figmentPez
Staff member
I Gotta Feeling (That tonight's gonna be a gaming night)
figmentPez
Staff member
Meh, I thought he was full of it. Not all geeks and nerds are more intelligent. Bill Gates isn't demonized for being rich, he's seen as a villain because of anti-competitive business practices. However, he'd already lost me well before he got to those points. I was rolling my eyes when he said that racism was easy to understand, but that persecution for being "different" baffled him. I think he got so wrapped up in trying to justify his revenge fantasies that he left reason behind.
I agree. I thought it was pretty empty argument-wise. I was bullied a lot, and it was something I dealt with for some time even after it stopped, but ... I don't think he's reasoning that out very well. In fact, I feel like essentially he's saying that bullied people are simmering with rage, waiting for a chance to take their revenge. Maybe that's true for him but I never really had much in the way of revenge fantasies. And... I'm more of a diplomatic person than a combative one, so yeah, I do know which side I would be on.
My reasoning and evidence is probably as anecdotal as his, but truthfully I think his assertion that being a nerd/geek means A) You were bullied because you were different (not true, I had nerdy friends who were not bullied as much as I was) and B) Being bullied makes you fantasize about exacting horrible revenge (again, no. Here's a stereotype we often play up in society but we've shown this to be frequently untrue too: it was a popular contention that the, for example, Columbine shootings had been organized as a response to bullying, when later a more complete view included evidence that it more akin to an act of domestic terrorism. In fact, I could even go on to suggest that people who are bullied tend to be more passive individuals, encouraging bullying because they make an easier target, but again, it's really anecdotal and this parenthetical statement is looooong enough.)
Bah! I may not be able to explain bullying either, but I can explain that this guy is largely motivated (which he does admit at the beginning) by his own biases which he has not even approached overcoming.
...Not that I wouldn't want to have superpowers.
GasBandit
Staff member
Re: Magneto
I wasn't bullied overmuch as a kid. Believe it or not I was both getting As AND athletic (and then after high school I stopped exercising... DOH)... that and... uh.. well, to put it mildly I think I was actually the bully/tyrant. Did get into fights fairly often as a grade schooler, and hit some kid in middle school with a lamp for copping an attitude with me. That one was scary, nearly got me in real trouble (authorities stopped shrugging and saying "boys will be boys" when one started beating the other with furniture it seems), and after that I kinda curbed it and then grew out of it.
But that doesn't mean I don't harbor fantasies of macrovillainous proportions.
I wasn't bullied overmuch as a kid. Believe it or not I was both getting As AND athletic (and then after high school I stopped exercising... DOH)... that and... uh.. well, to put it mildly I think I was actually the bully/tyrant. Did get into fights fairly often as a grade schooler, and hit some kid in middle school with a lamp for copping an attitude with me. That one was scary, nearly got me in real trouble (authorities stopped shrugging and saying "boys will be boys" when one started beating the other with furniture it seems), and after that I kinda curbed it and then grew out of it.
But that doesn't mean I don't harbor fantasies of macrovillainous proportions.
and on a less meaningful level:
