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Re-learning humanity
8 years ago
Over the past few years alone, there are several terms and concepts that I've noticed being thrown around that often confuse or frustrate me...
Social Justice Warriors (SJW), gender oppression (often tying directly into anything involving a feminist), checking your privilege, trigger (or trigger warning), "white knights" (usually in regards to SJWs), spergs (or sperging), millenials, autism or autistic behavior (often not regarding one who actually has such a condition), toxic (regarding behavior in communities), and perhaps the plethora of terms such as chauvinistic, misogynistic, etc.
Now, maybe it's because I'm more of an old fashioned soul in regards to many of these "newer" topics, but when I was growing up, I had never heard of these concepts, nor had I seen them. For the longest time, they never existed in the world I lived in. Ever since the turn of the new millennia, however, these terms and concepts have not only seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, but they've become increasingly apparent. I relate it to that of a crying child in a public restaurant, in which the parents do nothing to pacify or quiet them down or even remove them from the public scene. They simply continue to cry louder and louder for longer periods of time until tempers explode or until they eventually (and hopefully) tire themselves out. However, in this analogy, these people don't tire themselves out, and only seem to gain more "power" as time goes on if left unchecked.
I still find it very strange that these kinds of people, or rather these ways of thinking, have sprung up and grown like weeds in our civilization (at least what's left of civility). Maybe it started when education boards and such began bending over backwards for their students, becoming more lenient on requirements for their students passing their curriculum not for the sake of bettering their education chances, but for the sake of getting more funding because "more of our students are graduating". Perhaps it started when the Politically Correct Era, as it were, grew increasingly out of control, bleeding into the educational system and brainwashing the students that "everyone is a winner" and "nothing you do is wrong". Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the two were connected.
What does surprise me, though, is how many people have fallen into this way of thinking. What scares me more is how rampant it seems this is becoming, and how difficult it is becoming to properly deal with situations involving people who blindly follow this way of thinking. I'll admit, I'm not the most educated person out there- nowhere near, in fact- but much of this behavior seems ridiculous even to me, falling into the category of "do these people have ANY common sense!?". Yet there's another thing that seems to have changed over the past years: common sense. If you look around, you notice that it's almost contradictory. Common sense, as it were, is far less common than it probably should be. Courtesy is another thing that seems to have fallen by the wayside, or at least waned in the wake of this "new" subculture or...whatever you'd call it. Of course, I mean far more than just the simple things most of us were taught as children, such as holding the door open for others, saying "please" and "thank you" when deemed appropriate or necessary, and even respecting the feelings of others. Nowadays, I see some people going out of their way to be as much of a dick (or cunt) as possible to others for no other reason than either having a lack of empathy or caring...or because those people feel they are "more important than the rest of us". Actually, at this point, I'm sure it's because they think they "know" they're more important than those they consider plebs or commonfolk, even when it is blindingly apparent that they aren't. From what I've seen, it's not something that primarily exists in the United States, either. However, it does seem to be more noticeable there.
To all of this, I pose a few questions to you folks reading this:
What are YOUR feelings on this matter?
How do YOU deal with people like this?
Is it something that is better left ignored, or dealt with head-on?
Honestly, I don't think something like this should be left ignored, since it might be how things have gotten this bad in the first place. That could be the biggest fault, really. But aside from certain people being seen as assholes in trying to correct this behavior among others, what can be done? I refuse to believe this "growing trend" will one day become the norm of human culture...yet there's so little I really understand about it, and as such, it makes it difficult to figure out ways to combat it or survive it.
Social Justice Warriors (SJW), gender oppression (often tying directly into anything involving a feminist), checking your privilege, trigger (or trigger warning), "white knights" (usually in regards to SJWs), spergs (or sperging), millenials, autism or autistic behavior (often not regarding one who actually has such a condition), toxic (regarding behavior in communities), and perhaps the plethora of terms such as chauvinistic, misogynistic, etc.
Now, maybe it's because I'm more of an old fashioned soul in regards to many of these "newer" topics, but when I was growing up, I had never heard of these concepts, nor had I seen them. For the longest time, they never existed in the world I lived in. Ever since the turn of the new millennia, however, these terms and concepts have not only seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, but they've become increasingly apparent. I relate it to that of a crying child in a public restaurant, in which the parents do nothing to pacify or quiet them down or even remove them from the public scene. They simply continue to cry louder and louder for longer periods of time until tempers explode or until they eventually (and hopefully) tire themselves out. However, in this analogy, these people don't tire themselves out, and only seem to gain more "power" as time goes on if left unchecked.
I still find it very strange that these kinds of people, or rather these ways of thinking, have sprung up and grown like weeds in our civilization (at least what's left of civility). Maybe it started when education boards and such began bending over backwards for their students, becoming more lenient on requirements for their students passing their curriculum not for the sake of bettering their education chances, but for the sake of getting more funding because "more of our students are graduating". Perhaps it started when the Politically Correct Era, as it were, grew increasingly out of control, bleeding into the educational system and brainwashing the students that "everyone is a winner" and "nothing you do is wrong". Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the two were connected.
What does surprise me, though, is how many people have fallen into this way of thinking. What scares me more is how rampant it seems this is becoming, and how difficult it is becoming to properly deal with situations involving people who blindly follow this way of thinking. I'll admit, I'm not the most educated person out there- nowhere near, in fact- but much of this behavior seems ridiculous even to me, falling into the category of "do these people have ANY common sense!?". Yet there's another thing that seems to have changed over the past years: common sense. If you look around, you notice that it's almost contradictory. Common sense, as it were, is far less common than it probably should be. Courtesy is another thing that seems to have fallen by the wayside, or at least waned in the wake of this "new" subculture or...whatever you'd call it. Of course, I mean far more than just the simple things most of us were taught as children, such as holding the door open for others, saying "please" and "thank you" when deemed appropriate or necessary, and even respecting the feelings of others. Nowadays, I see some people going out of their way to be as much of a dick (or cunt) as possible to others for no other reason than either having a lack of empathy or caring...or because those people feel they are "more important than the rest of us". Actually, at this point, I'm sure it's because they think they "know" they're more important than those they consider plebs or commonfolk, even when it is blindingly apparent that they aren't. From what I've seen, it's not something that primarily exists in the United States, either. However, it does seem to be more noticeable there.
To all of this, I pose a few questions to you folks reading this:
What are YOUR feelings on this matter?
How do YOU deal with people like this?
Is it something that is better left ignored, or dealt with head-on?
Honestly, I don't think something like this should be left ignored, since it might be how things have gotten this bad in the first place. That could be the biggest fault, really. But aside from certain people being seen as assholes in trying to correct this behavior among others, what can be done? I refuse to believe this "growing trend" will one day become the norm of human culture...yet there's so little I really understand about it, and as such, it makes it difficult to figure out ways to combat it or survive it.
No, these children have no common sense.
Nothing in life is equal or perfect and never can be. You take the bad with the good and you forge ahead with the lessons learned from your painful experiences.
You do nothing about it. You realize who and what they are...People will tell you these things freely through their words, deeds and their interests/intentions....and you peel out the second you realize they are crazy of any branding. No one needs that in their life.
This is an ideological problem and the only thing that can free the person is self-realization. When the individual understands they have a problem and what it is, they can fix it or seek help. Until they reach that point, they won't even register that anything is wrong, no matter what you say or any points you try to make. It doesn't exist and you are wrong and are trying to hurt them. Why? Because they can't be wrong.
They'll only get it once they've lived long enough to see the effect of these behaviors on all of their relationships and the trouble they bring upon themselves. Lived in the real world and gotten actual life experiences with people from different walks of life with truly different lifestyles and ideas. In the meantime, don't give them a shot to bring that crap to your doorstep.
On one side there's what you could call Political Correctness Gone Mad. Where every cause is worth burning down the world for, where so much effort is made to accommodate that everything becomes mashed up together, and in some cases where people harness such outrages to their own purpose because it's easy to start a movement.
On the other side, you have the Reactionaries, who are fighting for their right to mock, insult, heckle and troll whoever and whatever they want even if it really does offend and hurt and ruin others. They are fully capable of pouring ungodly hours of time and effort into being annoying, and there's a certain minority that is using the movement as a cover to be racist assholes.
Both sides are locked in a life or death struggle with each other. Fortunately there is a third way that I find successful! Ignore them. All of them. Both sides are extremes, and humanity as a whole cannot exist in an extreme. So let them fuck up each other. I say just roll your eyes and move on. If you get challenged you defend yourself, but why bother picking a fight over something so trivial?
...well, except maybe the trolls. Some of them are fun people.
Still, I dunno...