There are some mindsets that utterly baffle me, I can’t see how they could possibly be beneficial…
1; the “Car as an appliance” mindset, “a car is a tool for getting from point a to point b”, yes that’s true, it is a tool used for conveyance from one location to another…but shouldn’t it be fun?
2; the "I don’t care how my <device**> works, I just want it to work…
How can you not want to know how something works, it’s knowledge, knowledge is power, acquiring knowledge is an admirable pursuit, it makes you smarter and more versatile, and who knows, by increasing your knowledge of the workings of your <device**> you might be able to better troubleshoot it, or even repair it yourself, thereby increasing your self-sufficiency as well
3; whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability, whenever something bad happens and/or you screw up, it’s always someone else’s fault, the first instinct is to find someone to blame/sue/take the fall, whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability, you screwed up, learn to live with the results
** “Device” can be anything, but is most commonly a computer, or car
But why not have both, have fun on the drive to work?
[Homer]But Marge, every time I learn something new, it pushes something old out, remember how I took that home-winemaking course and forgot how to drive?"[/Homer]
(sorry, couldn’t resist )
The idea that your religious or political beliefs should be held by all people, regardless of their circumstances, needs, or personality.
I have a friend who would be delighted to see everyone convert to her brand of Orthodox Christianity. I would be horrified if everyone converted to my denomination of Unitarian Universalist. Too crowded! Loss of other ideas! Nothing new to learn! At least my friend doesn’t actively prosletyze.
“I have a mental block about it, I just can’t learn it.” Yes you can. You just refuse to. And you need to learn it because you just bought said item and other people cannot help you all the time.
“Why would you learn that? You’re never going to use it.” So? I happen to think learning more = ability to learn more, as in, your brain gets bigger. I don’t think we really have a finite place of storage.
Also:
3. “Gay marriage destroys regular marriage.” Sorry to bring this one in, but I don’t get this one at all, unless like Lewis Black says there are a bunch of gay banditos sneaking into people’s houses and fucking each other up the ass in the living room.
4. Boycotts. You do realize most of the time the decision makers aren’t affected at all, and it’s just your friends and neighbors who are being affected?
5. “Buy American.” Eek, I am putting my foot in it with this one, but it’s all about giving Americans jobs? But I truly believe in a global mindset, and those people over in India and China who do the work are human beings too. I think they deserve jobs, too. Not to mention - if the American product is crappier and more expensive, I’m sorry, but you really haven’t given me a reason to buy American.
6. “I believe X is wrong, therefore it must be a law against it.” The biggest one here is abortion, obviously, but it goes to all sorts of things, gay sex/marriage being another.
The idea that an animal is the equivalent of a child. I’m not talking about merely referring to your dog/cat/ocelot/yak as “my baby,” I’m talking about asserting that your pet is the exact equivalent of a child to you and that the loss of your pet is equivalent to losing a child. I’m sincerely baffled by this mindset and I find something inherently pitiable about it. I also have never heard it from anyone who ever really lost a child.
The inability or refusal to see the inherent impropriety or immorality of certain actions. Questions like “why shouldn’t a starlet flash her twat at the papparazzi?” or “why shouldn’t people have sex with animals?” indicates a mindset so divergent from my own that there’s no point in even attempting to find common ground. Again, baffling.
“Gee, it’d be nice to not owe $20,000 on my credit cards and buy a house but hey! I need cable TV & cigarettes 7 buy lunch every day & go out to eat every night & new clothes every week & a trip to Vegas every month…”
I just don’t get it.
The notion that some activities should be restricted by gender. Even worse, the notion that some activities are impossible to those of a certain gender (or nationality, culture, color, whatchahave). Some white guys can jump, some women can read maps, and if we didn’t insist in fencing up rivers maybe the water would flow better, y’know? Of course I refer to any activities other than, basically, growing and delivering a baby and providing the sperm for one
The idea that if you don’t like something, automatically anybody who does is a freak or an idiot. A world where everybody wants to do the same thing at the same time? One where everybody wants to have sex with the exact same person and only that one? Excuse me, conductor, can you stop the world, I’m getting off!
People who assume everybody is bad, evil, out to get anybody weaker… that those who don’t seem to be like that are either faking goodness or part of the weak… I know a few people like that and man, it sure must be tiresome to be them.
I don’t understand the mindset of those who claim to be Christian (like active Christian. Church every Sunday, Bible study, faith in God and belief in Jesus as a prime focus/motivator) who despise and deride the poor.
Surely you recognize the vast ocean of space between the inability to understand any emotional attachment to an animal and the assertion that an animal is your child. Right?
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