Great article and 40-too-many years of life has taught me this:

The clique never goes away — the details of youth are simply traded for the details of “adulthood” (I use that term loosely). I’ve witnessed all of the following occur between supposed “adults” over the last 10 years or so, people who supposedly have learned not to judge in order to make themselves feel better about their own flaws… some of these I experienced directly, others I witnessed. Bad either way.

• Live in a suburban neighborhood where everyone 25–50 has kids but you don’t? You’re nobody. Worse than that there might be something “wrong” with you. It must be that you don’t like kids! You might even be dangerous but you should definitely be looked upon suspiciously — even if you do everything else the same as the rest (keep your property in good shape, give to the charity drives, drive slow when there are kids around, etc. etc. ad nauseum).
• Live in a rural area where the sign of a man is a large burly vehicle and loud support of a local HS football team or other stupid crap — choices you didn’t need to make? You’re nobody. Doesn’t matter if you like other sports or do other stuff to clearly identify you as a member of the mansphere — what matters is that you have to have the same calling card as everyone else. Appearances are in fact, everything. And as bad as the rural idiots are, at least they keep it simple. Whereas young urban-dwellers are worse; they have an even more stringent set of criteria for who is “somebody” and who isn’t. Do you go to the right bars? Do you get invited to the right parties or BBQs? Do you have some cool overseas travel stories? Have you “made it” yet?
• Work at a company where you do a good job, work hard, treat everyone with respect but you happen to cut your hair different or wear different clothes, or otherwise show that you’re not too worried about superficial conformance? You’re nobody. I’ve seen this happen to several people where I work, a place that supposedly values “respect for all.” Strangely, the Sales people are often the most judgemental / most likely to cut down others as a joke — despite their alleged “better understanding of people and ability to talk to people.” For people who “understand,” they sure do spew a lot of ignorant shit!

As a thinking person might expect, all those casting judgement use the most tired, cliche, superficial criteria for judgment possible. Nothing in the way of “hey that guy doesn’t put much effort into what he does,” or “that woman treats people with an attitude,” or “that person clearly walks around like they’re the shit and you’re not.” No, it’s pretty much boiled down to exactly this:

“When I got to this neighborhood / job / whatever, I found a few people who seemed to make all the same choices I already did, I aligned myself with them so they’d like me, and as soon as I was sure they liked me, I went out looking for people nearby who were different from ‘me and my likers.’ Because whatever it is in my life that makes me lack something inside, I forget about it for a while when I point out the ‘deficiencies’ of another person — especially if I can get a cheap laugh out of it. Doesn’t that make you feel better too, liker person?”

It’s f-ing pathetic. And not at all surprising if you consider how many of these people take nearly all their life cues from television media and the shows and news they bombard themselves with. Human beings are impressionable beings, and if the only thing making an impression on you are morons with television shows, you’re in trouble — as a human being.

And, coming back around full-circle, it’s also not hard to see how our politics has simultaneously become so unbelievably polarized AND dumbed-down at the same time. It’s what the media does best: take things out of context and reducing it to a meaningless level, and riling up people’s emotions.

At times like those, it’s not only media-fail, it’s America-fail.