Unpopular Opinion
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
- If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
- If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
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4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
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It's the grandiose, self-congratulatory, hyper-ceremonial pomp and circumstance of the situation.
It demonstrates a total lack of humility. So your baby-oven functions properly. Whoopee. It can produce either of the two standard flavors of human. Big fucking deal.
You know why so many traditions are ancient? Like, rooted in versions of themselves that are at LEAST centuries old, if not millennia? BECAUSE STARTING NEW TRADITIONS IS AN INTRINSICALLY EGOTISTICAL THING TO DO.
Following old traditions isn't just something you do because you're "supposed to." When you follow a venerable tradition (as oppposed to a trendy fad), you are communicating that you understand your place. You're just one human in a long chain of humans, just like yourself in every important respect. You're affirming that you understand you're truly not anything special, and neither are your offspring. And that's A GOOD THING. Most people aren't special. People have intrinsic value, as EQUALS, and it's good when we recognize that.
Jumping onto a newly-made, bandwagon tradition like this one (especially one that is openly self-aggrandizing) indicates that you think in the opposite fashion. You think you're the hottest of all the hot shit. You think you're the main character.
If you think that way, you're simply a bad person.
Man you are an AH. The baby oven functioning properly is not a guarentee. Its something a lot of people struggle with. I find you much more cringe than people wanting to throw an extra party. The only gender reveal party ive ever been to was for people with fertility issues. They had several miscarriages and that pregnancy meant the world to them. Seeing the gender on ultrasound was a milestone theyd never reached despite years of heartbreak.
So you're insensitive and edgy, big whoop. You don't need to post about it and pretend you are hot shit.
I understand people WANTING to throw an extra party. I understand people WANTING to pretend that they're special snowflakes.
The point is, in order to be functional members of society, you need to RESTRAIN your selfish urges to scream about how super-duper you are, from your fucking rooftop.
You say I'm pretending that I'M hot shit? No. I'm not bragging about myself. I'm not saying I'm special. What I'm doing is trying to take annoying, self-absorbed shitheads down a few pegs. That is a necessary and useful function of society. That's not a new fad. Reminding annoying people that they suck is possibly the longest-standing tradition that exists. I'm certain that language was literally invented, just so people could be told to stop acting the fool.
What? No, traditions proliferate because of network effects and cultural momentum.
Yes, that's the mechanism of their transmission. But their PURPOSE is to reaffirm cultural norms, chiefly ones related to humility and basic conformity to one's society. Not the "I'm going to do literally everything exactly the same as everyone else" sort of conformity, mind you. Just the BASIC kind of conformity and humility. The kind that says "I'm no more valuable than everyone else in the community."
Rushing to join a new tradition (especially one that hyper-celebrates one's own reproduction) is an indication of the opposite impulse. You're communicating that you're better, more important, more valuable than your peers and your ancestors. That's destructive and maladaptive. Not everyone can be the best. If everyone thinks they're the most special, then nobody will want to do the equitable sharing and sacrificing that all societies have to do, in order to keep running.