The brave don't strive to be normal. There's often virtue in being the square peg in a world of round holes.

in normality •  3 years ago 

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I understand the positive intent of people who share posts and memes about "normalizing" various things; but, I have to say that a lot of that language comes from a bad philosophical place.

This is why we need to be more deliberate with our words.

When people tell us to normalize something, they're clearly telling us that it's a thing that we should accept and probably celebrate, which is fine in some contexts; but, the implication is that in order to be accepted or celebrated, we have to first make them "normal."

I'm with John Stuart Mill on this. Normal is nothing to celebrate. Eccentricity is often something to celebrate. I don't need you or your behavior to be normal in order for me to tolerate, accept, even love you. If we're going to normalize anything, it should be the destigmatizing of words like "abnormal" or "fringe" or "minority" or even "weird."

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