Edit - I changed the phrase "aggressive support to "unambiguous support", as there was some confusion over the intent behind my previous phrasing.

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[–] mtnwolf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I had a discussion about weird vs. norm with a friend the other day. We decided neither type of person is good or bad inherently because they are weird or normal. Different things comfort them. A weird person feels safe surrounded by people that "get them" who are weird like they are. Their personal identity is often centered on the fact that they are not "normal". They take pride in it.

But the predictability of a more structured "normal" life is just as comforting to those who are "normal". There are no rights or wrongs here, only the need for each type to recognize and respect the other. I don't really like derogatory terms like "normie", which I have more than one friend who uses (I don't say anything to them about it, I can personally not like it without making demands on my friends to feel the same as I do). It's like when I was in school, there were mostly right handed people, but every now and then there was a "leftie" or "southpaw". They were different. I don't recall ever seeing anyone bullied over being left-handed, but we all knew who they were. Humans and many animals focus on differences. It's probably a residual primal thing. Wolves will kill deformed or sickly pups, for example.

Normal is boring to some, and weird is chaotic to some. Both are acceptable stances and shouldn't be seen as adversarial by either group.