I completely agree. I don't really think there is any net gain to having people dislike you. I guess the optimal situation would be to do what you like but stil

I completely agree. I don't really think there is any net gain to having people dislike you. I guess the optimal situation would be to do what you like but still have lots of friends from a wide variety of groups like you. It never hurts to have more friends, but it can definitely be a setback to not have any and worse, fall into a repetitive cycle where you constantly vilify people because they associate with a group until you convince yourself that only you are worthy of your company. I know, because I have done that too and found it to be self-fulfilling and self-destructive. People who do things differently or have a value system that is significantly different to those around them will often find themselves as outcasts as a natural biproduct of how they spend their time and the people with whom they feel comfortable. But this doesn't have to be the case. If you find that you are on your own a lot, that should be a natural occurrence and not something to strive for. I think advising an impressionable youth to look down on others who do conform is a mistake because it could start him down the course of assuming the reason he has no friends is because nobody understands him and that will continue to reinforce itself until he is a all-out recluse. When I look back at those times in my life that I was a recluse I recognize that people were genuinely dicks sometimes, but most of the time I was just not that easy to make friends with. Socializing is a matter of give and take.