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> Sometimes it quite annoys me that those personality traits are so embedded in myself though, because it seems to constantly be a headbutting of cultures that
by vb6sp6 6y ago
> Sometimes it quite annoys me that those personality traits are so embedded in myself though, because it seems to constantly be a headbutting of cultures that so many Americans on the coastal big cities just don't get or approve of, and love to condescendingly talk about that kind of personality as lesser or barbarous in some way.
"rugged individualists" always seem to care a lot about how they are viewed by "coastal elites". We'd all be a lot happier if we cared less about how we are viewed by others.
- bhupy 6y agoIt begins to matter more when “coastal elites” don’t just view “rugged individualists” a certain way, but also wish to exert power/influence over them via policy.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoMiddle America (probably more accurate to say rural) non elites wish to exert just as much, if not more power over others via restricting individual’s choices of what they can consume or do with their body.
- arminiusreturns 6y agoIt's not just about caring how I am viewed for no reason, it's that I have to deal with the culutural differences daily both professionally and personally, but mostly professionally. I keep my politics etc to myself in the workplace, but the coastal elites seem to want to shove theirs down everyones throats, even in the workplace, which is very jarring. It's one of the same reasons I fled the bible belt and went to DC for a while (only to find I disliked the east coast), but to see the similarities in dogmatism and tribalism between the bible belt and the coastal elites is... informative. I keep having this semi-irrational fear that the SV startup I work for will found out I'm not "one of them" and fire me for cultural differences.
- vb6sp6 6y agoOk, but you aren't special in this regard. I work in a red state, in a red county. My boss regularly praises Trump at work. Another claimed that his personal hero is George W Bush and said so in published interview in the biggest trade mag for our industry a few years ago. There are still office debates about the existence of WMDs in Iraq. Most try to shovel their conservative bullshit down my throat. And we haven't even touched on the religious bullshit that gets thrown around. But I don't give a fuck what these people think and i don't "allow" them to exert that type of influence over me. And if they fire me, I'll just go be a liberal atheist somewhere else (where I will also not give a fuck)
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoAnd these fears are not unfounded. For example, the 12 year old Colorado student suspended from school because of a toy gun being seen on Zoom. And that was just a toy... Firearms are just one such cultural flashpoint, where "don't ask don't tell" is really the only modus operandi for those surviving inside the SV monoculture.
- brandmeyer 6y agoFlip side of the coin: we'd all be a lot happier if we didn't view others with disrespect.
- tartoran 6y agoDisrespect comes form ignorance so that's another one we should ought to look out for