[QUOTE=MacTech]
…But why not have both, have fun on the drive to work?
…
[/QUOTE]
I get my fun listening to Sirius satellite radio while driving to work. The car I drive could be a cage with wheels for all I care.
When I hear “fun” associated with cars, the hairs on my neck rise because inevitably the fun part means a loud engine.
I hate noise.
[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
“You will do __________ because I said you will, and if you don’t, I will injure you physically.” People who have this mindset should all be evaporated.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, so
“You will not have this mindset, and if you do I will injure you physically”.
is okay…hmmmm.
I don’t understand people who believe THEIR view is THE view.
It’s one of the things I’ve loved about this place, because being around smart, articulate people whose views are different from mine causes me to realize I’m doing it sometimes myself.
The older I get, the less I “know”.
I don’t get people who refuse to vaccinate their children because they think that vaccines cause autism, brain damage, or name the malady of your choice.
I also don’t get people who ride motorcycles without a helmet. I mean, I get that helmets interfere with experiencing the cool breeze through your hair, but doesn’t the thought of someone having to pick bits of gravel out of your brain matter kind of supersede that?
[QUOTE=BwanaBob]
I get my fun listening to Sirius satellite radio while driving to work. The car I drive could be a cage with wheels for all I care.
When I hear “fun” associated with cars, the hairs on my neck rise because inevitably the fun part means a loud engine.
I hate noise.
[/QUOTE]
Plus anything “fun” about driving a car usually consists of something illegal. What fun is a fast sporty car when your driving along with everyone else.
Creationism, especially young-earth creationism. I have not yet seen an argument for creationism that shouldn’t be vulnerable to a high-school science education. Which leads me to…
…Scriptural literalism. Unless you happen to be channelling an ancient Israelite, a 7th century Arab, or one of any number of other historical figures, you’re working with a translation. It may be a masterful translation, but it’s still a translation, and it’s subject to the intellectual lacunae and prejudices of the human being who prepared it.
[QUOTE=BwanaBob]
Oh, so
“You will not have this mindset, and if you do I will injure you physically”.
is okay…hmmmm.
[/QUOTE]
The concept of hyperbole is just lost on some people. Like you.
[QUOTE=MsWhatsit]
I also don’t get people who ride motorcycles without a helmet. I mean, I get that helmets interfere with experiencing the cool breeze through your hair, but doesn’t the thought of someone having to pick bits of gravel out of your brain matter kind of supersede that?
[/QUOTE]
I see this every day in SF and it terrifies me. I think maybe because they are just zipping around an urban area and not actually hauling ass down a major highway there is less potential for a serious injury? I wouldn’t get on a motorcycle even with a helmut if you paid me.
[QUOTE=Ghanima]
I don’t understand the near-violent intolerance of atheism. If your god is so powerful, why are you so threatened by it?
I first this as the violence of atheists towards theists. It seems like that on this board sometimes, that some atheists exhibit near violent intolerance.
Monotheist, polytheist, non-theist, atheist, agnostic, nice spectrum, 's’all right.
Really expensive cars. I didn’t even understand how a car could be “fun” until I drove my dad’s Celica once – it is fun to drive a car that responds better to your direction, much like it’s fun to waltz with a partner who knows how. But Dad’s Celica was used and ten years old when he got it. I can’t imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars above the cost of a basic new car, and then driving that “investment” around where it’s at the mercy of all the other idjit drivers out there. Then worrying about the finish etc. I mean, if you’re Jay Leno and can afford warehouses of the things, okay; they’re toys. But for the working schmoe who spends a year or two’s salary on a car? I don’t get it.
People, especially otherwise clear-thinking people who understand scientific method and history, who think everything we “know” now is definitely true. Obviously, the accepted explanation for phenomenon X often stands up over time more often than the fringe explanation does, but not always. There MUST be something we believe now that fifty years from now, people will giggle about. Miasma? Ether? Phrenology? Or some aspect of our social lives that we take for granted now that will seem vile and unconscionable in retrospect, like slavery.
[QUOTE=erie774]
I forgot about that one. Several of my neighbors have posters, flags, decals and T-shirts of their favorite drivers and go to the races. I tried watching a few races with them and got bored to tears.
[/QUOTE]
Racing fans simply have a completely different perception of what a race is. They don’t view it as a bunch of cars driving fast in a circle.
[QUOTE=Secret Volcano Lair]
Racing fans simply have a completely different perception of what a race is. They don’t view it as a bunch of cars driving fast in a circle.
[/QUOTE]
What *do *they view it as?
[QUOTE=MsWhatsit]
I don’t get people who refuse to vaccinate their children because they think that vaccines cause autism, brain damage, or name the malady of your choice.
[/QUOTE]
I could understand that- it’s reasonable to avoid things that will do more harm than good. But what I don’t understand about that mindset is their absolute refusal to look at it in terms of the likelihood of the outcomes. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that their kids have an orders-of-magnitude better chance of dying or being disabled for life from the disease in question than they do from some effect of the vaccine. No, there’s some chance (even if it’s one in a billion) that the vaccine could cause problems, so better not do it.
I don’t understand those who like to steal the joy of others.
I can post that I just read XYZ and I loved it. Invariably someone will come in to proclaim XYZ was mindless tripe. ABC was soooo much better and anyone who likes XYZ needs help.
I have a coworker who will hear stories of abused children or orphaned babies and never blink an eye, but if it’s an animal - any animal she starts a campaign to save it. I like animals - I’ve had pets that I truly loved, but my actual children always came first. My daughter has asthma so the cat had to go. Someone actually felt that I should have kept the cat and found a way for my daughter to endure it.
Those who judge a country, a racial group or a religion based on a passing acquantance with one member of that group - or media coverage of a portion of that group.
I don’t understand “the moral majority”.
I don’t understand how some with so much can sleep at night without helping someone in the world. I’m poor and I do what I can and I still feel guily sometimes.
On a lighter note - I don’t understand VCO3. Oh, that’s right - I’m AA and he doesn’t understand me either.
People who automatically despise someone of a different color.
People who refuse to care about the world and other people in it because "the end is coming soon."
People who claim to be followers of Jesus but do nothing besides spew hatred at others.
People who can't tolerate a couple in a same sex relationship.[QUOTE=MacTech]
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?
[/quote]
Fun is when I take the money I save by buying a totally practical, utility car to get from point A to point B and spend that money on, say, airplanes or other thing I genuinely enjoy.
I can’t possibly know everything there is to know. Therefore, in some instances I elect to rent the expertise of someone who knows more than I do in a particular area, so I have more time/energy left over for things that I am interested in, I consider fun, or earn me money.
Not guilty on #3
[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
So, wait, you can’t even fathom the idea that someone might hold a belief of a religious nature? I find that bizarre, even for an atheist.
[/QUOTE]
Like Priceguy, I find it difficult to understand how anyone who has given it more than a moment’s thought can truly be convinced. I’m not one of those atheists who has had phases of doubt - I simply can’t imagine feeling or thinking any other way.
I don’t get the “me first, then maybe you” mindset. I have expanded this in my head to include those people who are not willing to change habits in the slightest to help the environment/save energy etc. I’m looking at my MIL here. (there are many more, I’m sure).
I don’t get the whole “it’s all about me” one, either. You are not a star, a celebrity or a famous person (and I’m not all that fascinated with them, either). No one wants to hear all about YOU.
I agree with most of those posted here, especially the one about pets=kids (no, they don’t). I don’t get pro wrestling/roller derby/NASCAR. What’s more–I have no desire to.
Religious intolerance–this is biggy for me. I don’t care if you’re atheist or fundamentalist–leave me alone with your belief structure, mmkay?
I don’t understand the mindset of people who think homosexuality is a choice.
I also don’t understand the lack of respect for laws pertaining to abortion–if you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one.
I have no desire to know in detail how my hot water heater, car engine or computer work. Why should I? That said, those who are completely ignorant about their own bodies–don’t get that at all.
Lots more. Good thread.
[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
To make this idea broader, I don’t quite understand the “I hate nature in general” POV. Nature carries a great deal of beauty with its unpleasant realities, and you don’t necessarily have to be out in the deepest and most wild parts of nature to appreciate some of the beauty and wonder that’s within it. Yes, bugs aren’t fun to deal with when they want to crawl and bite and fly around you, but they’re not the entirety of nature itself. I don’t like to deal with bugs either, but the existence of insects does not completely ruin my experience of the natural world. It’s just a small aspect of a really fascinating and complex environment.
[/QUOTE]
On a slightly more general vein, the absolute and total inability to conceive of an immanent God. Somehow God is restricted to a remote corner of the multispiritualverse, and never even so much as dares sully his hands and feet by manifesting Himself on Earth-oh except for that one time 2,000 years ago of course. Never mind that if we didn’t have God inside us (extrapolating from certain premises accepted for the sake of argument at least) we wouldn’t exist, nor would anything else in the manifest world. A complete lack of a spiritual imagination.
On the gay marriage thing, specifically attempts to pass either federal or state amendments to the Constitution(s)-you know that the purpose of the Bill of Rights is to delineate those rights which are already assumed to exist. To suggest putting in an amendment specifically denying a right to a certain class of people undoubtedly has sent many a Founding Father spinning madly in their graves (even if homosexuality might have undoubtedly disgusted some of them). Completely unprecedented, unless you want to count Prohibition (which didn’t work out so hot in practice ya know).
Another voice here for people who are scriptural literalists. Esp. when they’re using the old KJV of the bible.
People who can’t make an effort of imagination to put themselves into someone else’s shoes. I’m not talking about truly aberrant personalities, but being unable to consider anyone else’s position at all. Not saying one has to accept that their position is valid, just that one should be able to form an impression of how and why a person might think that.
People who insist on painting history or historical persons in only one color, and deliberately ignore the nuances that real persons have.
Anyone who races a train to a crossing.