Stupid people are dumb: Share the stories of yourself or others

Yeah, I don't quite understand why people like that game. I tried a free trial and I found it rather boring and slow. (Not to mention HARD AS HELL!) Frankly, its overrated.

There's that, but in this case there's also the magnificent accelerant of personal investment.

Humans in general have amazing abilities to build their own identities. Withotu ever realising what they're doing, people take everything they see and do, categorise it by how much of an impact it's had on their lives and ways of thinking, test it for how well it fits with everything else they see themselves as, and find a way to slot anything of real worth to themselves into their identity as a person. Every time you develop a talent better, find a new hobby, or see a book or movie or show that has a genuine effect on you, it becomes a very small part of what you are. All of these little things come together over time to make a person. A well-formed individual has a very solid base for their own identity, built on a level of self-knowledge and self-acceptance for stability, and with all kinds of life experiences to add weight. The things that make them can be knocked out by the vagarities of life, but it has no lasting impact on them at large; they simply abandon the failed part, find somethign new, and move on. Only the core is vulnerable, that self-awareness, and it takes a truly earthshaking personal revelation to do that damage.

Some people, though, do not have such well-formed self-identities. They don't have the self-awareness that builds a stable core, or the self-acceptance that protects it. Everything they are is built around things that they don't have total control over. They define themselves by cars, game,s books, disliek of a politician, or any number of things, just like anyone else. The difference is, that's all they can define themselves by. If you take out enough of those peripheral identity cues, the entire edifice is liable to collapse in on itself.

Luckily for them, the human mind is fantastically equipped for self-defense. When something they've invested themselves in is challenged, they will defend ferociously. Unlike the self-aware person, they can't afford to give ground on these matters. They will take any challenge to the mat, and only by the most skilled debate and persuasion can you change their opinion of one of these things. Most insecure people tend to end up with very difficult-to-challenge opinions, or at least those backed by a large consensus, because it makes them much mroe resilient to being challenged.

The danger is worse when peopel becoem overinvested in something. Because they have so little to define themselves by, they assign grossly disproportionate value to something that didn't actually have that great an effect on them. To sustain this, they need to believe that what they have taken onto themselves is considerably better than it actually is. While this is sustainable in private, in reality, it will soon be challenged. The difference is that it doesn't even take a deliberate point to challenge these pieces of themselves. These are the people who go beyond defending a thing, but react to any failure to acknowledge the thing as perfect as though it was a direct personal attack because, to them, it is. They are particularly rabid and fervent because they cannot overcome a challenging point with legitimate arguments, instead, they have to resort to attacks on the legitimacy of the debate, sheer force of numbers, circular arguments, and the agumentative equivalents of LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU. They see their position, partially delusional though it is perfectly legitimate. They don't allow themselves to see the extremes to which they've taken things, because that in itself challenges their self-identity.

Though these people are relatively rare, they are not rarely seen. They are extremely loud for their numbers, purely because they cannot allow a challenging point to go unattacked, or withdraw from an argument once started. In fact, those who have been doing it from some time unconsciously try to make the argument as idiotic as possible, knowing it often drives the other side away. They are also a magnificent target for trolls, because they can't let even the most obvious bait go.

They're easy to spot, at least. To them, nothing is so dangerous as a valid argument phrased politely.

I had a story, but I forgot it in the time between when this was a short comment and when it turned into a small thesis.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

You know... That's kind of like what I wanted to say, only said better. Which kind of scares me, since I like to think I'm usually the one to say things well But really, thank you for that. It's a good perspective on things.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

This.

Thanks Uberschveinen.

damn right.

Those nipples arent going to catalog themselves.

But what if they did...