The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Penny Arcade - Comic - Vampire: The Masquerade
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Vampire: The Masquerade
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
+5
Posts
Not really. Maybe maximum of 5% better. All that's necessary for the joke is that you know that he is socially aberrant. Which you can get from context. That's the basis for the joke.
Also just the general concept of using a TTRPG character as a way to explore an alternate version of yourself (and Tycho flipping the script by saying the psycho PC is his real self).
There are so many 'professionals' in these fields who are incredibly conventional, and so any 'deviance' is described as disability. It is hard to become a 'professional' involved in education and mental health without being, yourself, extremely conventional. They are positions of great responsibility, so you have to seem safe.
And so two of the fields that most need to accept difference are populated with many extremely conservative people and ideas, who give terrible advice to parents.
As a sidefuck, most bosses in these fields are people who don't enjoy/aren't good at the work, so the 'top' people aren't actually the top.
Anyway, I'm glad Jerry's kid(s?) seem to be doing well despite, well, society.
Didn't he say it somewhere in a comic recently? An ugly and repellent Nosferatu who is, however, a social climber?
...It doesn't really help me, lol.
Powers &8^]
I have, however, developed a Him over decades. I wouldn't say the Him is as stark a divide as it is with Jerry. It's more the me that I am when I'm with friends. To some degree, you could look at it as being more my "true" self (at least the parts I like).
There's a lot of places it manifests. Especially in companies. I was part of a company workshop recently, in which everyone was told to decide if their communication style was more lion, turtle, rabbit, or eagle. And then list the reason we picked that animal. And then identify which of those four animals you would work best with, and reasons why. And the animal you would work least effectively and why. And then to break out into groups of employees and everyone discuss their answers. There was zero guidance about what any of those animals were supposed to mean.
Oh boy. That one really tripped my introversion (along with my tendency to overthink). I had no idea wtf I was supposed to do with any of that, and the thought of then having to talk about it amongst coworkers I hadn't yet formed much of a bond with (this was a few months into the job) was terrifying. It was a WFH thing and everyone was dialed in, and I wound up "losing my connection."
There's that kind of thing all over the place. Get a group of people that don't know each other together? Oh, why doesn't everyone go around and stand up in front of the group and talk about themselves for a bit? God.
Our social spaces are often built for extroverts as well. Want to go have some fun outside? How about the beach or a pool, one big open space full of people. Music? How about a concert surrounded by other people? Want to go get into shape? How about a giant open room full of strangers to exercise in front of? Many of these spaces will also be filled with loud music, btw. But you like that, right? Who doesn't love things loud? It's just more fun!
Our world does not prioritize smaller spaces (or a big space broken up into smaller spaces), with quieter, less sensory-overload environments. It favors crowds and noise.
And let's look at culture. The person in the middle of the crowd, dancing and living it up? They're the fun person to be around. Life of the party! The person sitting in the corner, quietly, not talking to anyone? Booooo! You can't possibly be having a good time! There's definitely a cultural bias to extroversion.
That's the sort of performative socialization that I absolutely hate. If I wanted to be on a god damn talent show, I'd go sign up for one. Now get this meeting the fuck over with so I can go back to not having to speak to anyone already! I hated it in school, I hated it in the military, and I hate it in the private sector too. Literally the most reliable escape from that bullshit is to be a complete shut-in to lower the opportunities for some solipsistic jackass to ambush me with that shit.
You very well describe exactly why I love old english pubs so very much. A small quiet place, often divided up into smaller semi-private spaces.
You'd have adored The Swan, close to where I grew up, a pub which had not just one but two secret rooms that you just had to know about to find, with old wooden benches and tables and the second one had a circular window that looked out into a tiny, overgrown little walled garden.
Also the beer was not bad. Not bad at all.
There's a nice little bar in the Village in NYC called Burp Castle which actively encourages a quiet, monastic atmosphere - the bartenders will actually shush you if you or your friends get too loud.
There's a style of pub known as the Old Man Pub where people go to drink in small groups - those groups might be loud, but it's not hard to avoid them
There's no music, the lights are subdued, and there are lots of nooks and crannies where you can feel a bit more isolated
Samuel Smith's pubs exemplify this style; most don't allow mobile phones and some are still cash only (as well as being ridiculously cheap)
There's a terminology for this. It's called being a person.
You're you, not a label. You're always you, and when we try or are forced to adopt labels that put us in a bucket, negative consequences abound.
All right, some fair points... but to an extent it goes both ways. Look at office cubicles, for instance. Great for introverts! Stifling for extraverts.
I suspect it has to do with the relative geographical openness of the U.S. People in densely packed places like Europe or India have to learn to deal with the noise and the crowds, so spaces for introverts are created for them to decompress. Here, introverts can escape to the back country relatively easily and never deal with other humans if they don't want to. Our spaces-for-introverts are all out there rather than in the cities.
Not to just be contrary, but I think cubicles are the worst of both worlds. Because you can't see someone sneaking up on you until they're right there. It's the illusion of a barrier without meaningful barrier-ness.
Enh, I don't have such a visceral reaction to a label, and no one has forced me to adopt it. I think language is helpful in self-reflection. I'm just not a slave to it.
Home V1m loves the sound of silence. I could listen to it for days.
Which can majorly suck if you need/want to access modern infrastructure, jobs, etc. So "easy" becomes a somewhat loaded term. Many introverts don't actually want to live like Uncle Ted....they want to be able to participate in society at a rate somewhere *between* complete social isolation and screaming pop concert.
For me the solution was taking on a job that was graveyard shift. I get access to modern society but not at the ridiculous intensity daywalkers get stuck with.
Yes, sorry, I should have made clear that that culture developed when (then-)modern infrastructure wasn't as necessary. You could live off the grid a lot more readily when there was no grid.
Powers &8^]