Take A Guess At What I Haven't Been Doing Lately! (hint: The Answer Is Anything Involving Other People)

Take a guess at what I haven't been doing lately! (hint: the answer is anything involving other people)

Why is it that negativity gets more attention than positivity?

Whenever someone says that they like something, most people just talk about it for a couple minutes (if that), brush it off, and move on to the next topic. But whenever someone says something wrong, everyone in the conversation has to tell that person that they're wrong, over and over again. I don't get it... heck, I'm kind of doing that right now, even! Shouldn't attention be directly proportional to positivity, not inversely? It just doesn't make sense to me. Then again, people would rather watch drama than peaceful times...

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's not "normal." Even though people do stuff wrong all the time, the expectation is that they will not, so it seems absurd when they don't, and it attracts attention. For some reason. I still don't get it.

Took fourth place in this week's GameXplain tournament. I had first at one point! Then the other players beat me out. Oh well, I'll take it. Congrats to everyone involved!

More thought processeses

*Setting: small dorm room with a sink*

Me: I should brush my hair now.

*gets out hairbrush, looks out window*

Me: Wow, it's a pretty day outside! I should open the window.

*leaves hairbrush on side of sink, opens window*

Me: Ahh, fresh air.

*glances back toward sink*

Me: That's right, I was doing my hair.

*walks back, glances at computer*

Me: I should probably turn that music up a little.

*taps volume once, notices water bottle*

Me: I'm thirsty.

*drinks water*

Me: That's better. What was I doing--

*glances at sink*

Me: Drat, I forgot again!

*walks back, glances at other toiletries*

Me: I should probably shave as well. After I brush my hair, of course.

*picks up brush, train passes by*

Me: Can't hear my music very well at all... maybe I should turn it up again?

*walks over to computer, notices stuff lying on shelf*

Me: Hold on, I should put that in my pockets.

*walks over to shelf, puts stuff in pockets*

Me: There. Now what was I doing again--

*noise stops, train has already passed*

Me: Oh yeah... guess I don't need to turn the music up anymore.

*glances back at toiletries*

Me: That's right, I should shave.

*walks over to sink*

*notices hairbrush*

Me: NOT AGAIN WHAT THE HECK

~This has been Thought Processes with WillWare. Tune in next time to hear WillWare say...~

Me: I should write a blogpost!

I've never understood the logic behind a "hivemind" - in other words, thinking that people who share something in common all think the same. It's kind of like stereotypes, or perhaps racism. It's insulting both to the group and to the individual it's applied it to, and it's one of the biggest reasons we argue and bicker all the time.

This religion is all terrorists or all holier-than-thou stuck-ups, those console fanboys think the other consoles have no good games, and people who do this terrible thing can never be trusted again, ever. Even if you have proof that this is primarily the case, it doesn't mean anything, since any one individual can be the counterexample. It's all just generalizing - a logical fallacy. And people take it seriously!

It's especially annoying when two people who are part of the same group have different opinions, and then people say the hivemind is conflicted/never happy (two people who like the same console can't agree on the quality of a first-party game). How can you not see that it's differing opinions from different people? How do you assume that they're supposed to think the same, all the time? Or, sometimes, people insist that one of them is lying, that they actually believe what the other person said and are trying to save face (peaceful Muslims vs. terrorists, for example). Where's the logic? There is none. It's just stupidity.

In the end, it's no better than being racist. All blacks are horrible people, right? Generalization again. It's the exact same "reasoning." And everyone is guilty of it, to a certain extent - myself included, for generalizing that people who expressly think this way are all idiots (among other things).

"But doesn't that make you a hypocrite?" I'll gladly be the hypocrite if it means I help to reduce the problem as a whole. Not all hypocrites avoid changing themselves too.