe the problem is I don’t realize what awful things I’m doing there. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398/44 "2018-02-25T01:00:15Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t know what I need an excuse for. I wear clothes that are comfortable and I don’t judge others by the clothes they wear. Maybe the problem is I don’t realize what awful things I’m doing there. Coming at this with a slighly less combatant attitude, the idea that “How dare you not see the real me” is the problem here. Like I said, I like to dress comfortably too when I’m not dealing with clients. However, rather than seeing the need to “educate” people about how actually I’m a respected professional, I just let them assume I’m a uni student who Generic Dude On His Laptop because it’s no skin off my nose and _I_ am the one conforming to the Generic Dude On His Laptop At A Cafe stereotype. If I’m going to be somewhere that I need people to think “Yes, Mr Enfield is the respected professional he is reputed to be” then it’s not hard to put on a collared shirt and some long pants and shave. Doing so, as I said before, isn’t just about “society needs to learn appearances aren’t everything”, it’s about the meta of dressing appropriately - the message being “I am taking what I do seriously” A _Rick And Morty_ T-shirt with a picture of Rick on it and the words “It’s time to get riggity-riggity _wrecked_, son!” would absolutely be appropriate at a BBQ or the beach or hanging out at a friend’s house. It would be much less appropriate in the budget meeting for a traditional Fortune 500 company. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-is-something-as-a-foreigner-living-in-the-us-has-thought-me-is-that/809398.md?page=2)