Why goths wear crosses

Aug 13, 2007 10:46

The christians on campus here have teamed up with, of all people, Richard Dawkins, and are using the power of semantics and weasle words to push their agenda ( Read more... )

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abygael August 13 2007, 05:23:41 UTC
Surprisingly, the only but I disagree with is "An emo kid really really really wants to believe that he's depressed/schizophrenic."

Because a) some of them actually are and b) mostly they just want to be social outcasts or something.

Also, I don't think it's necessarily god talking to them personally, but just the comfort of thinking that there's something other than oblivion after death.

(if this sounds disjointed it's because I wandered off for 40 minutes in the middle)

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kyuran August 13 2007, 06:39:32 UTC
Emo kids aren't exactly outcasts - they're like 20% of the population, and they all hang around together. By being upset and wearing black you open doors.

I think emos just want to be in a group that accepts the fact that they're moody, depressed, and reasonably well off. It just so happens that more often than not the only people who can tolerate serious emos are emo themselves (or in love with them etc.).

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jeebuz_avt August 13 2007, 07:02:18 UTC
The thing is though, they're not moody or depressed. They're just reasonably well off. It's classic middle class guilt, to want to be a social outcast. They're just expressing it by trying to associate themselves with the genuinely mentally ill.

There's a scene towards the end of "Dead man on campus" that adresses this pretty well.

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jeebuz_avt August 13 2007, 06:56:26 UTC
I'm yet to meet an emo kid with an actual mental illness, while none of the people I have met who are mentally ill have been emo kids.

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jeebuz_avt August 13 2007, 06:59:11 UTC
And actually, the phenomenon of pretending to have a mental illness of imitating the mannerisms of the mentally ill is not even a new phenomenon. Affluent people, particularly males, have throughout history tried it as a means to attract those who are attracted to the artsy, introverted type.

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abygael August 13 2007, 10:17:00 UTC
Mind you, one could argue that pretending to have a mental illness (properly pretending) is in itself a mental illness *cough*penguins*/cough*

Vaguely ironic.

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jeebuz_avt August 14 2007, 04:30:22 UTC
It's actually interesting in that there is such a disorder. It's like a Munchausen's syndrome of the mind. It's a common symptom of Borderline Peronallity Disorder sufferers.

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abygael August 14 2007, 07:47:29 UTC
Yeah, I know it's an actual thing. It's still ironic and it's still what penguins had/has.

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starry_skies02 August 24 2007, 10:03:36 UTC
Where do you get this from? I have read book after book on BPD since I was diagnosed and have never come across this - and I can recite the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria by heart.

If anything, wouldn't they just be a good old hypochondriac (spelling?)

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abygael August 24 2007, 14:10:19 UTC
It's a real thing. Not sure the proper name for it though, but I have met people that have it. Basically, they make stuff up then convince themselves it's true. They can even make themselves genuinely sick when they lose control over the lies and pretence. Or something like that. It's not like a hypochondriac can actually give themselves cancer by thinking about it, so it is different.

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jeebuz_avt August 26 2007, 01:42:20 UTC
It's not a BPD characteristic per-se, it's a syndrome that, when it appears, tends to appear in people who already have other mental illnesses.

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abygael August 13 2007, 10:15:35 UTC
I still don't agree that emo kids want to have a mental illness. It's just another manifestation of the whole "teen rebellion" thing.

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jeebuz_avt August 14 2007, 04:28:56 UTC
Why does the one exclude the other? The like the image of mental illness, but they have no idea of what the real effects of mental illness actually are.

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ptizzle August 16 2007, 17:54:20 UTC
I think they like the 'idea' they could be 'outcasted' or be justified in their 'yo man, fuck the world' attitude or whatever for having a mental illness (depression is included in this).

The fact that a great many of them are pretty well off and choose to make things hard makes me have absolutely no sympathy for them. If you choose to dress like that then more power to you, but if you start pretending you are or you have something than millions of people wish they could get rid of then you're a moron, out and out.

If they invented a mental illness transplant operation then we could solve this problem.

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