Why don't you just do as I say?

[A HERETIC I AM]

Why is it you don't think like I do?

Why won't you believe what I beleive?

I don't like something, therefore you shouldn't either.

My way is better, and you should do it my way.

If you only drove the way I do, we would all be safer.

The way I think is superior, and if you don't think like I do, you are inferior.

If you don't think/act/believe the way I want, I will make your life difficult/hard/expensive/end.



What is it about humans that we all tend to ask and answer the above questions? From Boku Haram to ISIS to the Westboro Baptist Church to Texas School board members to DU'ers themselves, humans have this overwhelming need to get others to conform to the way they think under penalty of some sort, often the sword, as history demonstrates time and again.

What the hell is so difficult for humanity to just leave others be? Why is it so damned hard for people to understand that opinions vary and there is nothing we can do about it?

I know the answer, after all. Because different opinions are scary or troublesome. If someone thinks differently than us it means we might not be right. It indicates an alternative we might find troublesome or difficult to grasp.

As a person who likes to think of himself as a modern, thinking human, there are most definitely opinions that I find detestable and not compatable with modern society (Extremism in any guise) and as such, we would be better off if they were wiped out. But what is it about the likes of some that feel convinced to the point of murder that their way is right and others will suffer if they don't acquiesce?


Humans.

A never ending source of curiosity.

[goldent]

2. I wonder about this all the time

and you are right it happens everywhere, from DU politics to what kind of phone you have. It is why I got turned off of political parties at a very young age.

[enough]

3. Your mention of what kind of phone you have reminded me of something from

back in the mid-seventies. At that time we, and a lot of people we knew, were starting families, building houses, learning to farm, and making the major purchase of an air-tight woodstove. There were such strong opinions about what kind of woodstove was best, that people argued about it furiously and sometimes didn't talk to each other for weeks on end.

Now we're in our 60's and 70's, and many of us are still using the same woodstoves we bought way back then. Nobody's arguing about that any more.

[Enthusiast]

5. Chevy! Dodge! Ford!

Car religion true believers would fight to the death. Glad that's mostly over.

[Amonester]

8. Windoze, Mac, linuxes...

and now androïds...

[Enthusiast]

12. Peoples is crazy!

[Amonester]

13. No argues from moi!

We're a bunch of a nuisance species like no others before us.

We destroy everything we touch, starting with the air we breathe.

[Tikki]

4. I don't understand the one about "if you drove the way I do we'd all be safer"...

The rules for driving a vehicle are clear...speed limits may change by State and are posted and the free right turn thing
in some States but if you drive too slow and impede traffic or drive too fast to endanger traffic, drive in any way impaired
you could and should get a ticket or get arrested.

If you are talking about road rage, I've seen it happen over the simplest things.

Tikki

[Warren DeMontague]

9. I used to have a bumper sticker "If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk!"

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. A reference to the occasional but predictable threads on DU....

on the subject of highway driving.

Also, being a CDL holder, I am guilty of that one, so I included it!

[Tikki]

15. OK, I get it but am glad there are laws governing driving..

Tikki

[passiveporcupine]

6. Personalities vary, not just opinions

What the hell is so difficult for humanity to just leave others be? Why is it so damned hard for people to understand that opinions vary and there is nothing we can do about it?

People are not all the same...some are born more conservative and need more security.

Religion often attracts those people, and religion is often part of the problem of extremism.

[Populist_Prole]

7. Funny thing is....

Your post could be a case study of Poe's Law: I know people who could read your OP and not take it is sarcasm, but instead, feel it reflects the way they actually feel.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Authoritarian Control Freaks.

Normally I'd say diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, but that fetish is a bit annoying.

[FrodosPet]

16. The song is awesome, though!

[Ohio Joe]

11. "If you only drove the way I do, we would all be safer."

oh good lord no... I am at times... A menace on the road.