I can’t be the first person on this messageboard to notice that there are some things that utterly escape some Dopers. Now, while I’d like to think I’m simply on a messageboard full of reclusive savants, I feel like some people are not as smart as they think they are. This is a messageboard for fighting ignorance, but there really feels like a divide between things that are ‘worth’ knowing/doing and things that are not worth knowing/doing.
I understand many Dopers take pride in being as quirky and unconventional as possible (if you feel like this is the only place where you can vent about being an Atheist Childfree Catloving Polysexual trust me when I say the internet is a very big place) it sometimes feels like a ‘race to the bottom’. Threads like this seem to be phrased more in a “My vulcan mind doesn’t understand the logic in this activity” vs a genuine curiosity.
I noticed this about some people. They’ll go out of their way to mention how they don’t do drugs/drink as though it was some +1 bonus on their RPG character sheet in life. The same people who don’t think it should be a big deal to not want/care of kids/sports/dogs/[Insert Conventionally Accepted Hobby] seem to consider it a big deal that they dont drink/like alcohol, drugs, etc.
Which is fine. But what they don’t get is that nobody gives a shit. You don’t like kids/dogs/whatever? Nobody cares. Somebody razzing you on the internet? So the fuck what? And that gets to my whole point of this thread: **That a lot of people on the SDMB have an embarassing lack of self-awareness. ** If you’re weird, own it. If you have to trip over yourself rationalizing it, you’re not very confident about who you are.
And making threads about how you don’t ‘get’ Women/Getting Drunk/Keurig machines isn’t some kind of backhanded bragging. Its just pathetic.
Judging from your join date, it appears you were around for the ‘pan-fried semen’ thread. Where was your outrage then?
I’d ask if you are the reincarnation of King Canute, except that Canute’s command was intended to illustrate how little power he really had. I’m pretty sure you’re not being that subtle.
I don’t think I ever bothered to open that thread. I know it was a popular topic on the SDMB. I won’t be so arrogant to imply I didn’t participate in other TMI threads, but that’s not my point.
There’s an ironic kind of intellectual tunnel vision where people take pride in how much they know about some specific, generally obscure topic, yet ironically also take pride in how little they know of anything else. It reeks of insecurity in a community that pats in back on being open-minded while at the same time hilariously colorblind and sexist. Threads like this get trotted out constantly and people seem to suffer the same blind spot in understanding the issue.
I’ve learned a lot on the SDMB, but I’ve also been really surprised to be among the minority who seems to understand why women might have to deal with BS differently on a bus/parking lot/date than men, why people of color might go through BS differently than white people. I’m not a woman or a minority. Nor do I claim to be the smartest person on the planet/SDMB. But I feel surprised to be among a minority who can wrap their heads around this among people who seem to know so much more than I do.
OP, did you notice that both your “threads like this” examples were started by people with recent join dates?
There is a wide variety of people here, some are actually very intelligent in many areas, some are savants in particular areas, but most are pretty ordinary people whose emotional ducks are not always in a perfect row.
What makes this place useful and interesting is the general sense and cultural intention to improve ourselves, at least some of the time, instead of just scoring points. That doesn’t mean that point-scoring is never attempted, just that it is not the raison d’etre for most people being here.
And by missing that point, I suggest that you yourself are guilty of what you are accusing (many? most? all?) of us being guilty of. But that’s ok too.
Roddy
I’ll address a couple points from the OP out of order, if you don’t mind.
You say that no one cares, but you cared enough to start this thread. And in real life, it does come up. There is still pressure to drink, for example, in some settings, and you miss out on some social opportunities if you don’t (or don’t get it, but go through the motions anyway). It may not matter a lot, but sometimes it does matter.
It’s not necessarily bragging, or seen as an asset. There are things I don’t get, but wish I did.
Every so often I will make a point of casually saying something in the hope that someone else will pick up on it and ask about it. Usually they don’t.
I think it’s a very human thing to do, and not a big deal. We all like at least a small amount of attention, or to think of ourselves as a unique or interesting individual. And MPSIMS is a forum allocated for that, so we shouldn’t be bothered by it when that happens here.
This is going to sound harsh so early in the morning, Incubus, but sometimes I think you’re the one who needs a lesson in self-awareness.
Ever since you started posting here years ago, you’ve posted from a perch of annoying self-righteousness. You think your commentary on your slacking coworkers, lazy friends, mundane family problems, and stupid Dopers is insightful and interesting. And maybe it is to some Dopers who are into that kind of shit. But frankly, it usually comes across as mean to me. Like you think you’re hot shit.
But you’re just as much of a dope as the rest of us.
And by the way, my special plea to you is to stop using"aspie" as a general insult. That seems to be your schtick nowadays. It’s juvenile and makes you look like a bully. I have a feeling that one day you’re going to use “aspie” to poke fun of someone in the real world, and the wrong person is going to be in earshot.
Even you Monstro have participated in threads where people don’t “get” racism or sexism. You’ve seen what I’m talking about. People are tripping over themselves trying to dismiss this naive and narrow mindset- that the posters that do it are drive-by trolling, that its the nature of MPSIMS, that I’m just being a big meanie bully, etc.
Many people here seem to have this misconception that as long as they are a savant in some field, understanding normal human interaction like they were some extraterrestrial that just landed on this planet this morning is fine.
It’s less about the questions people ask, it’s the hilariously smug attitude that ‘normal’ things aren’t worth bothering so what’s the appeal? It’s in the Keurig thread, in the thread about getting drunk, and in a number of threads that will be inevitably posted by self-diagnosed autistic introverted individuals such as:
-What’s the point of intercourse?
-I don’t get sleeping horizontally!
-Ask me about being incel
