Facts about People

I'm tired of people saying people don't change. They do. I know from experience. I've changed countless times, in both great and miniscule ways, and sometimes in a cycle that takes me away from what I was and back to it. One post cannot hold all these changes, and perhaps I'll do more posts on this. For now, however, I present one example: tolerance.

I used to be incredibly tolerant of – even starving for – opinions different than mine. I used to immerse myself in IMDb reviews. "Ooh, that person thinks so and so. Isn't that fascinating? It's AMAZING!" said I to myself. True, I always knew when the reviewers were wrong or when I disagreed, but even then, I loved it. Those reviews made my life interesting, with all the different voices, the freedom to speak, the freedom to argue and disagree. Each reviewer was totally unique at every level. They would never exist anywhere or anytime else, and I'd probably never hear from them anywhere but in those reviews. Maybe it wasn't so much the opinions I liked, but the insight into the minds of God's most complicated creations. (I have always had an interest in psychology.) It was so colorful and varied, and variety is the spice of life. At least it was back then.

See, now, if someone has a different opinion than me, I'm react like this, "DIE! MORON! YOU HEARD ME, DROP OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH! WHO DIED AND LEFT YOU LICENSE TO BE IDIOT OF THE UNIVERSE??" even when it's about something I don't particularly care about.

I have little idea what caused this change. I do know I used to be far more easygoing, and my attitude used to be: "Well, sure, if you look at it that way. I look at it a different way. To each her own, eh, amiga?" *Swings on hammock drinking pink lemonade with tiny umbrella in glass* For example, in one review of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, someone said the movie spent an hour lecturing on the unimportance of physical beauty and, at the end, rewarded the characters and audience by turning Beast beautiful. To that review, I smiled and thought, "Well, you could see it that way or you could see it as the movie's way of showing that, when you love someone, they turn beautiful." However, somehow I changed.

I remember another IMDb review. It may have been the first that bothered me. It called Beast a hostage-taker. It bothered me because I knew that was true, and it made me feel blind for not seeing it (I usually see that stuff) and guilty for liking Beast. The review also called Belle's love for Beast Stockholm Syndrome. This seemed true, but - although I'm no expert - I thought it probably wasn't since Belle fell in love with Beast after he turned good and let her go, so technically she was no longer a hostage and he was no longer a captor. I wanted to tell the reviewer that. I also wanted to tell the reviewer that it didn't bother me that Beast was so evil, because he was PRESENTED that way, in full honesty and without guile, and he CHANGED. What really bothers me is when a character is evil but is never called on his actions. Beauty and the Beast is a redemption story of "the change love can bring." You can't have a story like that if the character being redeemed isn't evil. Beast had to be evil, or he would have had no changes to make. That negative review may not have made me hate different opinions, but it made me want to discuss them. After that review, I think I started imagining what I'd say of my opinions to every reviewer I came across.

I think I began to hate different opinions when I actually did start discussing them, on the internet and in real life, defending what I found right against what I found wrong. People are wrong sometimes, okay? That will probably be a Fact of the Day around here sometime. Not everything is matter of opinion or preference. Anyway, once I started debating, I found people exceedingly stubborn and opinionated. Some were vocal. Others didn’t have the guts to defend their opinions out loud but also wouldn’t change them no matter what I said. (Alternatively, they would change opinions at anything, so they didn’t contribute anything to change my understanding and would forget anything I said if someone else said something different.) I was willing to be influenced by their opinions, but they were not willing to be influenced by mine. Nine out of ten wouldn't even give my opinions a chance. I think that rubbed off on me. I became angry and lost willingness to give their opinions a chance.

I lost respect for them because I thought anyone who clings to their opinions so desperately must have a tiny IQ. They refused to imagine that someone else might be right, and like Einstein said, imagination indicates intelligence.

Furthermore, after some experience debating people, I learned that a little stupidity was just the tip of the iceberg. If someone thought everyone should use recycled paper (which is not so bad), they almost definitely cried when trees were cut down (still not so bad), and they almost definitely supported abortion. Abortion is wrong. Not a matter of preference. Wrong. That's just one example of how what seems like a little Stupid can indicate a lot of Stupid. This phenomenon caused me to hate when people disagreed with me even on tiny matters, because their stupidity probably extended far beyond that.

I no longer go around thinking "each person just has their own magical contact lenses to see stuff with." Excepting a few things that really are just opinion matters, people come to different conclusions than me out of faulty reasoning. Let's face it. I am always right. Always...Except once or twice.

When I come across different opinions, I react by wishing them off the face of the Earth, as I said before, because the Earth does not need any more stupid people. It could use a few less. A lot less. And stupid people are probably spreading their stupidity to their children, students, staff, etc. Every day. Making the world a dumber place. The world could use less people who disagree with me. I know, I know, this is really harsh, and people who disagree with me are generally not so bad. But this is how I feel, and it’s quite a change from when I was younger.