How do you deal with the ignorance that surrounds you?

[The Curmudgeon]

To quote the almost peerless League of Gentlemen, "what is wrong with people round here? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?" The whole idea of this website was always for like minded people to discuss what they like, knowing that, even if we don't like the same things, we can a) talk about it intelligently and b) have the knowledge and understanding of what IS good that we can make an informed opinion.

That all sounds very grand, what it boils down to is this; we are not idiots nor philistines. And I am surrounded by fucking idiots and fucking philistines.

They say you can't choose your family, but there's a group of individuals that I spend even more time with than them - work colleagues. I have it better than some, my boss is a musician who last year released a very good county album. He brings his Spotify account to work and we all get to play what we like. He obviously has that knowledge and understanding of what is good that I mentioned previously.

There are others, however, who just don't. Like, at all. If it's not shiny, dead eyed auto tuned chart shit they don't know what it is. One actually complained that I had the Beatles on. "I'd rather listen to nothing than listen to that." This was during Elenor Rigby. Elenor fucking Rigby.

I'm not suggesting we should all have some hive mind or all be tedious music snobs. I have every Britney Spears record, I'm not like that at all. But fuck, it'd frustrating having to hear how "amazing" Rihanna is. She's not amazing. She's hot and she's had some good singles.

Do you know what I mean here? Have you given in to this sort of thing? That the latest Saw movie wasn't fantastic, that it's NOT OK to be obsessed with Big Brother. I know we can all like different things etc etc but Christ it's depressing.

Am I wrong here?

[trashcanman]

You know you are not, but relax. If we all just worried about what other people were doing we'd all drive ourselves insane. Ignorance is bliss. If you want to be truly happy you can't know that all the shit you are force-fed is garbage designed to fleece us all by convincing stupid people to buy whatever they see other people buying to meet some ever-changing standard of "cool", you can't think independently because then you realize what a fucked up sinister joke this semblance of society is, you can't realize that being famous is good for nothing and holds no legitimate value, and you sure as fuck can't realize that if you want people to like you, you have to pretend all of this stuff is great. If other people are fake, all you can do is be real, which means making other people uncomfortable, which means you will ever be surrounded by philistines and idiots. There's nothing to be done about it but laugh at the tragic comedy.

I've been around the idiot coworkers bitching about music bend too many times. If they say they'd rather listen to nothing, hand them some earplugs. Then dissect their selections,if you're feeling mean. Don't just bitch and whine like they do, actually calmly discuss the stupidity reaching your ears on a level they can't follow. It will make them look and feel stupid. It won't gain you any popularity, but anyone offended by the Beatles is probably not worth pleasing. When they stop whining about good music, you can stop eviscerating their garbage, and perhaps peace can be attained.

[Ben]

You go to war, but choose your battles. It's one thing when taste differs, as you pointed out, but when the auto-tune worship happens I don't hold back.