Why are people getting so pretentious and unapproachable?

I'm serious, why?

At a glimpse I can say it's because things are starting to move real quick-paced here on Earth. Not everywhere, but I mean, you can take a trip out to the desert or country side and sit down and stare at the side of a boulder and time isn't going to appear any quicker than with the one you're used to holding in your hand.

In the past few months I've found myself learning practically just as much information or more than I learned in all of high school, just by doing it on my own because I wanted to. I mention high school because nowhere else does learning seem so systematic and forced, thus why a lot of people can barely sit through a class and listen to the ramblings of an opinionated elderly woman or middle-aged man. I really could have cared less before because my life was so accelerated, or at least my perception of time/work made me feel that way.

Another thing. What a lot of people say is so very mood based, depending on how they feel you can tell by their tone, actions, etc, that their mood is dominating their opinion in ways.

You go into a room and mutter "2012" or "UFO", by itself, or with some sort of opinion or explanation - either people don't want to hear it, they've got it already all figured out, or they join in for a decent discussion. Not that I've just muttered that, but often times people will hear the last thing I'm saying and will cut me off right away. That's just it, nobody wants to hear much of anything other than what has been downloaded, placed into routine and thought upon by the individual's consciousness. There have been more than a couple times where I've felt like I've had it all figured out. It was grandiosity, and that's exactly what I see in a lot of people.

"I'd rather not think of the negative, it depresses me."
"Oh, I'd rather avoid the negative and all that world crap and stay positive, it won't affect me."
"Why do you think about that stuff?"

Or some alteration of choosing to not listen for so called bliss - Yeah, that's the solution.

Well fellow human who cannot make full eye contact at the expense of breaking iPhone concentration or Facebook prowess, I'm not like you, but I also don't want to feel so alone in how I feel. I don't find it very scary any more to just, zoom out of my own daily picture, mentally. Through the roof, to the skies, past the outskirts of the solar system, whatever. Visualize it, accept it's there, and accept you're pretty damn small and that you're moving in sequence and routine upon a giant blue marble. As I type this somebody is getting into a car accident while cars accelerate down the free way. A Mother points out that she hopes the person in the car she just saw mangled and destroyed is okay.

She goes home and turns on "Desperate Housewives" or whatever is on the tube, fades into a sleep and completely forgets about what she had saw. Wouldn't you? Time's too short and fragile to focus on everyone and every bit and bob of reality - but by avoiding it, but by keeping this up as technology ensues and as culture ensues... isn't that kind of a bad thing? We're being trained to not care and some are sucking it up through a straw.

Rant over. I just had to type all of that, now excuse me while I continue to text my GF for 6 hours regarding a mental web of lies and stress that I'm not capable of seeing through because I need my life to be apart of a comfortable routine in it's entire essence!

Wonderfully stated.

You draw attention to the "I'd rather just ignore" it crowd and that struck a chord with me. I know so many people with this opinion - they acknowledge that the world is bought and owned by a powerful few, they understand that the direction the entire planet goes toward is dictated by a very small group of people, they realize that the world is on a downward spiral and as it currently stands, looks very bleak for future generations - yet they would still prefer to ignore it and spend their time watching, cheering, eating, forgetting, wasting..

I've never understood this attitude. From the smallest social situation to the largest world-wide conspiracy, people would rather build walls around themselves, incorrectly believing that those barriers will protect them from whatever it is they perceive as too much to handle. People need to understand those barriers will ultimately do more harm than good, to themselves and everyone else.

Great post, made me think.

Originally posted by TinkerHaus
Wonderfully stated.

You draw attention to the "I'd rather just ignore" it crowd and that struck a chord with me. I know so many people with this opinion - they acknowledge that the world is bought and owned by a powerful few, they understand that the direction the entire planet goes toward is dictated by a very small group of people, they realize that the world is on a downward spiral and as it currently stands, looks very bleak for future generations - yet they would still prefer to ignore it and spend their time watching, cheering, eating, forgetting, wasting..

I've never understood this attitude. From the smallest social situation to the largest world-wide conspiracy, people would rather build walls around themselves, incorrectly believing that those barriers will protect them from whatever it is they perceive as too much to handle. People need to understand those barriers will ultimately do more harm than good, to themselves and everyone else.

Great post, made me think.

Thanks for the reply, glad you enjoyed it!

I agree, those barriers are so terrible. A lot of friends have pushed me away and I've pushed a good few away as well because of different interests or view points I guess. You can feel this stuff just by being in a room with someone and it just makes me think back on myself and how somebody else thinking as I am now was probably thinking the same about me.

I tend to be harshly sarcastic to get a point across but it seems to be the only thing that really works these days.

People have become complacent. People are afraid to wake up because the dream is much better than the reality of BS we have to walk through trying to keep up with from the continuous degradation of our culture and society...

I wouldn't consider anyone in your post as being pretentious.

In fact, I'm sure that 99% of responses in agreement with you will be far more pretentious than the people you make reference to, OP.

pre·ten·tious/priˈtenCHəs/ Adjective: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

reply to post by murkraz


Seems your responding emotionally in your post, putting you in the category your complaining about.

Well done. You don't know half the people your judging and base your judgements on what you seen for seconds, maybe minutes.

You may look at someone and decide their pretentious or unapproachable but that doesn't make you correct in your assumption. Most people I see are approachable, friendly and helpful when asking them questions or seeking guidance, perhaps its your outlook that has you seeing the world so negatively.

Originally posted by EspyderMan
reply to post by murkraz

 

Seems your responding emotionally in your post, putting you in the category your complaining about.

Well done. You don't know half the people your judging and base your judgements on what you seen for seconds, maybe minutes.

You may look at someone and decide their pretentious or unapproachable but that doesn't make you correct in your assumption. Most people I see are approachable, friendly and helpful when asking them questions or seeking guidance, perhaps its your outlook that has you seeing the world so negatively.

The stuff I'm saying doesn't need to involve me, I've had this conversation with a few people, I've seen the same ideas posted online and on ATS, like the "Does anyone else notice what I am noticing?" thread. You needn't talk to every human on Earth to see a diversity in opinion and personality, and something I won't usually judge is someone's intelligence or personality without getting to know them, because I understand mental illness, I understand how reality bears down on some. But when people appear so head strong, and HAVE to be spiteful in everything they say because they appear unable to gratify a difference of opinion, then it's vocal, it's out there.

The imagery of the Mother not caring and turning on Desperate Housewives was more or less to describe the average human who has too much going on, by their own right, sounds like a hating on culture sort of cliche. I wouldn't pass a woman in a car and just assume that stuff obviously, but it happens, you just know it does. Nowadays there's no harm in just listening and you don't need to believe or feed into anything, just listen, and that's my overall point, because it seems some are so resistant to hearing just about anything.

This is a rant. I know that I sound pretentious, I know that I am pretentious sometimes. I can be ignorant and arrogant. I know that it isn't always right, but I feel like the world is really unapproachable lately, and maybe I did get there by looking into myself. Most of what I'm saying is about people online, you can easily get the opinion of a dozen people while visiting a website like this, it's about taking in information and seeing how others act or respond.

I wouldn't consider anyone in your post as being pretentious.

In fact, I'm sure that 99% of responses in agreement with you will be far more pretentious than the people you make reference to, OP.

I guess that pretentious was the wrong word for it's direct implication, but I sought to use it to describe how uptight and "full of themselves" people come off as lately, in my own situation and as I'll see in others' situation(s) or conversations - they don't necessarily need to be this way, but they appear it and they act it. I mean, it's to the point now where I can't even recommend a movie release or music artist to a good few people without hearing comparisons to every which thing or a more hostile approach of opinion, like they're offended or something? YouTube is probably the most notorious place of all for this.

Originally posted by JessopJessopJessop
I wouldn't consider anyone in your post as being pretentious.

In fact, I'm sure that 99% of responses in agreement with you will be far more pretentious than the people you make reference to, OP.

pre·ten·tious/priˈtenCHəs/ Adjective: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

This is what I was thinking too. What the OP is talking about is not pretentiousness. Its something else...like willful ignorance.

I guess most people are not so smart to begin with and they are just trying to get by day-to-day and put food on the table, stuff like that. So if you ask them to consider all these difficult world problems its going to make them want to turn away because it feels hopeless to them. They barely have the energy to make it through the day anyway, and from their perspective it feels like you are putting all these extra demands on them, asking them to do research and formulate opinions, and maybe take some sort of actual action.

Its great that you see these things but you have to have compassion for "the little people" (now THAT'S pretentious!) or whatever you want to call them because they are coping with the problems of just getting by. Anyway, you and me and the people of ATS and other places can come on here and discuss it ourselves, that's the greatest thing of the internet! We can be hashing it out, but we shouldn't expect too much of those who don't yet "get it." Help them all understand at their own paces, each person is capable of different things.

Originally posted by murkraz
[I guess that pretentious was the wrong word for it's direct implication, but I sought to use it to describe how uptight and "full of themselves" people come off as lately, in my own situation and as I'll see in others' situation(s) or conversations - they don't necessarily need to be this way, but they appear it and they act it. I mean, it's to the point now where I can't even recommend a movie release or music artist to a good few people without hearing comparisons to every which thing or a more hostile approach of opinion, like they're offended or something? YouTube is probably the most notorious place of all for this.

People use opinions as a weapon to establish some kind of status.

It's really tiresome.

Just seek out the non-demanding people who present their opinions as something to share and explore together, rather than something to club you over the head with.

reply to post by murkraz


What can I say, I am a man of faith.

I am not worried about what tomorrow brings anymore.

I say, play by the rules, sit back and watch the whole thing (TPTB, NWO or whatever acronym you use as a scapegoat) fall flat on it's face. It will.

I pay taxes, I follow the rules, and I don't believe a word anyone says anymore, unless it proves helpful to do so. And worry is never helpful.

Ever.