Ideas about people

I've seen this one. "those people"

Having talked about his before we'll skip the intro. I don't mean fuzzy ideas about fuzzy stereotypes which turn out not to exist beyond fuzzy headspace. I mean the idea that "those people" are out to get you, which seems predicated on the idea that they...well, that they actually give a fuck.

For instance those people are are anti gay marriage. Always creeping and croaking w. their obscene anti-life agenda (or whatever they are doing). And yet...don't most of those people not really care that much? I don't mean they don't feel emotion about this, I mean...do they donate? Do they format and inform and define and develop their positions on the issue? Do they march, act, organize such?

Clearly some folks do in fact do just these things. For legalized weed. More awesome guns. Removing a woman's right to choose. Jesus. And of course clearly those people do in fact have power and influence and an agenda. However, near as I can tell, most of "us" are not "them", even as most of us are being account as "those people" by somebody else.

I know I've considered this before but of course now, when I'm writing about it, the examples all escape me.

I don't know, I suppose, perhaps, those war loving murderthrill psychos in the red states that think we should be nuking Iraq to glass and maybe Israel and some of those other countries as well might be an example of an example. Or the limp-wristed bed-wetting liberals that hate all guns and want all guns taken away and think we should just be nice to criminals and understand them and we'll all be happy together.

So, it's not that I don't think people w. exactly those sentiments exist, and certainly it's got nothing to do w. if they are correct or not to feel and think that way, more it's to do w. if they are indeed acting on those sentiments and to what extent those actions (if any) are of importance to what comes next here in the world.

To me it seems as if those who know (the ones I'm listening to) have an assumption that those who do not know (the ones about whom they are speaking) must themselves also know. For instance in martial arts it's common to complain about (well, everything, but...) how dumb X people, or X style, are, or how misinformed X or Y is about the pet topic. For example a Silat school which does a lot of knife work talks shit about "those Karate guys" who do their dumb x-block defenses against unrealistic overhand knife attacks (extra, what I believe are irony points, if the Silat place doesn't actually feature anything but received wisdom about such subjects to being with) and yet...that Karate school is a point-sparring tournament school. They compete in kata demos, and "yellow card for contact to the face" type tournaments. The Silat guys of course are not just disapproving, they are also incensed by the bad and possibly lethal information being spread by these evil (and stupid) Karate dorks, and the *damage* being done, not just to Silat, not just to Karate, but to all of SELF DEFENSE!!!!

I know, particularly on these internetz, that spending a lot of words complaining about the dumbness of others is in fact the reason to exist. That venting spleen, ranting, etc, is a respected and traditional art form of the new medium (and was hardly unknown prior).

In the end I just find it strange and entertaining to watch folks make assumptions about a people by making the same sorts of assumptions about them that they are upset to have made about them. I find it stranger and funnier still when folks who do actually know stuff about stuff seem incredulous about other people (who do not know those things) are making such ignorant statements.

Like how shocking it is that there was a Satanic Panic about role-playing games back in "the day" when any young gamer, or stoner or death -rocker could have explained that what was being talked about had roots in effectively nothing.

Conversely of course the rule proving exception (or "Black Swan" as I understand them to be popularly called these days) can appear anywhere as well, only complicating the issue to those on both sides (apparently). I *A* legal carrier of a conceal pistol blasts up some poor fools at the local fastfood exchange then this means to the gun grabbers that ALL such individuals are not just capable, but actually edging always towards that kind of extreme violence. Where as for gun nuts this just reinforces the obvious need for a concealed gun. When in fact, I think, that such things are mostly avoidances of the underlying issue. Why did THIS guy do THAT in THAT location? Likely it's got nothing to do w. conceal weapons, nor guns, nor politics.

Likely it's got to do w. his unfocused rage towards "those people" and how they are always chewing w. their mouths open and how they know that irritates him and he just can't fucking stand it anymore.

Likely that has to do w. something else as well. Impotence (literal or otherwise), job stress, general stress really, it's all always often general stress nonsense isn't it? I mean the biologically mechanically insane are a touch more statistically rare than stress cases so usually (I think) the stress comes first and makes people "act" insane, rather than them just being that way.

Humans are really good a certain things in my estimation, and lying is one of them. We're best at lying to our selves and best at lying about our selves. So it's not surprising then that most folks are often unaware of almost anything but themselves and that what they are aware of is mostly bullshit. Phantasmal.

Funny? Just me?