# Is everyone insane about something?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 22, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604 "2011-08-22T01:56:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/1 "2011-08-22T01:56:10Z")
I know my thinking process does not work the same as any of you.
Sometimes my brain zigs sometimes zags.
I (and friends and family) deal.
My thought. Everybody is sane in the micro but possibly and probably cat shit crazy overall.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/2 "2011-08-22T02:21:51Z")
No, I don’t think everyone is a little crazy.
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/3 "2011-08-22T02:26:12Z")
No, sorry **Mewl Dear** , it’s just you.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/4 "2011-08-22T02:34:11Z")
Yep . . . for some definitions of crazy.
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### Author:  [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/5 "2011-08-22T02:42:10Z")
Aren’t crazy people the only ones who are sure they are sane?
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### Author:  [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/6 "2011-08-22T03:20:08Z")
Sure, everyone’s a little bit of a mental patient for certain movies – check “Quiz Show” or other cult classics. Or books. The third “Logical Investigation” of Husserl. Or Proust, people go nuts for that shit.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/7 "2011-08-22T06:09:57Z")
ArE yoU crAZY?! MAYBE. I am nOT crazy but fORr the love OF God why won’t the walrusses stop preSsing mY SHIft KEy at RanDOM IntErVALS!!1
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/8 "2011-08-23T23:42:19Z")
People who present the sanest face to the world are often hiding the largest skeletons in their closets. I am most comfortable with people who openly admit their little neuroses, because everyone who doesn’t is a liar.
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### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/9 "2011-08-23T23:48:01Z")
What evidence do you have for that, **rachelellogram**? The craziest people I know are obviously crazy, and those that seem sane actually are. Have you had friends that seemed perfectly reasonable flip out on you regularly?
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/10 "2011-08-24T00:25:10Z")
> [@Mewl\_Dear](#):
>
> Aren’t crazy people the only ones who are sure they are sane?
No, crazy people are the ones projecting and assuming everyone else is as crazy as they are.
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### Author:  [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/11 "2011-08-24T01:05:29Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> People who present the sanest face to the world are often hiding the largest skeletons in their closets. I am most comfortable with people who openly admit their little neuroses, because everyone who doesn’t is a liar.
This makes sense to me, because the people who have accepted and know how to deal with their own neuroses are generally willing to open up about them. Those who bury their neuroses to provide a “normal” face to society are the ones whose little quirks will blow up one day because they never figured out how to deal with them.
IMO, of course.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/12 "2011-08-24T01:12:56Z")
> [@Mewl\_Dear](#):
>
> Everybody is sane in the micro but possibly and probably cat shit crazy overall.
You know, I was thinking that ought to be “bat shit crazy,” but then I remembered that it is indeed [cat shit that contains the parasites that secrete LSD](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2637/if-cat-poop-is-so-toxic-to-pregnant-women-why-arent-there-more-birth-defects).
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/13 "2011-08-24T01:40:55Z")
_When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained._
thus spaketh Mark Twain
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/14 "2011-08-24T02:12:35Z")
In General Semantics the preferred term is **Unsane**. I never met anyone who I was sure was perfectly sane, but I known several who did an excellent job of compensating for their neuroses. If is the people who have no doubt about their sanity that you don’t want to turn your back on.
A similar principle is the people who don’t think they have any prejudices are the biggest bigots.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/15 "2011-08-24T02:13:53Z")
In General Semantics the preferred term is **Unsane**. I never met anyone who I was sure was perfectly sane, but I known several who did an excellent job of compensating for their neuroses. If is the people who have no doubt about their sanity that you don’t want to turn your back on and don’t drink the Kool-Aid when they offer it.
A similar principle is the people who don’t think they have any prejudices are the biggest bigots.
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### Author:  [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/16 "2011-08-25T02:24:39Z")
Am I sane because I think not.
Or, insane because I know not
Hi you know who.
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### Author:  [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/17 "2011-08-25T02:32:22Z")
The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, and a touch of the citizen in him. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman in him.
- [G. K. Chesterton](http://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/orthodoxy.v.html)
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### Author:  [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/18 "2011-08-25T02:40:36Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> No, I don’t think everyone is a little crazy.
Is that because you think everyone is a lot crazy?
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-everyone-insane-about-something/593604/19 "2011-08-25T02:47:25Z")
I do not think everyone suffers from psychotic breaks or deals with chronic psychosis.
This is what insanity and “crazy” connote to me. Being psychotic.
Perhaps everyone has quirks that could be called neurotic. Like, maybe everyone has an irrational fear. Or a weak point in their personality that, if pressed, would make them succumb to depression or maladaptive behaviors. I don’t know enough about people to wager a guess about whether this is true, but I can buy this idea before I can buy “everyone is crazy”. Crazy means breaking from reality and being delusional and stuff. I do not think I have experienced this, even when my thoughts have been in their most disorganized state. So I’m not comfortable saying what “everyone else” is or has.
Believing that everyone is a little whatever sounds like a coping mechanism. I don’t need to believe everyone is like me or knows what I’m going through to feel better about myself.