The Outsider
Well-Known Member
Life goes on and I seem to make less sense of it over time. There’s a ton of things that I feel don’t make sense but I’m just supposed to go with due to social norms. I’m technically apart of society yet I feel like I’m so disconnected from it. I might as well be an alien that looks human. This is probably going to come off as a bunch of random ranting but I would at least like to keep this somewhat organized.
Religion and politics are supposed to be two highly taboo subjects that people ain’t supposed to bring up in polite conversation. However, I have witnessed several times where people would casually mention God in discussion as if everyone part of the discussion is just supposed to go along with it. Also these days I swear people won’t stop mentioning Trump in unrelated topics like comedy videos. In both cases, you’re expected to agree with whatever they say and if you don’t, somehow you’re the problem and not them for bringing the subject up in the first place. They break these social norms and yet I’m supposed to be at fault. What gives? Is it somehow wrong to not want to hear about current America politics in entertainment?
There’s a saying that goes along the lines of “be careful what you wish for, you might get it”. The thing is this only applies to negative wishes. Say you want to get in trouble; oh they’ll do that in a heartbeat. Give me a zero on an assignment? Okay. Give me a higher grade on an assignment? No can do. I find it so stupid because it never applies to anything remotely positive. It’s like an excuse for someone to use their authority to punish someone.
People act like respect is a given right and not something that is earned. I often see this from people in authority demanding respect without behaving in a way to actually earn said respect. No, you’re not entitled to respect especially if I feel you didn’t earn it based on your behaviors.
Nudity, specifically human nudity and especially female nipples is somehow one of the most taboo topics of all time to the point even the mere sight of such is very horrible. Given the black and white nature of how many people act in many ways, female nipples are bad because female breasts can only ever be sexualized and sexuality in such a way is bad. Actually it’s specifically the darker color around nipples, the areola, that counts as the main taboo. Also nudity is “okay” if it’s in classic art form. This taboo even extends to breast feeding. Go to an entirely different room because a very brief sight of a female nipple is too much to handle. Throw in the towel argument which still boils down to not seeing a nipple for a brief moment. Heck, even go into a restroom. Oh yes, feed babies in public places because of someone else’s hang ups. No it can’t be compared to changing diapers at a public eating table because hygiene and feeding are quite different. This doesn’t seem to be an issue in certain third world countries, then again they probably don’t have easy access to clothes to begin with.
I get called smart a lot, often for getting very high grades in school. No, I don’t entirely buy that. School assignments tend to boil down to memorizing facts long enough and then forgetting about them afterward. I hardly remember anything about biology despite getting an A or so in it. Is it really learning if I’m not remembering stuff that actually applies to my day to day living? I really started to hate school with that being a major reason late in my teenager years. What am I doing with advanced math again?
Especially nowadays women and girls are taught that they can do the kind of careers they want. I don’t disagree with that. On one hand, women are taught to be strong and independent and all that jazz. On the other hand, these same strong women supposedly easily break down from hearing certain words like bossy or being challenged. Furthermore, somehow only females have problems with female body images in the media. How in the world can these females feel shame about their own body images from the media, especially from fictional women? To me that isn’t being strong, that’s a weakness. What, am I supposed to be what society indirectly tells me to be and I’m supposed to feel bad if I’m not? Males mostly don’t seem to have that problem with male body images, realistic or not. I find it very stupid when people think plastic dolls are supposed to be a standard to live up to. Barbie can have over a hundred careers, including fantasy ones, and be rich, but her impossible body figure is where the line is drawn. As for a full discourage, I don’t like how I look, but I’m not going to blame society or fictional for that. I especially refuse to lash out against real women who did a lot of dieting and working out to get the figures they do and then calling them “unrealistic”. I don’t find that logical to do that.
Words can change meanings over time. I get that. However, some words that used to be bad can be reclaimed, but somehow not others. How does that even work? How can some slurs be reclaimed and used for good, but others can somehow forever be doomed to remaining negative? Also on that, the context that words are used in doesn’t seem to matter. It’s like if certain words are used period, then you’re terrible for using them. If you censor a word that we know is being said, somehow it’s not as bad. Even if certain words are banned from being said, it doesn’t mean people can’t be creative in still finding ways to say terrible messages. Oh sure someone might not be able to call me a slur but they’ll just say phases to mean the same thing. In fact I find myself very careful in what I say because I don’t know if one word, that isn’t even a slur, can somehow cause a lot of unwanted trouble because someone didn’t like that word, regardless of context.
Speaking of which, that leads to political correctness. Given my several minorities statuses, this should be the kind of thing that benefits me a lot. People say it’s about being polite, but I find personally find that to be the opposite. I find it very ironic that many people who argue for PC being politeness are often very rude and nasty to those who ain’t as PC, if at all. Also in a very diverse country like America, it’s near impossible to make sure no one ever feels offended for any reason given the huge amount of ideas, cultures, opinions, viewpoints, and more people have. For example, saying colored person is racist because of history, but saying person of color is somehow PC. Quite frankly, I hate being called a person of color. Can’t I just be called black? Do I have to be lumped in and othered with every race that isn’t considered white? In fact, why is brown skin called black? Why is pale skin called white when that very same color on anything else is called something else? In fact it annoys me if I’m treated as a person that is so weak that I’ll feel terrible about myself if one wrong word is said, even by accident. At the same time, I’m expecting to suffer serious trouble at some point for unintentionally not being PC enough. I swear it’ll be the end of me at some point and yet it’s supposed to “protect” me.
So those are just some of the many examples of how I feel disconnected from society. I could keep going on and on, but I’m not writing a small novel here. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t understand many of these social norms.
Religion and politics are supposed to be two highly taboo subjects that people ain’t supposed to bring up in polite conversation. However, I have witnessed several times where people would casually mention God in discussion as if everyone part of the discussion is just supposed to go along with it. Also these days I swear people won’t stop mentioning Trump in unrelated topics like comedy videos. In both cases, you’re expected to agree with whatever they say and if you don’t, somehow you’re the problem and not them for bringing the subject up in the first place. They break these social norms and yet I’m supposed to be at fault. What gives? Is it somehow wrong to not want to hear about current America politics in entertainment?
There’s a saying that goes along the lines of “be careful what you wish for, you might get it”. The thing is this only applies to negative wishes. Say you want to get in trouble; oh they’ll do that in a heartbeat. Give me a zero on an assignment? Okay. Give me a higher grade on an assignment? No can do. I find it so stupid because it never applies to anything remotely positive. It’s like an excuse for someone to use their authority to punish someone.
People act like respect is a given right and not something that is earned. I often see this from people in authority demanding respect without behaving in a way to actually earn said respect. No, you’re not entitled to respect especially if I feel you didn’t earn it based on your behaviors.
Nudity, specifically human nudity and especially female nipples is somehow one of the most taboo topics of all time to the point even the mere sight of such is very horrible. Given the black and white nature of how many people act in many ways, female nipples are bad because female breasts can only ever be sexualized and sexuality in such a way is bad. Actually it’s specifically the darker color around nipples, the areola, that counts as the main taboo. Also nudity is “okay” if it’s in classic art form. This taboo even extends to breast feeding. Go to an entirely different room because a very brief sight of a female nipple is too much to handle. Throw in the towel argument which still boils down to not seeing a nipple for a brief moment. Heck, even go into a restroom. Oh yes, feed babies in public places because of someone else’s hang ups. No it can’t be compared to changing diapers at a public eating table because hygiene and feeding are quite different. This doesn’t seem to be an issue in certain third world countries, then again they probably don’t have easy access to clothes to begin with.
I get called smart a lot, often for getting very high grades in school. No, I don’t entirely buy that. School assignments tend to boil down to memorizing facts long enough and then forgetting about them afterward. I hardly remember anything about biology despite getting an A or so in it. Is it really learning if I’m not remembering stuff that actually applies to my day to day living? I really started to hate school with that being a major reason late in my teenager years. What am I doing with advanced math again?
Especially nowadays women and girls are taught that they can do the kind of careers they want. I don’t disagree with that. On one hand, women are taught to be strong and independent and all that jazz. On the other hand, these same strong women supposedly easily break down from hearing certain words like bossy or being challenged. Furthermore, somehow only females have problems with female body images in the media. How in the world can these females feel shame about their own body images from the media, especially from fictional women? To me that isn’t being strong, that’s a weakness. What, am I supposed to be what society indirectly tells me to be and I’m supposed to feel bad if I’m not? Males mostly don’t seem to have that problem with male body images, realistic or not. I find it very stupid when people think plastic dolls are supposed to be a standard to live up to. Barbie can have over a hundred careers, including fantasy ones, and be rich, but her impossible body figure is where the line is drawn. As for a full discourage, I don’t like how I look, but I’m not going to blame society or fictional for that. I especially refuse to lash out against real women who did a lot of dieting and working out to get the figures they do and then calling them “unrealistic”. I don’t find that logical to do that.
Words can change meanings over time. I get that. However, some words that used to be bad can be reclaimed, but somehow not others. How does that even work? How can some slurs be reclaimed and used for good, but others can somehow forever be doomed to remaining negative? Also on that, the context that words are used in doesn’t seem to matter. It’s like if certain words are used period, then you’re terrible for using them. If you censor a word that we know is being said, somehow it’s not as bad. Even if certain words are banned from being said, it doesn’t mean people can’t be creative in still finding ways to say terrible messages. Oh sure someone might not be able to call me a slur but they’ll just say phases to mean the same thing. In fact I find myself very careful in what I say because I don’t know if one word, that isn’t even a slur, can somehow cause a lot of unwanted trouble because someone didn’t like that word, regardless of context.
Speaking of which, that leads to political correctness. Given my several minorities statuses, this should be the kind of thing that benefits me a lot. People say it’s about being polite, but I find personally find that to be the opposite. I find it very ironic that many people who argue for PC being politeness are often very rude and nasty to those who ain’t as PC, if at all. Also in a very diverse country like America, it’s near impossible to make sure no one ever feels offended for any reason given the huge amount of ideas, cultures, opinions, viewpoints, and more people have. For example, saying colored person is racist because of history, but saying person of color is somehow PC. Quite frankly, I hate being called a person of color. Can’t I just be called black? Do I have to be lumped in and othered with every race that isn’t considered white? In fact, why is brown skin called black? Why is pale skin called white when that very same color on anything else is called something else? In fact it annoys me if I’m treated as a person that is so weak that I’ll feel terrible about myself if one wrong word is said, even by accident. At the same time, I’m expecting to suffer serious trouble at some point for unintentionally not being PC enough. I swear it’ll be the end of me at some point and yet it’s supposed to “protect” me.
So those are just some of the many examples of how I feel disconnected from society. I could keep going on and on, but I’m not writing a small novel here. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t understand many of these social norms.
