The hysterical puritan hype against the HPV vaccine. OK, so you can’t abide by the idea of your daughter having sex with anyone (at least before you consent to the ritual transfer of your property rights). Perhaps your imagination is broken or on an unprofitable track: instead of thinking of her enjoying herself sexually and freaking out, why don’t you imagine for a moment her undergoing cryosurgery or chemotherapy. Doesn’t that give you pause?
I totally don’t get how so many straight people are constantly putting their spouses down; constantly criticizing them to other people. Hey guys, this is the person you supposedly love, the one you chose to spend the rest of your life with.
And I don’t get professional sports. I can understand playing a sport or rooting for your kids’s soccer team. But I don’t get the fanaticism people have while watching people who get millions of dollars for playing a game. And you don’t even know them.
So that twists your panties and even you don’t get why? Me neither. I see religious beliefs as similar to sexual habits. In other words, live and let live. The business of others may be perplexing or intriguing, but never a thing by which I am offended or even affected.
One thing that really baffles me is the raging intolerance of effeminate males. I am a gentle soul and a natural people-pleaser, and I’m male. I’m not particularly effeminate, but my courtesy and passive demeanor tend to get me a lot of hate from overly-aggressive homophobes. They see my lack of oafishness as a hint that I may be infected with the gayness and they resort to absurd taunts and insults. And I’m only seeing the tip of the hate iceburg. Naturally, homophobia is in the same vein of panty-twisters I just don’t get.
Virginity. Yes, I am a virgin. I made that choice, not because of religious reasons (not that that should matter, either), but just out of respect for my future marriage. I define that my own personal way, which I realize is not “normal,” but it is a choice. I realize that there are lots of people who respect marriage and have pre-marital sex, but if I did, that wouldn’t be the case, because my perspective is different (not evil/bad/wrong, just friggin’ different). Some people get a tattoo with their spouse’s name on it, I save the first sexual experience to share with my spouse. For me, it’s romantic that way just as sharing lots of “first experiences.” It’s just my kooky thing. It’s not a problem, it’s not a disease, it’s not a mental defect, it’s not a result of brainwashing, it is my personal way of defining marriage and it’s not injuring or killing anyone. So I wish people would stop insulting me and/or trying to “fix” my “problem” whenever they find out.
Bed times. Growing up I never had one unless I made my own.
Visiting, and later living, with some other people taught me that some people take bed times for their kids (or even teens) pretty damned seriously. Never mind if they have the day off tomorrow, they’re quiet, or have a lot to still do, by GOD, those kids/teens better be asleep by X:XX.
Blew my mind. Must be some kind of security/comfort thing knowing that the younger people aren’t making any kind of trouble.
Now I’m more than a legal adult, and it still disturbs people when I tell them about my late night tendency’s. Some people act like it’s as bad as cutting myself, having unprotected sex, or taking the worst types of illegal drugs. I once had a friend get upset with me once because I sent her an instant message online past 11:00pm. She was logged on! I’ve met a lot of people who seem taken back if you suggest you do something fun past 10:00pm, as if I should know better. When I lived with my grandma, she would give my mom long drawn out speeches all the time about how she shouldn’t let me stay up so late. when I lived with a friend’s mom, she would wake me up every morning at 6:00am before she left for work, hoping that it would deter me from staying up. I still stayed up until around 2am until she lost her patience and stopped waking me up early.
I regularly do my workouts at my apartment’s 24/7 gym between the hours of 10:00pm-2am. Since the treadmills are broken, I jog outside on my jogging days. More often than not, people tell me to stop jogging if I can’t find a better time.
Weirdos.
I’ll try not to make this political, but I can’t understand why people get so upset over flag-burning, at least in the USA. It really stirs some people up far out of proportion of the sentiment involved, fand I just don’t see why it’s any more or less offensive than, say, drawing a big X over it or something (other than that it’s on fire and possibly dangerous to people around it).
What I think is most hilarious about their arguments is that they seem to have no concept of the actual interest that most kids have in the exact purpose of the shots that they are getting (in other words, usually almost none).
Everyone has to get an MMR shot when they’re little, but does any actual child know or care what MMR stands for? Hell, many adults don’t. I think the ONLY shot I ever got where there was substantial explanation of why I needed to get it was the occasional tetanus booster, and that explanation went hand-in-hand with the talk over why I shouldn’t play with rusty pieces of metal.There’s no real burning need to tell a child getting the HPV vaccine exactly what the HPV is and exactly how it is transmitted. I know that most kids are a lot smarter than adults give them credit, but it seems to me as if the explanation “this is a bad disease and I want to protect you from it” should suffice. The same could be said of every other vaccine, why is the HPV one so different? Discussion of the vaccine’s importance to a child need not be sexualized, especially if administered to young children.
This is a bit location-specific, but Marmite versus Vegemite. Seems like everyone around here loves one and absolutely loathes the other and loathes anyone who speaks out in support of the other. I’m fine with either of them.
ETA: Similarly, and more internationally, Coke versus Pepsi.
I don’t get the whole sex thing at all, but judging people by what they do for about an hour a week makes me cringe.
Relgious people who get upset when you point out that religion is a matter of opinion. “No, I know my religion is right.”
People who think their opinions on anything are sacred. You are entitled to your opinions, just like everyone else.
People who think their facts, right or wrong, are sacred. You are not entitled to your own facts, just like everyone else.
I don’t get people who think it’s OK to call other people “asshole”, “dick”, or “fuckhead”, but if you (even jokingly) call someone a “cunt”, they look at you like you’ve just burned down an orphanarium full of choir boys.
Mobile phones.
Hey, I use mine for music and text messages, and even the camera when I’m visiting somewhere nice. But seriously, is it that bloody important?
So you couldn’t text for a weekend coz something broke. So you can’t afford the nicest top end one that does so many things you’re never going to use.
Stop worrying about it and be happy you have one at all. People did live long time without them.
ETA: And opinions for me too.
They’re opinions so don’t present them to me as facts. I doubt most facts I hear so I’m sure as hell not gonna take someone else’s opinion as cast in stone.
You don’t have kids, do you?
“Bedtime” is also known as “off the clock time”, as in, “raising kids is work and the only time we have to ourselves is when The Preciouses are in bed.” For example, my wife and I have two± hours per day to be together w/o any interruptions… from bedtime-onward.
Security-schmecurity, we’re talking about exhaustion. And possible sex, but the sleep is good too. 
Have kids? I think he is a kid. Besides John’s point, children need rest; it’s a biological fact.
This is going to sound pretty lame next to the big ones that have been mentioned (unfortunately, I think I understand stupidity like religious strife, anti-homosexuality, and ethnic hatred) but the one I don’t understand is the toilet set up vs toilet set down thing. My wife insists that the toilet seat’s default position is down and that I’m a dickhead if I can’t remember that. She has actually called me from the living room into the bathroom to have me put the damn toilet seat down for her – because she’s apparently unable to do so herself, I don’t know. We even had a discussion about this. One of us has to put the damn thing up or down when we pee. If I find the seat down, I have no emotional reaction to having to put it up. But if she finds it up, she goes into full-tilt outrage over having to put it down. I just don’t get it.
Guns. Don’t like them? Don’t buy one. It seems simple to me.
I find it kind of funny that I get annoyed when guys come over here and put the seat ALL THE WAY down. Instead of just putting down the seat part (that ya sit on), my brother and my boyfriend and some of my other guy friends put the top lid part down too which does me no good.
While it annoys me that when they come over I need to be extra careful that I don’t plop my butt down on the lid, I don’t say anything to them about it. I figure some woman (moms) must have put the fear of god into them about putting the whole seat down and I don’t want to undo anyone’s hard work in that area.
And like clockwork…
Those Ohio winters. Guess you just buy a new cat every Spring, huh?
Anyway, you’ve said numerous times here that your cats are just tools to do a service for you. If you honestly describe them as such then other people might be less aghast.
The whole nudity thing in the U.S–complete lack of legal nude beaches in all of Los Angeles county, for example, while in Germany large city parks have clothing optional sections. All I ask is a frigging hundred yards of beach in 50 miles. There are some illicit nude beaches, but they are patrolled and people do get busted. Getting busted can have serious consequences; as the offender can potentially be charged with ‘lewd and lascivious’ behavior, and end up having to register as a sex offender.
People talking on cellphones. I understand and agree with the general aversion to them in restaurants, theatres, and the like. But why are they banned at the gym?
Thus reducing the likelihood that I will shoot myself, and allowing me to concentrate my worries exclusively on the other six and a half billion people on the planet.
Cell phones have cameras.
See? It’s a win-win.
I am a single guy. I live by myself and I always put the top down, even in my own home. No one every told me to do it that way, it just seems like a good idea. The toilet doesn’t spray dropulets, it contains any odors, and it plain looks prettier than looking into the “business end” of a human waste receptacle that isn’t always spotlessly clean.
Although I came in here to say cell phones as well. I would rather someone be talking on the bus, or whatever, on a cell phone than to the person next to them. At least I only have to hear one side of the conversation that way. Some people just get enraged by it though.
And the gay thing. It’s not like you’re going to catch it or something.