#so if you object to our framing‚ you become exactly the sort of loser we're denigrating! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aeide-thea · 7 months

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a while back i made a post (that of course i now won't be able to find) that was like, two really popular (complementary!) fallacies are (1) thinking an experience is universal, when in fact it's specific to one's particular body/psyche/milieu; and (2) thinking an experience is specific to a particular body/psyche/milieu, when in fact it transcends such divisions—

anyway i get that the phrase 'purposelessly cloistral' is fun to sneer but i'm afraid that, like rhetoric about 'touching grass,' i actually think it's both unkind and intellectually unrigorous as analysis. yes, exposure to a broad variety of people is good for you, and can help you realize that positions you've taken for granted aren't shared by everyone; but people tend to cluster into insular echo chambers anywhere they congregate, whether that be in chatrooms or churches or cities, and i'm frankly very tired of this recurrent urge to, like, resurrect middle school ideas of coolness and use them as cudgels. clubbing—of either variety!—doesn't make you a better person.

#you'll also note the 'like this' in the post i'm criticizing‚ which is elusively‚ frustratingly vague as a condemnation—#like *what*‚ you may ask!#but if you have to ask‚ you're obviously not cool enough to be part of the in crowd #god forbid we define our terms and have a conscientiously careful discussion #that's a CLASSROOM standard for NERDS who spend time INDOORS #so if you object to our framing‚ you become exactly the sort of loser we're denigrating!#anyway. some of us are‚ in fact‚ purposelessly cloistral #and frankly deserve better than to get subtweeted with sloppy sneering analyses like this.#like i PROMISE you there are people out there getting warped into absolutely wild shapes by insular environments based on irl socializing #everyone wants to connect! dots! and it's like #sometimes—often‚ even—the real picture is in fact more complex & less binary than yr simplistic dot-connecting urges are allowing for #anyway‚ as with all such rhetoric‚ pushing back at this unavoidably makes me sound like exactly the sort of hothouse loser it skewers #but what can you do? accept that or else be preemptively shamed into silence (which is of course its goal).#✌️

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