Notice: Post is sloppy. My writing style is "dumping my brain".
I have noticed for the past few years, young adults have been too dramatic over the tiniest shit; such as choosing a box of cereal these days is racist against other cereals (Sorry I prefer cocoa puffs over cocoa pebbles because it doesn't taste like Hershey syrup). During the Holidays in my parents' time, when you greet someone its "Merry Christmas" and they would reply "Happy Hanukkah." Then they smile and go about their day. These days its "Merry Christmas? Well fuck you too!" I find this sad to say, but over the years reading articles about building confidence, how to ignore 'haters' and be happy with you are, instead a lot people over react, exposing how the little things affect them shows how weak they are. I have seen an online fight over who is prettier and it gotten into an actual physical fight. Not only people are being 'pussies', but they constantly assume actions are based on things like religion, race, personal style, and occupation. Here's a rule many people had said to me "You don't have to say anything." Then why do people bother to say the most bat-crazy, insignificant shit? Ugh tired of dumping my brain. -__-
Any bat-crazy shit you heard that drove you nuts?
My family and I have this discussion often. It comes down to this, there are only 2 possible emotions allowed: 1) Outrage
2) Smug satisfaction There are no degrees of anything anymore. It is a zero-sum game and you are with me, or are my mortal enemy. Quit trying to be offended, there is enough to get excited about. Realize that there are indeed items worth getting exorcized about. Then shut up because I don't want to hear it from a twerp like you. OK, so maybe the previous sentence just reinforced my point.
I think you nailed it with the "us versus them" mentality. Humans seem adept at identifying "the other" and then villainizing it to death. I'm young, but I feel like life so far has been trying to tell me "hey, everybody's different, and everybody's doing the best they can, and that's ok". Makes me sad to think how much we polarize ourselves.
I feel like humans were never designed to have the amount of free time we do now , and because we didn't evolve to have all this time, we don't have consistently productive coping skills for it. So the little demon hamsters in our brains start up and before we know it we're madly involved in petty disagreements like they're life and death, and even more madly, some of those petty disagreements escalate into life and death situations.
Also, we've built a world where individuality is considered sacred, and the ability to cooperate and contribute is some sort of mild character flaw.