Fanatics Suck

Fanaticism to any cause needs to be avoided. Although you usually see it most in theists, it applies to any “ism”. It blinds you to any facts that would be readily apparent to any else if they disagree with your hypothesis, give you tunnel vision so that you only see what is directly ahead, and enforce a bunker mentality where you see nothing but attacks. That last one creates a really nasty vicious circle; because you see nothing but attacks you tend hunker down even more, making all of the rest even worse until you hit the point where you are little more than a paranoid, obsessed wreck.

It also tends to decrease your ability to think critically. Look at the anti-vaccine crowd; any evil that they can prescribe to vaccines they do, from an increased chance to actually get the disease being treated to it as a cause of autism. Doctors already know that there is a chance of getting the disease from a vaccine as not all the germs are dead, so that is a recognized risk, but at the same time children have little chance to become autistic due to shots. Yes, there was a report, but it has been so thoroughly debunked that the doctor in charge of it has lost his license to practice. Oh, and in case it comes up: Yes, even the Amish get vaccinated.

My personal favorite symbol has to be women not being paid as much as men. The problem is that this is a faulty measurement. If women worked the same hours as men, received the same promotions as men, and worked the same jobs as men, it would be valid, but none of those are true. Women only work about 87% as many hours as many (32 vs 36 weekly, with 16 days off per year vs. 14) and tend to work safer, less financially rewarding jobs; secretary, teacher, and nurse are the top three jobs for women. Worse, they tend to accept promotions only 32% of the time compared to 76% for men. You also have that women tend to own their own businesses or freelance more than men; that throws of the average as well. All in all comparing wages just doesn’t work as women do not get paid as much as men; as the trade-off is better health and a longer life, there may actually be something to it.

The same applies to men who think that their private spots are under attack. There is some logic to it; it seems that every year there is some court case where a woman sues in order to get access to mens locker rooms (it makes sense, as deals are brokered as they shower, but generally it’s a conversation continued from elsewhere). However, for some reason too many guys, usually teenagers, see MMO servers as an escape from women, so when women start showing up in male-ruled games, such as Call of Duty or even WoW, they verbally lash out at the women, and sometimes it can get intense. Although you can call in an admin, a better idea is to insult the person back on the same level; just trust me, it works better than you would think.

So, stop being a fanatic. Things aren’t as bad you may think they are, and sometimes are a lot better than you think. So relax, and you will hopefully live a little longer.