So much discrimination against

[Thanatos]

introverts....:mad:

I hardly leave the house. Even work I do using my laptop in my home (software stuff, so need to go out much), once in while I may go to meet clients etc. But basically I am a homebody. If I am not working at home, I am watching tv, reading books etc. Not many outdoor activities.

There is so much discrimination against such people, at least in my country. Bad things are said about them - treated like weirdos.:mad: If a person goes out all the time, he is treated like a hero. If not, he is treated like less of a man.

What kind of nonsense is this?:mad::mad::mad:

[Bala Perdida]

"Less of a man" first time I ever heard that one. In that case it sounds like people are trying to promote the predatory, alpha male role or something.

It might be some consumerist bullshit, like on commercials. You know "Look at these cool socially active people using my product!" Or maybe it's a subversion tactic, they want you to go out and make an ass of yourself so you don't start developing deep thought or class consciousness.

I felt the same way with my sister. When she was my age she was going through boyfriends, going to dances/parties, dates all that television crap. Now she sees me in her position and thinks "Whats wrong with you!" I haven't had a girlfriend yet, and I don't like the party scene. I don't see having a girlfriend as a priority like the rest of my family does. I mean I like being around people, but I'm generally quiet. I usually don't speak unless I'm spoken to. Other people don't seem to mind, but my annoying ass family does.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Hmm, intersting, I never thought about it that way. This is all speculation and a lot of annecdotal stuff, but I also don't know how social "introversion" of induviduals would be realistically measured. At any rate...

I don't know if I'd say that people are discriminated against for being introverts on the whole, and I think there probably are social things that go into what is considered introverted or not at different times and places and situations. But in general, being introverted in capitalist society does create difficultuies because of the way this society operates.

So on one level, being introverted in capitalism creates some difficulties for some people. By default capitalists societies generally (given differneces in cultural things and whatnot) tend to be socially alienating and social problems usually have to be delt with in an autonomous way. So people living alone will have a harder time because in many societies - especially the US for example, there aren't really services to help people out. If you get sick, you are alone, if you can't work, you have nothing to fall back on in terms of an automatic support network, etc. In getting jobs or advancing in school or whatnot, introversion is a problem not in of itself, but due to the demands of capitalist competition and labor forms. We have to compete for jobs which means that any diviation or induvidualism that isn't in terms of the qualities that bosses want, make it harder to get and keep jobs or advance through networking etc. You must conform to the needs of a job, rather than being able to work in a way that is best suited or most pleasent for an induvidual's personality. So being fat is a disadvantage (implies laziness), being part of an oppressed group - should go without saying, being introverted as well makes bosses afraid that you can not fufil the tasks they may want you to do: you're not "a go-getter, a self-starter, ready to jump when we tells you!" So in this way I wouldn't say that introversion is something that's activly discriminated against on that level, rather it's one disadvantage of many possible disadvantages in a competative labor market.

I think the social stigma around introverstion could maybe be more like discrimination. I also think this may have a lot to do with cultural expectations. Some cultrures emphasize formalness more, other not as much and so this probably informs who's considered introverted or not. In the US, it would actually be considered odd in, for example, suburban areas to walk around outside and be friendly to people you don't know - the norm in US suburbs is for everyone to stay in their homes and it's odd to know more than your immediate neighbors. But in other situations, like in residential parts of urban areas, not saying "Hi" to strangers, not being willing to pick up a conversation with someone on public transportation would be considered stuck-up and rude as if you are not talking because you think you're better than others. This is often true in workplaces too - being introverted makes people uncomfortable because they think the introvert is elitist... and if people on the job have solidarity with their co-workers and defend eachother, an introvert might also be suspected of willing to snitch on workers to the managers*.

All in all, I think the general social alienation of capitalist life makes it an extra effort for most people to try and work around that set-up. We have to go out and find a community and find common activities and so on. This social alienation also comes with a deep suspicion of those around us - not unwarrented, but not that healthy either IMO. And so add the media stories of "loners" who go on shooting rampages or are seriel killers and it adds to this suspicion. But this explaination IMO is an excusing away of the issue: capitalist life is a loner-life by default and incredibly alienating... it's more likely to me that it's this general lonliness alienation which is experienced by millions of people, does cause enough stress among a tiny fraction of people impacted by it to make them flip out or become so desperate that suicide or murder become options.

Really, society should be built around us as induviduals, rather than induviduals needing to be built to meet the demands of capital. This would allow people to be who they are, and to be treated as induviduals, not like a "type". Communities where people organize their surroundings together, are involved with the mutual running of that neighborhood or small commune or whatnot would be a society where people know eachother and can value eachother based on what they bring, not by some idealized conformist standard of what is necissary to compete for jobs, to be a good worker for captial.

*I recently read a work study done in auto plants in the 1930s which tested IQs of factory workers and it found that all the people who scored the highest in intelligence were underperformers on the job and 7 of the 8 people who performed above normal levels scored low and were described as "creepy loners" by managers and co-workers. A slacking worker is a smart worker :lol: