KKKKatie

Katie's Journal
2003-02-12 21:21:20 (UTC)

Dumb People Suck

Today I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that says 'You laugh
because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the
same.' Does anyone else see the irony in this? The store
that sells these, Hot Topic, is a major chain store with
almost 450 stores across the country, plus an on-line
store. I'd say it's pretty safe to say that the stores
all carry pretty much the same stuff, including these
shirts. This means that thousands and thousands of these
shirts are being sold to "nonconformists" all over the
world. Yeah, you're different alright, just like the
thousands of other kids who bought the exact same shirt.

Which brings me to another point: How does this kid know
that I'm just like everyone else and that I laugh at him
for being different? First of all, I never laughed at him
or called him different. I’ve got friends that are as
different as you can get: Freaks, Goth, Preppy, Punk,
Black, White, Asian—and I’ve never once laughed at them
for being different than me. He’s never met me, but yet
he has the right to judge me and say that I’m just like
everyone else? I don’t think so. I’m not just like
everyone else. I resent the fact that he thinks that.

He’s never met me, but just because he wears a shirt that
thousands of other people have that proclaims that he’s
superior because he’s “different,” he gets the right to
make sweeping generalizations about me and the rest of the
world and our inferiority due to conformity. Does he know
that I’m above average height, younger than nearly
everyone at this school, have a well-above average IQ, and
that I was First Chair Clarinet in the District 3 Concert
Band? Was he aware that I was drum major for my marching
band for two years or that I’ve worked for everything that
I’ve gotten since I was fourteen or that the pretty car in
the parking lot that I drive was paid for with my hard
work and not mommy and daddy’s? Does he know that I wear
the clothes that I do, not because someone I admire likes
it or because it’s fashionable, but because I think they
look nice and make a statement about myself? Did anyone
tell him that my favorite band is the Beatles, not N*Sync,
my favorite writer is Kurt Vonnegut, not the new editor of
Seventeen? Does that sound just like anyone else you
know? I didn’t think so.

So I’d really appreciate it if all these “nonconformists”
would stop and take a good look at the people around them—
not the mention themselves--before they go condemning
everyone.

*Katie*




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