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Why I'm not "normal".
I don't understand popular culture. Things like "The Bachelor" and why people choose to spend their time watching this stuff on a regular basis for decades. I like sports but the fanaticism can be obscene (says the guy from Philly). I understand TikTok releases dopamine but how do people not realize they're addicted to these things? How is it that so many people are so gullible and unable to discern obviously fake or subjective or biased information. How do people fall for advertising? How are people not curious to know the reality of a situation? How can people defend things that are so obviously wrong or bad for all humans? Why is "obvious" obvious to some and entirely vailed and twisted for others?
There's something that a lot of people share that I don't understand. Something about the need to be right. The need to be protective. While also having the need to not care too much about anything more than entertainment. There's a subconscious desire to be part of something, to be a cog in the machine, to be a consumer, and to be lead by someone else.
I vividly remember, at eight years old, going to catholic catechism class and realizing that every religion claims to be the true religion and if that were the case it's plausible my religion was the wrong religion or that all religion was simply made up. I'm by no definition a very intelligent person so why is it that I can figure this out, before I barely even know what sex is, while the vast majority of human civilization for the past 2000+ years hasn't asked this question? How are we still warring over verifiably made up stories (the Bible's Jesus was a story based on several preexisting religions)?
I certainly have strong, sometimes less-informed opinions, but I'm here to learn. I like to think I'm humble but sometimes I let semantics get in the way. If you prove me wrong or offer something I hadn't considered, I'll at least shut my mouth about it and do more research.
To make it less about me, I want to learn more about whatever the subject is that I've just described.
Edit: This is funny and kind of relevant. Someone else recently posted a question on Lemmy about using the Internet Archive. This lead me to go back and look at a personal blog I had starting in 2005. This quote from 2006 is relevant to not understanding why people do what they do:
Seems pretty rational to me, in an irrational and absurd world there isnt much you can understand. Learn what you can, leave the world a better place than you found it and dont let it bother you. Come on, lets go to the pub.
I think some people get overwhelmed and default to being happily ignorant. Or, they try to reduce the complexity and absurdity to fit what they already know.
Thought this would be a post about having your head up your butt or navel gazing. We should be best friends.
Nothing you listed fails to ring a bell. For example; I too had religious questions that the preacher and adults couldn't answer. Figured I must be a dumb kid, I'd understand someday.
In high school the quote about the unexamined life being not worth living resonated. I couldn't understand how people were fine being ignorant. Obviously I can't know everything, but I'm a voracious reader and always have been.
How can people be content lacking curiosity? My wife is like that. She's perfectly happy with her ignorance in all things related to science and religion. Imagine a Catholic who doesn't have a clue about common Sunday school stories.
And I too want to know if there's a name for what we're seeing in others.