People Twitter

How much are the tickets to your show?

This comment, is a role model.

I think people who embrace their own little version of weird are less judgmental and generally happier and more confident.

It becomes an endearing trait, rather than a sore spot.

I just had a little cry because I hate how weird I am. I hope to one day transcend and join you.

little girl tugs on her mother's sleeve

"Mom...why is that person wearing, um...that??"

Mom, confused, looks around

"Honey, you know you shouldn't ta~" she stops as her eyes find the source of her daughter's confusion.

"Mommy?" the girl asks, uncertainty in her tone.

"D-d-don't make eye contact, honey. I'm uh sure he has his..." she stops, mouth agape for a moment before recovering, "...and now he's screaming at that garbage bin. We're gonna go! Come on, honey!"

in the distance

"I FEEL SO FREE FROM THE SHACKLES AND CONFINES OF THIS ONCE JAIL OF CULTURAL IGNORANCE! THIS BIN! THIS GARBAGE BIN REPRESENTS THE OLD WAYS. THE TRASH WAYS. I HAVE ACCEPTED MY WEIRDNESS. MY ECCENTRICITIES ARE OPEN TO ALL!"

Phegan was never heard from again after this moment.

The people who see "weirdness" as being bad are the "bad weird."

The anime kid hates being bullied, but he doesn't see non-conformity as a negative. It's not the label of weird, but the negative sentiment behind it that hurts.

The white supremacist who sees diversity as an evil doesn't mind people saying he hates black people. What he hates (aside from minorities) is being identified as an "other" through the weird label.

Took me a sec to understand your comment, but yeah I agree. Generalizations are just that.

One day I called a co-worker weird. Simply cus the dude was acting odd.

A whole thing broke out where he was extremely insulted at the remark and wanted to never talk to me again until I went farther than I should have to apologize.

Thinking about it till this day... Dude that's just fucking weird.

Also: are you neurodivergent and have you had that word constantly applied to you in abusive ways

Yes but how else could the poster feel like they'd scored points on a man who doesn't even know they exist?

Further, I would say that people actively trying to be seen as weird don't have a good kind of weird - generally, shapping your life base of "what will other people think" isn't very healthy, and that's true both on the side of trying to align with what you think is the general oponion of others as on the side of trying to align against that.

chaotic weird, checking in

As someone who also qualifies as "good weird", I think we take the bullet on this one. Seeing how upset it makes them is a decent trade.

It's a fixation because it definitely seems to be working, at least so far. And in my personal opinion it's working for three reasons:

1. It makes the average voter actually stop and think. The problem is that at this point most of the real, meaningful criticisms you can make of Trump sound overblown, or like old news. Calling him a fascist and would-be dictator is true, but it sounds alarmist. They treat it as hyperbole, not something to take seriously. Calling him a rapist just gets treated as "Throw it on the pile." Like, at this point, what powerful male figures aren't? There were a whole bunch of sexual assault allegations that came up against Joe Biden in 2020, for example. Corrupt? "Every politician is corrupt" they'll say. But weird? Weird cuts through all that, because they can judge it for themselves. People have a usable metric for weird. And weird is contagious. If you vote for a corrupt politician that doesn't make you corrupt, it just reflects the broken nature of the system. But if you vote for a weird politician, doesn't that mean you're weird too? Weird gives people pause. They step back, actually look at the behaviour they're seeing, and for at least some people (remember, elections are won and lost on very small margins; you're looking for hit rates of a few percent on any attack) they have that little lightbulb moment, like "Yeah, this is weird isn't it?" It's an appeal to the deeply puritan deeply conformist sensibilities that the average American has grown up firmly rooted in. That stuff has a powerful hold on people.

2. It really, really upsets right wingers, because their entire worldview is built around bullying, attacking, and ultimately destroying anything that deviates from their idea of "Normal". To us, being weird is whatever. Maybe it's even cool. To them, it's an existential threat. If they're not the norm, then everything about their worldview crumbles. This, in turn, creates a feedback loop. The more they get upset about it, the more weird they act, and the more the average person sees that behavior and thinks "Really? These guys want to run the country?" Trump being a total freak about Kamala's racial identity is a great example of this. It'll play well with hardcore racists, but to a lot of people it's more likely to come across as desperately out of touch. Like, what the fuck does it matter to the price of gas if Kamala is Black or Indian? What does that have to do with my healthcare bills, or my job security?

3. Being "gentle" is exactly why it's so effective. There's a perceived dignity in standing strong in the face of a relentless assault. Weathering a storm of vicious attacks makes you look powerful. But when Republicans absolutely fall apart at this most gentle of insults, it has exactly the opposite effect. It shows how pathetically fragile they are. They've called us weirdos and freaks for decades, and we wore it with pride. But they are utterly incapable of doing the same. It's the best parts of the high road and the low road all in one.

Is it really, really stupid that this is what works? Yes, absolutely. But you fight the war you're in, not the one you want to be in.

Gotta be practical, unfortunately. If they care more about "weird" than "rapist felon who is also a fascist", go with it.