People, most of the time. Friends, ok, Family, ok, coworkers, sometimes ok, but people, WTF!?
All three and then some. You really can’t get a good idea as to why they’re fun untill you play one yourself. Watching someone play a game is about as fun as say, watching someone reading a magazine. If you live with someone that owns a videogame console I could reccomend a cheap game that would give you a better understanding as to why people enjoy playing them.
Jewelry. Of the many things I don’t get, this may be the biggest. Is it as superficial as merely “showing off” (that you, or someone who gave you said piece, can afford such an item) ? Or is it really “symbolic of love/friendship” ? (and do you really buy that ? 
Is there really some connection between the “value” (cost) and the “meaning” ? Please explain. I can’t think of a bigger waste of money, yet it is such a HUGE industry.
Chela: I’ll take a stab at explaining gambling. At its most basic level: easy money. Pure and simple. Gambling offers anyone this finite (yet real) chance at hitting it big. Of course the odds are that they won’t but there is a sliver of hope.
On other levels there’s:
- beating the house. Taking money from some big entity.
- since there’s risk (your money), it is more exciting/entertaining.
- just entertaining.
Now taking your gambling winnings to buy jewelry, that I can’t explain
I don’t get why people are so bothered by what other people decide to do to or with their own bodies. And then why they get downright insulting about it. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Licentious Ectomorph.
I don’t get why you play D&D in your mom’s basement, but I’m not going to insult you about it. 
So yeah, intolerance towards people’s personal choices that have absolutely zero to do with you, what’s up with that?
Indygrrl, I think you’re being a bit defensive. He (assumed gender) just doesn’t get it. How exactly is this intolerance? The implied insult wasn’t necessary, I’ll admit, but he is hardly intolerant. If he went around yanking out people’s nose rings or knifing them in their tattoos, that would be intolerance. Ya know what I’m saying?
What don’t I get? Hmmm…the gay marriage thing is up there. And gangster crap. I don’t get why a guy wants to wear his pants around his knees and a t-shirt that XXXXXXXL. It just looks so stupid to me, I don’t get how anyone could find it appealing or attractive.
Well, I did use a smiley! It couldn’t have been that defensive.
He said defacement and mutilation. I think that’s insulting. I’m not defaced or mutilated and I have four tattoos.
Seen on a t-shirt:
“The only difference between people who have tattoos and those who do not is that people with tattoos don’t care that you don’t have any tattoos.”
I don’t get professional sports.
I really don’t get people that define themselves narrowly based on their music preferences. I can’t believe there are people out there who only listen to one type of music and then talk smack about all other genres (and the people that listen to them) when they don’t know a shred of music history and have never bothered to look outside their own narrow little world.
People with no intellectual curiousity. I don’t understand it. I guess that last one sort of falls into this. Another related thing is people that pursue one little thing to the exclusion of all others. It’s a big world out there, people!
Pretty much any facet of popular culture, I will never understand.
I don’t get extraversion. I do best when I’m alone, I don’t like having to stay in contact with more people than my family and a few close friends, and prolonged exposure to people beyond that circle exhausts me. I even need recovery time after being around one of them for longer than usual.
So when I see someone who thrives on social contact, I just think, “Jesus, how the hell do you do that? And why do you want to?”
Religion: I don’t get why God supposedly needs to be believed in.
From the “paper” link:
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s stacks of imprinted paper, electric light strings, and candy spills—which he arranged in corners and across floors—are subversive rearticulations of Minimalism’s nonrepresentational aesthetic.
Um…yeah. Add me to the list of people who don’t get modern art.
People who don’t like to read. What’s wrong with these people?
People who feel the need to spend money all the time or spend money excessively. When I read some headline about how some celebrity is selling their house for $2.5 million I think, “What a waste.”
People who think those that buy extremely expensive things are fascinating. Like those shows on VH1 or E! that talk about what Paris Hilton buys a week or something.
Nearly every post in this thread makes me think, “Oh yeah! That’s a good one!”
I’ve got another: I don’t get why people like to receive flowers. They’re hella expensive, then they sit around collecting dust for a few days, then you throw them away. Any time I have received flowers in my life, I just kept reminding myself that it’s the thought that counts. Of course, I don’t have any sense of smell, so I can’t say I’m experiencing a bouquet to the fullest, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t “get” it anyway.
Cormac, I am so with you about the jewelry. It’s pretty and all, but fake stuff is pretty too, isn’t it?
I don’t get people who abuse children and animals. You wanna be a tough guy? Pick on something your size that can offer a fair fight.
I don’t get people who claim that in the name of God they should be blowing shit and each other up. Or that God says you have to be a hateful bigoted prick.
I don’t get little rice wagons with farting raccoon mufflers, whale tails, and other shite. It’s still got an engine the size of my Lawn-Boy mower.
I don’t get zero tolerance rules. They’re really zero thinking rules. One size fits all, yeppers.
I don’t get spam. Why should I buy something I don’t want or need from someone who can’t spell to save their lives and forces me to look at their stupid ads when I’m trying not to? Do they think one day I’m gonna wake up and say, “OK-you win. Gimme the monster penis pills, the four day erection pills, and the discount mortgage, along with a degree in Russian Astronomy.” 
I don’t get bigotry. What’s the point?
I don’t get being a jerk just because you can. I can understand getting back at someone for treating you badly, but I don’t understand people who just are jerks for no reason.
I don’t get why my reproductive and romantic choices are anyone’s business but my own.
I almost get sports.
I don’t get how anyone thinks that inching forward at the red light will make it turn green any faster.
I don’t get severely low self-esteem. Some low self-esteem is no biggie – we all have that. But I really don’t get the chronically insecure.
I don’t get how you were in my head!
Yeah, I don’t get that either. A friend was just telling me how important it was that she made an exclusive comittment to her boyfriend because it’s really easy for her to “accidentally” have sex with people. :dubious: I don’t get that. Everytime I’ve macked on someone, even if it was just a casual thing, it took a lot of thinking ahead on my part and there were numerous times I could easily say “no”. Maybe I don’t get drunk enough…
I also don’t get why anyone would go into debt to get married. I must be a defective female 'cause I don’t get the whole big wedding thing at all. I also don’t get why you expect all your friends to buy you crap. They’re your friends, fer christ sakes. I have friends because I enjoy their company, not because I think they should furnish my house.
A degree in Russian Astronomy!? Hot shit, I want me one of those!
Chekov: "The area vas first mapped by the famous Russian astronomer Ivan Burkof, almost two hun–
Kirk: “John Burke.”
I don’t get why people want to ingest a concoction of cold medicine, anhydrous ammonia, lye, red phosphorous, lithium metal, what-have-you, in the form of methamphetamine.
I don’t get Rush. I am a “musician” and I think those guys are incredibly talented and do some mindblowing things, but I can’t stand to listen to more than 30 seconds.
I don’t get Lord of The Rings/Harry Potter/Wizards/Faeries/Renfests/You get the point.
Comic books. Seriously.
Women’s obsession with shoes.
My mother’s obsession with me getting married.
Soccer.
I don’t get physical abuse, especially of children. And I mean either the hitting kind of abuse or the sexual kind. Leave the kids alone.
I don’t get rape. Can’t wrap my head around it at all. How can one do that to another person? To me, rape must be an argument FOR evolution… since it seems we are one very small step from filthy animal.
Reunions. Another thread on the board was talking about high school reunions. I don’t get high school OR family reunions. Either the people are your friends now, or they aren’t.
Reality TV. Isn’t life tough enough? Why would I want to watch other people having a hard time of it?
How any therapy or program or curricula etc can truly build self-esteem… without risking someone’s self esteem. If you didn’t really do something special, if everyone gets an award… where’s the building of self-esteem?
I have to agree with everything posted here especially diamonds/gemstones and being ripoffs and Big Weddings. I’d rather have a downpayment on a house than a big party. I’m defective.
Other things I don’t get:
Married people who have outgrown each other and are making each other miserable but refuse to divorce and live seperately (thus making everyone else around them happier.) because ‘there’s never been a divorce in the family.’ twaddle.
Disney. The cartoons are ok. (Goofy Rocks.)The movies were fun as a kid, but as an adult, my God it is a Parade of Co-dependants. The theme park is so greatly overrated unless you like spending $750 on 4 4-day park hopper passes for a family of two kids two adults and sweating your tits off while standing in line with other sweaty crabby families while their Pride & Joy cry from being scared to death on the Dumbo Ride. OH JOY. Its preprogrammed fun. Mecca for the White Middle Class. I’d rather have a brazilian bikini wax on reality tv than do Disney again.
Cruises: Eat, eat, eat, eat, bingo, bingo, bingo, casino, lame floor shows, fat people by the pool, and travel to see desperately poor ports cities on pre-programmed fun side trips that are over priced. Its Safe Vacations for those who outgrow the Disney Mentality.
Close-minded bigots who thinkHarry Potter books are the gateway to the devil. Y’know, I’ve read the books now a couple times through. I can’t see the deviltry in there anywhere. Did I not receive my secret decoder ring from Rowling or what?
Organize Sports, Organized Religion & politics.