# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 41
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/801 "2024-01-06T15:27:47Z")
Smart kid. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/802 "2024-01-06T15:45:27Z")
I remember telling someone I wanted to be a boy so I could be a fireman. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/803 "2024-01-06T16:32:15Z")
My brother said he wanted to be a philanthropist when he grew up. The adult he was talking to was surprised he knew that weird, and asked him why. “Because they are all rich”, my brother replied. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/804 "2024-01-06T16:38:35Z")
I wanted to be a clinical psychologist when I was a kid. I’m amused that I ended up marrying one. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/805 "2024-01-06T18:19:24Z")
Yeah, I did that kinda thing too. My Daddy said girls could do anything. (He was advanced in this thinking). He also said I could not be a Marine, like him. I asked him why not and he’d say because he personally wouldn’t allow it. So my dreams were squashed. Kids do say the dangdest things. You could ask the Lil’wrekker what her favorite color was and she’d tell you “clear”, we’d tell her that was not a color. She’d argue with you about, it was and it was her favorite. My youngest daughter want to be Willy Wonka. I told her she could be a candy maker. Perfectly normal job. She’d say “no, no, I want to own the factory”. I always told her “go for it, girl”. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/806 "2024-01-06T19:47:10Z")
I wanted to be a microbiologist when I was little. Then I got a microscope as a kid and thought it was boring. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/807 "2024-01-06T20:02:55Z")
My 7-year-old grandson is not autistic, and generally buys into and understands categories of boy/man and girl/woman (though see below). But he is not consistent with applying pronouns to those categories. We have a female dog. He knows the dog is female (he knows that his mom and the dog are the “girls” in the household whereas he and I are the “boys”), but that doesn’t stop him from saying things about the dog like the following, which he said the other day: “She doesn’t like it when I rub his stomach, does he?” Last week he was playing with a kid we’d just met, a fellow 7-year-old whose gender (and name) we did not know. The child was bundled up in a winter coat with gloves and a tightly-fastened hood, so only the child’s face was visible. My grandson does not lack for playmates and is happy to play with either boys or girls, but he clearly assumed that this child was a boy, because after about twenty minutes of climbing trees and building forts he came over to the child’s father, who I was talking to, pointed out his playmate, and said, “Wait–_he_ is a _girl_?” “She’s a girl,” the father confirmed, and my grandson shrugged and off they went to climb more trees and build more forts. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/808 "2024-01-06T20:55:24Z")
When my niece was very little she wore a lot of her older (by a bit) brother’s hand-me-downs. She’d say things about wanting to be a boy. But I also think it was because he was older and was allowed to do things she wasn’t. That phase didn’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/809 "2024-01-06T21:23:25Z")
So… Who else thinks PhillyGuy is really a Trump supporter? ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/810 "2024-01-06T22:10:26Z")
I don’t know about that. Maybe. I do believe he thinks he’s one of the few enlightened people on the board. What’s the old saying? His mind is so open, his brain tends to fall out. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/811 "2024-01-06T23:14:21Z")
My oldest went through a phase at around 10 or 12 where he wanted to be a cryptozoologist. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/812 "2024-01-06T23:18:29Z")
Can someone point me to the thread in question? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/813 "2024-01-06T23:27:56Z")
In particular his latest post in the “President Joe Biden” thread in P&E had me wondering. But he has a habit of acting so defeatist that it resembles concern trolling. Everything is doomed, Trump will win, Biden is a failure, etc. I’m starting to think it’s an act. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/814 "2024-01-06T23:31:58Z")
Thank you, I’ll check it out. I haven’t really taken notice of that poster yet. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/815 "2024-01-06T23:34:46Z")
He just strikes me as one of these older labor Democrats you see a lot of here in Chicago that have mostly conservative leanings, but still vote Democrat out of habit. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/816 "2024-01-06T23:39:20Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But he has a habit of acting so defeatist that it resembles concern trolling. It’s difficult to distinguish insincere concern trolling from a sincere desire to fulfill an internal narrative that you are the smartest guy in the room who is perceptive enough to face up to uncomfortable implications, to think independently and see all the angles. To support this narrative it becomes a virtue to take a contrarian view on matters that are straightforward and obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/817 "2024-01-06T23:43:52Z")
Meh, they’re just a Republican who wants Democrats to take Republican positions. That’s the grand strategy all of them provide. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/818 "2024-01-06T23:52:46Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > He just strikes me as one of these older labor Democrats you see a lot of here in Chicago that have mostly conservative leanings, but still vote Democrat out of habit. ⁢ Other posters have suggested he’s a Republican who is against the party because of Trump. It would explain why he’s so into a lot of conservative news stuff, but still hates on Trump. I don’t think he’s a Trump supporter, per se. But I do think he doesn’t think Trump is all that bad. He’s okay with the things that don’t “go too far.” And, yes, he’s very pessimistic–but I’ve encountered progressives like that. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/819 "2024-01-07T02:35:25Z")
Very well said. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/820 "2024-01-07T17:43:07Z")
On the other hand, getting Democrats so disgusted that they give up on the whole process _is_ a known Republican strategy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=42)