Conformity rant...

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MrEco
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Conformity rant...

Post by MrEco »

Warning: Massive wall of text incoming!

OK, long story short, I happened across this video while trying to look for gameplay videos of some of the characters in the upcoming game King of Fighters XIII. Usually I'm smart enough to not leave comments of any kind on youtube (After all, it is a wretched hive of scum and villainy). But this time was unique because the video poster said in the description that he/she basically didn't want anyone to say anything positive about Mai Shiranui's physical looks. The persona didn't really seem to give a reason so I innocently posted the question "Whats wrong with liking a fictional character for their looks?" (It should still be at the top of the comments - RagnarockXL is my username).

Apparently I opened a huge can of patronizing sanctimony. The person proceeded to lecture me about how I'm "even more fictional" than Mai because I'm a conformist who's "blinded by society" because I choose to find attraction to her body (And then they decided to block me so I couldn't even reply back). My question is, how in the hell do you get off calling someone a horrible person for supposedly being a conformist when you yourself only have the goal of forcing that person to conform to your own ideals? Either way I'm still conforming to what someone else wants me to do, essentially nothings changed. And furthermore, since when did a person using their own free will to make a decision suddenly become a conformist just because they used said free will to make the same decision as many other people? It's like an event that happened to me back in 10th grade English class. We were reading Fahrenheit 451 and the teacher was telling us how the book is basically one big piece of symbolism for conformity and anti-conformity. The bitch then decided to ask everyone in the class who watches TV to raise their hand. Everyone raised their fucking hands. She then proceeded to "educate us" on the fact that all of us were apparently conformists because we chose to watch TV. According to her if we were non-conformists we would spend all of our free time playing outside in the sun. Things like sports or even something as simple as throwing a frisbee. Then as "homework" (It wasn't actually for a grade thankfully) she told us to all go home and not touch a TV, music playing device, or computer for the rest of the day. She told us that if we wanted to not "conform with society" we had to spend time with our family or go outside.

:evil:

Does anyone else realize how absolutely hypocritical and ignorant this all is, or am I alone? Anyone have any similar gripes or stories?
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by o.pwuaioc »

Conformist to larger society is implied. It's not the fact that you conform to something, but rather that the something is in particular promoted by society. It's impossible to not conform to something, so with that in mind, "conformist" is rather used against those who refuse to go against the grain. Siding with the douchebag on Youtube or not doing your homework may make you conform to someone else's opinions, but you'll still be a non-conformist for bucking the larger trend.

With that said, non-conformity for the sake of non-conformity is a pretty pathetic stance. People should do what is best for themselves and for survival of us all, not just to spite wider society's embraces.

Just my 2¢.
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Sideroller
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by Sideroller »

Your English teacher was an idiot and this Youtube fool is a hypocritical turd. Any person with half a brain would be able to discern that (though judging from Youtube's userbase this is highly suspect).

I'd be pissed as well, but you can't let Youtube get to you otherwise you'll go completely insane. It is infuriating how everyone always considers their point of view "unique" or "non-comformist" Just goes to show how egotistical we all are.
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Xeogred
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by Xeogred »

It's youtube dawg, don't let any garbage there get to you. Not a place to have conversations at I'd say, just like GameFAQ's, digg, etc whatever.

And yeah, a lot of teachers are pretty stupid.

On a more humorous note hell yeah I think Mai's hot and I love playing as her in SNK games because she's pretty dang good usually.
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Pingfa
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by Pingfa »

I've often spoke about this with a friend of mine. I've often talked about how conventional self-acclaimed 'unconventional' people are for the fact that they are conforming to a view. See, to my mind, conforming means to conform to any one view. By conforming to be unconventional, non-conformists, these people are conforming.

A genuine, non-conforming view of the world does not refuse the widespread view, nor follow it just because.
Flake
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by Flake »

Did you remind this teacher that she was just another brick in the wall?
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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JohnBaxterly
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by JohnBaxterly »

So this asshole thinks that the people who wanted her back because the "only thing they love about her is her Body" aren't "real fans?" Where does any normal human being get off saying something as incomprehensibly stupid as that? "Stupidonia" is a ridiculously fitting name for the jackass :D
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arion
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by arion »

MrEco wrote:The person proceeded to lecture me about how I'm "even more fictional" than Mai because I'm a conformist who's "blinded by society" because I choose to find attraction to her body
How does one choose attraction isn't it something that just happens ? Also how is it conformist to like video game characters. Are the fans of Tomb Raider blinded by society because they like how she looks and choose to find attraction to her ?
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by o.pwuaioc »

To be fair to the Youtube guy, MrEco didn't really represent his words accurately. Here's what he actually said:
because if the only thing that you could see in her is her looks then you are blinded by society and you're more fictional than her, characters like her are just a few and they are always judged wrong by pseudofans based on their "looks". Maybe you will understand this, maybe you wont, anyway have a nice day and god bless you friend :)
I can understand MrEco's conflation of the "non-conformist" teacher of his with this guy, but notice the key qualifier "only". And yeah, if you only like her because of her looks, than you're pretty superficial, which is what the uploader means by "fictional" I presume. I also agree with him that getting something "just for looks" is pretty indicative of a shallow lamer, rather than someone who plays the game for the gameplay it offers. How many people here proclaim gameplay to be far more important than graphics, yet all I see here is people defending the idea that it's ok to like something based on graphics only. Double standard?
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MrPopo
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Re: Conformity rant...

Post by MrPopo »

Flake wrote:Did you remind this teacher that she was just another brick in the wall?
We don't need no education.
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