I had an epiphany about this sort of thing and related behavior a while back.
Animal Herd Instinct.
Yup, we’re so “evolved” that we don’t even realize that we’re still acting like scared little herd animals.
You see, there are Wolves. Other Humans are those wolves, the predators hidden among us. We’re scared of them. People with illnesses (mental or physical) or other weaknesses are perceived as “prey” by these people, and by us. Therefore, when we are afraid of these predators, we are pre-disposed to not want to be too closely associated with the weak prey animals around us, for fear that we too will be seen as prey.
When others tell me of their “open marriages” I can’t help but think that it is a rationalization for their lack of committment or honesty to their spouse. While I’m sure that altruistic open free love arrangements exist, I think 99% of them are just making excuses.
How do you define picky? Do they have a certain way everything needs to be made? Is it people who refuse to try anything new?
I am just trying to understand the specifics of some of these woes.
If you’re saying that we all experience this animal herd instinct in relation to mental illness, then I disagree. olivesmarsh4th clearly does not. Otherwise, epiphany-tastic.
Well, then there’s the entire world of experience and exasperation in dealing with mental illness. I have no patience for some forms of mental illness just because I’m either tired of dealing with them or too strongly annoyed by them.
But then, to combine threads around here, I’m the only person in the Universe and I have Dis-associative Disorder that makes me think all of you are different people when you’re really only other personalities within my own mind.
Ug, just remembered another one. Couples who can’t do anything separately. Just because you’re married does not mean you have to share the same tube of toothpaste for the rest of your life. You can even see different movies, and move farther than arm’s distance away from each other at parties, ok?
Anything that even looks like co-dependence bugs me.
I know we share similar experiences in this vein, so I do want to reiterate that protecting yourself from the abusive actions of psychologically sick people is not the same as judging those people for being psychologically sick.
And it doesn’t even have to be an extreme case. I can only take my schizophrenic uncle in limited doses, mostly because he almost inevitably begins to ramble in detail about child abuse, with no concept that he is making the people around him uncomfortable. But establishing boundaries there in no way invalidates my compassion for his condition.
But my Mom, for example, is convinced that he would be able to recover if he weren’t so self-centered and lazy. His refusal to accept his condition is based on his desire to keep everyone under his thumb, his inability to hold down a job is laziness, and his relapses are attempts at manipulation, etc. I have tried to explain to her one billion times that the behavior she perceives as morally flawed is symptomatic almost universally in people who share his diagnosis and is a manifestation of his illness. But she refuses to listen and has even implied that he is really a sociopath (her cite: at ten, he got his friends to rake the yard so he didn’t have to. That’s serial killer material right there. :rolleyes:) That is the nonsense to which I am specifically referring.
Nah, if he was a serial killer, he’d have convinced them to rake his yard, killed them, and conveniently hit their various body parts in the bags of leaves they themselves had gathered up for him!
You’re not, don’t worry. I’m just kidding anyway, do I come across as too aggressive?
Well what I meant is that when using two hands to do something, there shouldn’t really be any hand dominance issues, having the fork in the left hand, and the knife in the right (as it should be :p), as it requires the use of both hands anyway. Like you don’t need left handed handlebars on a bike or anything, or swap the front brake and clutch levers round on a motorbike, just because it’s normal to do one thing with the dominant hand.
Sounds like the person was being a real dick! Of course, you do realise when s/he asked if you mind, you’re supposed to say no :p.
On the other hand, s/he probably thought s/he was being funny, and a lot of people don’t understand how bad asthma can be.
And now we unleash the rage!
People with personalized license plates - Not to be cruel, but I don’t give a rat’s ass that you’re Mom2Twns
People with flashy custom rims - Usually they’re on cars worth less than the wheels themselves. It pretty much screams “I should not be trusted with money or any important decision!” (note, used only one exclamation point)
People who believe that incredibly complex compound sentence structure enhances whatever point they’re trying to make. I’m a writer, and few people can actually write a four line sentence with eight subordinate clauses that makes any sense at all. If you want to say it, say it clearly.
People who fear technology, saying “Oh, I could never figure that out”. - I get that there’s a learning curve, but just give it a shot. By preemptively declaring defeat you’re denying yourself access to something that might improve your quality of life.
Facial piercings - Yeah, I’m old and out of touch.
People who make phone calls in the men’s room - I’m sorry, but you’re just not that important.
People who drive H2s and H3s - I don’t like the Hummer, but I can respect it for what it is. The “lesser” models are just rebranded SUVs with extra chrome and dick factor.
People who believe they win more often than they lose at casinos - learn some basic probability. In the long run, you’ve almost certainly lost more than you’ve won. Just because you came out $200 ahead last week does not offset the $1000 you dropped last month.
Maybe they’re telling the truth. I don’t go to casinos on a regular basis (maybe once every other year or so), and I always make a point of a) not allowing myself to lose more than a certain amount and b) quitting once I’ve gone ahead by a certain amount. I can state with confidence that I’ve come out ahead of the casinos in my personal history with them.
I’m willing to concede that there are people out there (like you) who have indeed won more than they’ve lost. In the vast majority of cases, however, people lose more than they take away. That’s why the casinos are still in business.
I used to work with a girl who would regularly drop $10 or $12 at a time on lottery scratch-off tickets. She was convinced she was coming out ahead, because she’d usually get a winning ticket in each batch - for $2. :smack:
I think he meant people that do go into casinos on a regular basis, or at least have gone a lot, and believe they are coming out ahead when that is highly unlikely.
