No More Normies!
I’m done with normies, y’all — for realz!
Some of you are like, “What’s a normie?” If that’s you, you well might be one. My wild guess is that anyone following these posted musings already have an idea what I mean by the term. Others of you don’t know what I mean, but the hairs on your neck stood up, your palms are starting to sweat, and you feel your defenses kicking in. Your arms are crossed, and you think it’s now my job to convince you. If you believe the latter, you are sorely mistaken. This ain’t for you. You might try some remedial reading...on everything. Know this, I am not studying you!
First, yes it is pejorative AF. It’s like how Black people frequently used the term “Whitey” for anyone who classed themself along with Europeans as superior to others. Whitey captured the resentment, fear, frustration, and other reactions of Black people (and other non-Whites) toward people casually participating in systemic violence and oppression. Normies casually participate in the routine oppression, marginalization, and persecution of atypical, neurodivergent and otherwise mentally extraordinary people. I gag at the oblivion of people around mental health. It’s an area lacking the empathy and concern, and often meeting contempt of others, even those identifying as woke, or considering themselves part of other oppressed groups.
Every time I use the term, "that’s crazy" as a catch all for anything that doesn’t go as I expect it (or doesn’t seem right to me), I reinforce the idea that there is a way people, places and things are supposed to be, based on my own sense of normalcy, using my own comfort as the baseline. Thinking or behavior that doesn't fit standards of normalcy (meaning comfortable) is labeled inferior, invalid or at it’s worse, a target for violence. Considered historically, normal people can be extremely dangerous. This is especially true when gathered in a crowd with their attention directed towards the unfamiliar, insinuated as a threat.
Maybe you’ve faced twisted mouths, bulging eyes, the sucking of teeth and whispers behind hands. In the same way people get boxed and exploited for gender, race and other marginal identities, crazy people experience violent attacks and other forms of aggression. Their “right way” thinking is propped up by media, culture, institutions, and other levers of repression. The very worst thing about normies, and it is true of every one of them, is their belief that they are normal. Firm in that belief, they are prime to be manipulated into demonizing., scapegoating and otherwise pathologizing anything they do not understand. It’s a pretty unsophisticated and inauthentic way to live.
keep in mind that people took the Third Reich as normal. People took enslavement as normal. Normal scares the shit out of me. That’s just me. I want to know what others experience. I don’t expect anyone to out themselves as mentally atypical, although the more out we are, the less the normal argument holds water. Perhaps people can share some of the forms of prejudice and "crazy" phobia as it manifests in their day to day. This will likely not be the last on the subject. Get at me.
