Human beings
The biggest, most fanatical Chimera haters are the Social Butterflies. The kind who are as shallow as the perspiration off a cold mug on a hot day and hellbent on not seeing, hearing or experiencing anything remotely negative. Because anything that isn’t excessively positive and happy is pure evil and might destroy them if they think about it too much. (“Must think happy thoughts! Must think happy thoughts! (Or I’ll be destroyed! Oh No!) MUST THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS!!!”)
Then come the “Strong Emotions are Evil” crowd. I have a very high energy level and a high emotion level. Some people are so afraid of any kind of emotions that they’re terrified of people like me. I once had a co-worker, a sort of cube-mate (in those odd dual cube things) that would squirm and twist any time I’d get even slightly annoyed or ‘excessively’ happy.
Then there’s the Ultimately Self-Confident (read: Arrogant Pricks) who look down on anyone who isn’t them, isn’t like them, isn’t a certain way. Probably because I so much enjoy throwing pointed objects at their inflated egos.
(You know, I don’t give half a shit if you’re an expert in Ancient Obscurian or a (gasp!) Manager! Neither of those things make you intrinsicly more valuable than me or that guy over there. Settle down Bubba.)
They’re okay on a one-to-one basis but in groups—
well, actually the one-on-one basis can suck too.
This reminds me of a quote by my father who married my (Southern) mother when she was 16 and said, half his life later (ca 1980): “My life is almost exactly evenly divisible, the first half being before I took the virginity of a teenaged wife and the second half being the 25 years I spent wishing to hell I had let her keep it.”
Wait…redheads are supposed to be slutty?
Me too. There’s something about accountant types that is instantly and severely repelled by me. I think it’s usually that I don’t care if it “ticks and ties”, and that in 99% of cases, “close enough is good enough”, and I’m fairly outspoken about it.
They see me as sloppy, etc… while I tend to see them as uptight, anal-retentive, and having skewed priorities. They also tend to get agitated that I also think it’s funny that they get upset about this, and don’t give a shit at all.
The other type of person who really doesn’t like me are the Napoleon complex guys. You know, the 5’ tall guy who’s got a chip on his shoulder because he’s a fucking midget. I don’t pick on them, so much as ignore them when they try to show off, and if they persist, I usually make them look bad, either physically or intellectually.
I seem to repel pretentious gits. I must give off a vibe of “your grandiosity doesn’t impress me, even a little bit, so stuff it.” This includes people in my line of work who think they are geniuses at it, when I’ve been doing it since before they were born. When I disover that they’re incompetent, they hate me because I’ve uncovered their secret. One tried to get me fired for it. As it turns out, he got fired…for incompetence…but not before many months went by and he did much damage to systems and relationships forged by many people who came before him. They could have asked me, and saved a lot of money and grief, but no, they were:
People who play the office politics game. They are generally humorless, stick-up-the-butt people who care only about image and procedures, not people and how they operate. I have learned not to talk to them unless it’s absolutely necessary. That means I don’t talk to many people at work, outside my department.
I don’t do well with jocks and sports fanatics and guys who do all that other macho stuff as mentioned above - drinking, fishing, getting dirty for fun and/or profit. I like this sentiment from the musical “Oklahoma!”
I don’t say I’m no better than anybody else
But I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good."
Too bad more people don’t live by that.
The pseudo-Intellectual, Princess Bride-loving, AD&D playing, awkward types usually despise me.
I talk and think quick and am usually very direct (but respectful) in person. This scares off the skittish geeky types. It’s a shame too, because I generally like those types.
Closed-minded liberals hate me. I’m a 60s person. I burned my draft card, marched against the war, lived on communes. I look it, my tastes reflect it, I could walk into the Cindy Sheehan camp and no one would bat an eye. I just happened to keep reading after 1972 and read a few things that changed my mind. So when leftists find out I don’t agree with them they freak out and start saying all sorts of crazy shit.
Recently I got on a commuter train to NYC and sat down next to a neighbor who is a medical school professor and appears to be very sophisticated and well mannered . I was carrying a copy of the NY Post, one of the conservative papers. The paper fell on the floor and I bent over to pick it up, and this idiot says “Well, it’s just the Post.” Here I’m carrying the damn thing and he doesn’t get it that I chose to buy and read that paper. And that I might be insulted by what he said.
I was at a party recently and one of the older guests- I’d say 75 -78 or so - starts telling me how he always hated this one uncle because the uncle didn’t support FDR. And this moron is laughing and totally unaware of what a closed-minded fool he is. Good going fuckwit, so you missed out on a possible relationship with your uncle because he disagreed with you. And of course he thinks I’m agreeing with every word.
But it may not just be that they feel betrayed by my appearance. Even here I seem to provoke the ire of a few uneducated leftists from time to time.
There is one other group. Very narcissistic men hate me if they meet me socially, but they love me when they meet me at work. Go figure.
I’ve took some time to think about this, and your experience is like mine. The only group I get a weird vibe from are the wild partiers. I’m not sure if they hate me, but these types always seem to give me the :rolleyes: if I don’t stick around to drink, or stick around until the bar closes. Hey, just because you’re cool with your DUI, doesn’t mean that I want one. I’m cool with few beers, but I don’t apprecieate being expected to polish off beer pitchers with you. And when I tell them that I’m done for the night, I’m get the WTF looks and I get a lot of :rolleyes: as if I’m not cool and down with their unresponsible ways.
Not that this bothers me, I know I’m doing right by my choices. But yeah, that’s the subset of people.
The people who don’t like me mostly belong to groups that I describe in as contemptuous terms as possible. Funny coincidence, that.
The “cool” people don’t like me, and never have. Not at school, not at work, ever. I don’t know if it’s my appearance (short, overweight, like to dress in black), my hobbies, the fact that I read the whole newspaper and not just Ask Amy and the horoscopes… the cool people just don’t like me, especially the women.
Hard-American social-darwinist conservative personal-responsibility assholes. Usually they pick up on my subtle depressive vibe and feel disgusted by it.
Management-types, ages 25-45ish, though mostly in the younger category. Normal is in quotes, because I don’t think anyone is normal, but this is the best way I can think of to describe them. I’m talking college-educated businessmen/women who are not geeks. They’re usually pretty smart, athletic, often-but-not-always-conservative, and tend to be in management positions.
I’m. . .quirky, I guess, is the best way to put it. I ramble from thought to thought, I say random things, I’m usually working on five ideas at once, I have to be reading (it’s almost a compulsion) or writing or talking. I sound like a complete ditz, but then use really big words without thinking about it. My jokes are usually either geek references or very, very dry. I have a tendency to not listen to instructions. The type that tend to dislike me are very driven and focused. They’re good at getting people to listen to them. They aren’t usually as book-smart as I am–or even as smart as I am–but are very practical. They aren’t into the things I’m into. My inability to focus drives them nuts, even though I might be just as efficient at my job as they are at theirs–it just doesn’t LOOK like I’m working.
It’s not really an active dislike. . .it’s more that they look at me and go, “ooookaaaay.” Otherwise. . .I’m pretty damn likeable.
As a kid my worst enemies were the Too Cool kids. I was a very shy geeky girl during my earlier years, and the girls that were meanest to me were - I’m not sure how to describe them exactly. They were pretty and trendy and were teacher’s pets and cheerleaders. But they were never in Discovery or whatever the program for gifted students was called back then. For some reason they hated me. (To be fair, I was also a bit of an intellectual snob at that tender age, so maybe they sensed my contempt.)
I generally get on very well with most people that I meet… in fact I’m highly likeable.
That said, most people dislike me once they’ve known me for a while, as I’m not prepared to reconsider things when I’m right.