Every human being suffers from some deficit of rationality, I've found. We call this emotional response, and it's a hilt-less sword; you can wield it but it cuts you almost as often as it cuts the other guy [you're not allowed to wear gloves in this analogy]. Maybe not as badly but it still cuts.
I myself have found I have a set of these rational failings. In the spirit of openness, allow me to share some with you guys. You can make fun of me at your leisure, I kind of invite it. ;D Let's start with what I irrationally hate!
#1: Vegans and vegetarians. Even the ones who are quiet about it I often find gritting my teeth when I deal with them, or rolling my eyes whenever they mention anything about their 'lifestyle choice.' I've heard a lot of excuses [and that is exactly what they are to me; excuses] about why people choose to be vegetarian. This shit irritates me to no end, and I've never quite pegged down the precise reason why. Partly it's the hoity-twoity holier-than-thou "I'm more compassionate than you" bullshit they always spew over over the place, coating the room in their putrid stench of self-absorption. Partly it's the total denial of not just human nature but just nature in general [humans are omnivores, there's a reason our teeth aren't completely flat, dammit]. Partly it's because I aspire to be a chef some day, partly because I starved a LOT as a child, both of which lead me to choke back a snarl of contempt for people who turn their noses up at a specific type of food not because of taste but literally "just because" or because of some contrived pseudo-moral bullshit. And partly because THEY WON'T STOP THROWING IT IN PEOPLES' FACES. There's this constant push to get veganism "accepted" in modern society and the yuppie crowd just gobbles it up. I TOLERATE vegans at best and at worst if I could forcefeed these people a medium-rare pan-seared-in-olive-oil-and-oven-baked-with-Worcestershire-Sauce rib eye steak I WOULD DO IT SO FUCKING FAST THAT- oh man I crave a steak so badly now...
#2: Japan. I'm not much of a racist. The best way to describe me is that I am racist against racists. I tire of listening to hateful diatribe from idiots who think that the color of your skin tone is something worthy of judging someone else over [protip for anyone lacking the rudimentary knowledge of the human genome: IT FUCKING ISN'T!!!], but when it comes to the Japanese...I chafe a little. Not against INDIVIDUAL Japanese people, however. Rather, the culture. Their culture isn't exactly too different from most. It's got its unique areas, its own ways of practicing things and its own ideas and social norms and aberrations like any other. Why do I hate it, then? Well like most things on this list, I have no idea what EXACTLY is what irritates me about it. I have, however, a few ideas. Firstly, the veneration by Westerners of the culture. Japan is the land of milk and honey for pale-faced fat weeaboos the world over and I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY. Most commonly accepted notion is that it's because of anime. I've watched anime, and as a writer who spent a ton of time reading and studying Shakespeare, Plato, Homer, and dozens if not HUNDREDS of modern writers [a study I try to keep to this day; helps to have a library no less than 150 feet away], I find 99% of anime to be on par with fanfiction written by a twelve year old; this shit is HORRIBLE. And I know I'm treading on some toes by saying this but you're just gonna have to forgive me for not understanding AT ALL what is so damn special about this six-color, 3 FPS crap! This is NOT something worth venerating a culture over! And the Japanese culture itself is outright freakin' HOSTILE. Foreigners are treated like subhumans [ask any Brazilian emigrants to Japan, or people who were born in Japan of Brazilian parents, or any weeaboo moron who actually goes to live/study there]. They are xenophobic to the point that even Texas seems warm and inviting by comparison. Do they have their reasons? Yes, in the same way the black people have reasons to dislike white people in America; shit that happened long ago that doesn't affect them today that they need to get over like 50+ years ago.
Japan still hates us for nuking them and occupying Okinawa. Tough shit; you guys got nuked because you went to war with us cuz you thought you were hot shit. Be glad we didn't decide you were a threat that needed to be annihilated or we could've nuked you bastards right off the face of the fucking planet and NOBODY WOULD HAVE CARED. Then there's the obsession with the samurai. The SAMURAI? REALLY?! You mean those guys who used to go around raping the wives and daughters of the poor farmers and peasantry SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY COULD? Yeah, they had that "code of the warrior" or "way of the warrior" honor bullshit and that's EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS: IT WAS BULLSHIT. You don't get to claim honor when you're a friggin' rapist who serves the upper class in oppressing the lower class, jackasses. You want proof of this, there's a few historical texts on the samurai you can read up on that talk about how things worked in those times. People mistake the samurai for being noble and honorable, "warriors of the people," but in truth, they were not warriors of the people, or for the people. They were the guards and armies of the shogunate, and they were considered in a realm above the peasantry. Yes, so were knights, but knights were sworn to uphold the land AND the people who lived upon it. Chivalry tended to have far more respect for the peasantry than bushido did. Not much, it WAS the middle ages, but still, it had more.
There's a bunch more. I'll rail about it later. Or maybe not, I dunno. I'm probably insulting a bunch of people here already with it, which I gotta apologize for, but like I said; my hate for this stuff is irrational, despite my efforts to rationalize it.
#3: Final Fantasy games. Fuck I hate these games. It's like anime made into a video game. And everyone eats this garbage up. Which ties into my hate for anime. Ugh. Next topic.
#4: Niggas. OK WAIT, DON'T LET THE HATE TRAIN ENTER THE STATION YET, hang on, lemme explain. I DO NOT hate black people. I hate niggas. There is a difference. Black people are just that. They're people. No different from you and me. A "nigga" is a very clear and concise definition of a stereotype that gets filled by said people. These individuals are people who refuse to let go of the past. They're angry about the injustices done to their ancestors. It's a terrible thing, slavery; it was horrible. But the thing is, we aren't hiding that fact. We openly admit what we did. We lay the facts of slavery bare for any and all to read and listen to, so that they might know of the crime of our past. The clearest way to apologize to someone is to NOT HIDE IT, to come out and admit it and to demonize those past actions, and that is what we do. We make NO effort to hide what has happened in the past, we demonize what happened and we uphold it as a lesson of what NOT to do. Niggas, however, aren't satisfied with this most absolute of apologies. They want to guilt trip us, they want to be the victims, they revel in believing that they're being oppressed and prejudiced against because it gives them an excuse to not do a single fucking worthwhile thing with their lives, because they can lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of their "oppressors." Not all black people are like this. Actually, to be honest, only a fraction of them are. But the ones that do are holding their entire culture back. And frankly, I'm sick of them, I'm sick of their whiny bullshit, and they need to grow the fuck up.
Oh man I am so losing everyone's respect... But, why stop now?
#5: Steve Jobs. Rot in fucking pieces you selfish greedy dickhead, nobody will miss you or your shitty neo-glam pop-culture-inducing overpriced plastic made in China crap. Oh wait, no, that shit's still being made. FAAAAAWK!!!
#6: Furries. Even though I'm sort of one. SORT OF. It's the behavior of 99% of furfans that I cannot fucking tolerate. No idea why. They rarely are in my face about it. Just the general existence of their fetishes and personalities and attitudes just pisses me off.
#7: The Playstation 3 and Wii. Maybe I'm a 360 fanboy. Or maybe it's BECAUSE IT'S MADE BY JAPANESE PEOPLE FUUUUUU-
#8: My biggest character flaw is this one. Other peoples' opinions. Most of the time, I like them and tolerate them. But some people say things that outright contradict my opinions. Rather than accepting them like I do most of the time, these certain contradictions of my opinion piss me off to no end. Rather than accepting that as a human nobody is going to have the same idea as me and some will outright think I'm completely wrong, I just want to cram my opinions down their throat until they choke on it and accept my view. Most of the time this happens in politics, and honestly, it might be for the right reasons. People who want to let racism be an openly-acceptable thing in the name of freedom of speech, I want to beat them with a fire extinguisher until they submit or expire. Obviously, I don't do this, but I can't help but think "Wow, it's be so much easier if I could just crush any opposition to my opinion, because I (think I) know I'm right!" I especially feel this way with religious folk. I would LOVE to just destroy all religions, to tear down every church, mosque, shrine, and temple brick by brick. Obviously, I know this is not the way. Obviously, I take a different course openly and follow a different set of ideas. But I won't lie; the DESIRE to do this far more primal, forceful, inhumane method of changing peoples' minds is strong. Still, with some pride I admit...I've never given in to it. And each time I successfully resist, the desire gets a little weaker.
#9: People who hate coffee. I hate it when someone says that they hate coffee. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING AUUUUGH
#10: Le final one. Pop culture. Often without any real reason I tend to default to cynical hatred for anyone in popular media. They could be the kindest, most humble individual... ok, you know what, that's not true. I like Johnny Depp because he is a really cool guy and very humble. I used to like Natalie Portman because she didn't take herself too seriously. Then she started taking herself way too damn seriously, both in her acting and her worrying about public perception [like when she flipped out about screenshots of her bare ass in that one movie she was in, not Closer, but I can't remember the name of it, being circulated around the internet and how it freaked her out and how she was never doing a nude scene again because of it], and then she started dating only other celebrities [a change from her dating just normal guys who were her friends or people she went to college with, etc] and basically she just turned into yet another self-obsessed celebrity. Dammit, Natalie. You seemed like a really nice girl, and then you let the power and fame go to your head. Shit. Also, Lady Gaga. I hate her more than I hate Justin Bieber. I hate Justin pretty hardcore too, but there's a reason for that: He compared himself with Kurt Cobain. Lady Gaga...I just can't stand her. Maybe it's because she tries to pretend like she's so deep and philosophical and provocative. She just is trying too damn hard and it annoys the hell out of me. She's a Madonna rip off. Wow, congrats, Lady Gaga, your entire personality is a rip-off of someone else. GOOD GOING, nobody else can do THAT...well, ok, they can, but most people respect themselves too much to do so. So, actually, good job, Gaga, you have no respect for yourself. Awesome.
Ok, that's my top ten things I irrationally hate. Also known as my top ten list of really bad character defects. Hope you enjoyed reading them!
Also, this is in philosophy because let's face it; all atheists pride themselves on being rational, and I clearly am not in these regards, and rationality is a deeply philosophical matter.
I myself have found I have a set of these rational failings. In the spirit of openness, allow me to share some with you guys. You can make fun of me at your leisure, I kind of invite it. ;D Let's start with what I irrationally hate!
#1: Vegans and vegetarians. Even the ones who are quiet about it I often find gritting my teeth when I deal with them, or rolling my eyes whenever they mention anything about their 'lifestyle choice.' I've heard a lot of excuses [and that is exactly what they are to me; excuses] about why people choose to be vegetarian. This shit irritates me to no end, and I've never quite pegged down the precise reason why. Partly it's the hoity-twoity holier-than-thou "I'm more compassionate than you" bullshit they always spew over over the place, coating the room in their putrid stench of self-absorption. Partly it's the total denial of not just human nature but just nature in general [humans are omnivores, there's a reason our teeth aren't completely flat, dammit]. Partly it's because I aspire to be a chef some day, partly because I starved a LOT as a child, both of which lead me to choke back a snarl of contempt for people who turn their noses up at a specific type of food not because of taste but literally "just because" or because of some contrived pseudo-moral bullshit. And partly because THEY WON'T STOP THROWING IT IN PEOPLES' FACES. There's this constant push to get veganism "accepted" in modern society and the yuppie crowd just gobbles it up. I TOLERATE vegans at best and at worst if I could forcefeed these people a medium-rare pan-seared-in-olive-oil-and-oven-baked-with-Worcestershire-Sauce rib eye steak I WOULD DO IT SO FUCKING FAST THAT- oh man I crave a steak so badly now...
#2: Japan. I'm not much of a racist. The best way to describe me is that I am racist against racists. I tire of listening to hateful diatribe from idiots who think that the color of your skin tone is something worthy of judging someone else over [protip for anyone lacking the rudimentary knowledge of the human genome: IT FUCKING ISN'T!!!], but when it comes to the Japanese...I chafe a little. Not against INDIVIDUAL Japanese people, however. Rather, the culture. Their culture isn't exactly too different from most. It's got its unique areas, its own ways of practicing things and its own ideas and social norms and aberrations like any other. Why do I hate it, then? Well like most things on this list, I have no idea what EXACTLY is what irritates me about it. I have, however, a few ideas. Firstly, the veneration by Westerners of the culture. Japan is the land of milk and honey for pale-faced fat weeaboos the world over and I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY. Most commonly accepted notion is that it's because of anime. I've watched anime, and as a writer who spent a ton of time reading and studying Shakespeare, Plato, Homer, and dozens if not HUNDREDS of modern writers [a study I try to keep to this day; helps to have a library no less than 150 feet away], I find 99% of anime to be on par with fanfiction written by a twelve year old; this shit is HORRIBLE. And I know I'm treading on some toes by saying this but you're just gonna have to forgive me for not understanding AT ALL what is so damn special about this six-color, 3 FPS crap! This is NOT something worth venerating a culture over! And the Japanese culture itself is outright freakin' HOSTILE. Foreigners are treated like subhumans [ask any Brazilian emigrants to Japan, or people who were born in Japan of Brazilian parents, or any weeaboo moron who actually goes to live/study there]. They are xenophobic to the point that even Texas seems warm and inviting by comparison. Do they have their reasons? Yes, in the same way the black people have reasons to dislike white people in America; shit that happened long ago that doesn't affect them today that they need to get over like 50+ years ago.
Japan still hates us for nuking them and occupying Okinawa. Tough shit; you guys got nuked because you went to war with us cuz you thought you were hot shit. Be glad we didn't decide you were a threat that needed to be annihilated or we could've nuked you bastards right off the face of the fucking planet and NOBODY WOULD HAVE CARED. Then there's the obsession with the samurai. The SAMURAI? REALLY?! You mean those guys who used to go around raping the wives and daughters of the poor farmers and peasantry SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY COULD? Yeah, they had that "code of the warrior" or "way of the warrior" honor bullshit and that's EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS: IT WAS BULLSHIT. You don't get to claim honor when you're a friggin' rapist who serves the upper class in oppressing the lower class, jackasses. You want proof of this, there's a few historical texts on the samurai you can read up on that talk about how things worked in those times. People mistake the samurai for being noble and honorable, "warriors of the people," but in truth, they were not warriors of the people, or for the people. They were the guards and armies of the shogunate, and they were considered in a realm above the peasantry. Yes, so were knights, but knights were sworn to uphold the land AND the people who lived upon it. Chivalry tended to have far more respect for the peasantry than bushido did. Not much, it WAS the middle ages, but still, it had more.
There's a bunch more. I'll rail about it later. Or maybe not, I dunno. I'm probably insulting a bunch of people here already with it, which I gotta apologize for, but like I said; my hate for this stuff is irrational, despite my efforts to rationalize it.
#3: Final Fantasy games. Fuck I hate these games. It's like anime made into a video game. And everyone eats this garbage up. Which ties into my hate for anime. Ugh. Next topic.
#4: Niggas. OK WAIT, DON'T LET THE HATE TRAIN ENTER THE STATION YET, hang on, lemme explain. I DO NOT hate black people. I hate niggas. There is a difference. Black people are just that. They're people. No different from you and me. A "nigga" is a very clear and concise definition of a stereotype that gets filled by said people. These individuals are people who refuse to let go of the past. They're angry about the injustices done to their ancestors. It's a terrible thing, slavery; it was horrible. But the thing is, we aren't hiding that fact. We openly admit what we did. We lay the facts of slavery bare for any and all to read and listen to, so that they might know of the crime of our past. The clearest way to apologize to someone is to NOT HIDE IT, to come out and admit it and to demonize those past actions, and that is what we do. We make NO effort to hide what has happened in the past, we demonize what happened and we uphold it as a lesson of what NOT to do. Niggas, however, aren't satisfied with this most absolute of apologies. They want to guilt trip us, they want to be the victims, they revel in believing that they're being oppressed and prejudiced against because it gives them an excuse to not do a single fucking worthwhile thing with their lives, because they can lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of their "oppressors." Not all black people are like this. Actually, to be honest, only a fraction of them are. But the ones that do are holding their entire culture back. And frankly, I'm sick of them, I'm sick of their whiny bullshit, and they need to grow the fuck up.
Oh man I am so losing everyone's respect... But, why stop now?
#5: Steve Jobs. Rot in fucking pieces you selfish greedy dickhead, nobody will miss you or your shitty neo-glam pop-culture-inducing overpriced plastic made in China crap. Oh wait, no, that shit's still being made. FAAAAAWK!!!
#6: Furries. Even though I'm sort of one. SORT OF. It's the behavior of 99% of furfans that I cannot fucking tolerate. No idea why. They rarely are in my face about it. Just the general existence of their fetishes and personalities and attitudes just pisses me off.
#7: The Playstation 3 and Wii. Maybe I'm a 360 fanboy. Or maybe it's BECAUSE IT'S MADE BY JAPANESE PEOPLE FUUUUUU-
#8: My biggest character flaw is this one. Other peoples' opinions. Most of the time, I like them and tolerate them. But some people say things that outright contradict my opinions. Rather than accepting them like I do most of the time, these certain contradictions of my opinion piss me off to no end. Rather than accepting that as a human nobody is going to have the same idea as me and some will outright think I'm completely wrong, I just want to cram my opinions down their throat until they choke on it and accept my view. Most of the time this happens in politics, and honestly, it might be for the right reasons. People who want to let racism be an openly-acceptable thing in the name of freedom of speech, I want to beat them with a fire extinguisher until they submit or expire. Obviously, I don't do this, but I can't help but think "Wow, it's be so much easier if I could just crush any opposition to my opinion, because I (think I) know I'm right!" I especially feel this way with religious folk. I would LOVE to just destroy all religions, to tear down every church, mosque, shrine, and temple brick by brick. Obviously, I know this is not the way. Obviously, I take a different course openly and follow a different set of ideas. But I won't lie; the DESIRE to do this far more primal, forceful, inhumane method of changing peoples' minds is strong. Still, with some pride I admit...I've never given in to it. And each time I successfully resist, the desire gets a little weaker.
#9: People who hate coffee. I hate it when someone says that they hate coffee. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING AUUUUGH
#10: Le final one. Pop culture. Often without any real reason I tend to default to cynical hatred for anyone in popular media. They could be the kindest, most humble individual... ok, you know what, that's not true. I like Johnny Depp because he is a really cool guy and very humble. I used to like Natalie Portman because she didn't take herself too seriously. Then she started taking herself way too damn seriously, both in her acting and her worrying about public perception [like when she flipped out about screenshots of her bare ass in that one movie she was in, not Closer, but I can't remember the name of it, being circulated around the internet and how it freaked her out and how she was never doing a nude scene again because of it], and then she started dating only other celebrities [a change from her dating just normal guys who were her friends or people she went to college with, etc] and basically she just turned into yet another self-obsessed celebrity. Dammit, Natalie. You seemed like a really nice girl, and then you let the power and fame go to your head. Shit. Also, Lady Gaga. I hate her more than I hate Justin Bieber. I hate Justin pretty hardcore too, but there's a reason for that: He compared himself with Kurt Cobain. Lady Gaga...I just can't stand her. Maybe it's because she tries to pretend like she's so deep and philosophical and provocative. She just is trying too damn hard and it annoys the hell out of me. She's a Madonna rip off. Wow, congrats, Lady Gaga, your entire personality is a rip-off of someone else. GOOD GOING, nobody else can do THAT...well, ok, they can, but most people respect themselves too much to do so. So, actually, good job, Gaga, you have no respect for yourself. Awesome.
Ok, that's my top ten things I irrationally hate. Also known as my top ten list of really bad character defects. Hope you enjoyed reading them!
Also, this is in philosophy because let's face it; all atheists pride themselves on being rational, and I clearly am not in these regards, and rationality is a deeply philosophical matter.