I've said it before, but I often feel like everyone else in the world is in on some big secret that I missed, and that they're all just humoring me, like a retarded relative.

Every freakin' minute of every single day.

My perception of the world is significantly different from the perceptions of 51% of American voters.

I was over at my parents a good while ago, and that day there was some important vote in parliment that day and my pops said something like "oh, we didn't win the vote" and I was like "what what what?" because it was pretty much a sure thing that we would.

Then I realized that the two of us had a different idea of "we"

I'm often aware of that 'we' thing when I hear people discussing the exploits of various sports teams.

How often do you feel like your perception of the world is significantly different from everyone else's?

Alla time. I'm from another planet. Some day they'll come take me home.

Many of my friends feel the same way, though.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a pariah.

You're a human with a brain, heart and conscience?! Oh God. You're doomed.

Ever feel like you're in the Truman Show?

I sometimes feel that there is only one other person on the net other than me.

A sweaty, ill-kept guy in his basement in New Jersey somewhere with a screamer of a computer and a REALLY fast internet connection.

All of you are just that guy. . .

Everybody? Rarely. It's rare that there's not someone else on this planet who feels the same way as I. But sometimes it does feel like everybody's living on another planet. E.g. Diana's death. I didn't 'get' it at all.

I like how he hires actors to pose for meetup photos.

Meetups, secret rendevous, phone calls. . .it exposes the weaknesses of my theory, but it is still a work in progress.

Everybody has an individual perception, yes?

Welll....

Thought 1: As I get older, I realize there were many basic life things a lot of people learned or were told that I didn't hear, because of the way my family was. A lot of disconnect between me and others can be traced directly to that. Once I realize that I missed out on an important piece of instruction, I work on learning it, and then things go much better.

Thought 2:
We are all individuals and see the world uniquely. That's our gift to bring. In some ways, seeing differently is a good thing. Often when I fall in love with someone, one of the things I'm in love with is the way they see the world.

Thought 3:
That said, none of us is as completely exceptional as we'd like to think. We'd all like to think we are so wonderfully original that we fit in no mold, no survey represents us, no zodiac sign or personality type describes us, that these things are for and about others. I think the truth is this: We're all human. Our behavior falls into human patterns and cultural patterns. Most of our experriences are universal; if not universal, then not likely to be uncommon.

Does anyone not feel this way?

Not on MeChat, but otherwise the general hive-mind doesn't feel that way. They're all safe, wearing the same clothes, watching the same TV and sports and talking about them at work, cutting their grass and spraying pesticide on the weeds in their driveway cracks, driving an SUV at least as nice as the neighbor's car... Etc.

Everybody has an individual perception, yes?

No. See above.

Maybe these people do, somehow, accidentally, through some genetic mutation or cruel joke from God... but not willingly.

Have you ever heard the phrase "a fish out of water"? That's me. I feel that even here at Metachat. Granted, it's not as strong a feeling, but it's still there.

How often? It's always there. It's a real disconnect from everyone else and it's there all the damned time.

Everybody has an individual perception, yes?

No. See above.

Everybody sees out of their own eyes and acts out of self interest, and makes their own decisions. I agree it seems easier for most people to go along with the heard, but everybody has their dark and alone thoughts, come on. You can never know another person's mind.

I often fall into the trap of assuming that I am so completely regular and hive-mindish that everyone thinks the way I do. And then get a rude awakening when I get told otherwise, and am often, in fact, in a tiny minority.

I've got a recurring problem where things that I think are common knowledge turn out to not be.

profound disconnect with most acquaintances/people that i meet. i'm fine with strangers, and i'm fine with recognizing the goodness in all people. but i just can't relate beyond that. as far as perception goes, i feel like i quickly perceive everything and their connections all the time, and no one else notices. in a real, sometimes hypersensitive way that goes beyond an adolescent, self-centered view of the world. or maybe it doesn't. or maybe it's ADD. or maybe i'm just weird.

Well, now, this is why I love you guys. Here, I fit in. IRL? Not so much. Today I went to a playdate in a development (don't understand the appeal) where I had to remove my shoes (huh?) so as not to sully the white carpets (WTF? You've got kids. Get a berber.).

What has gotten really hard, though, is that our group of long-time friends have all become much more involved in their churches over the years, while the mister and I have slowly been moving from cautious agnosticism to flat-out atheism. One friend recently told my sister that he is "concerned" for me and my lack of belief.

Sometimes I get a really strong urge to stick out both my arms and start running around the office making airplane noises.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Take movies for example. On the one hand you have all the people who really don't seem to give a shit what they see in the cinema. It's enough of a mystery to me that such obviously crap movies make money, never mind that people in my area are happy to pay five quid for dodgy pirate copies on DVD outside the local shopping centre. I meet people who tell me that Big Momma's House 2 and Duece Bigalow 2 are not only hilarious films, but, I should see them cos I'd love them. I kind of feel insulted by that.

On the other hand I fucking hate movie snobs. Where any old pretentious shit with subtitles is a masterpiece.

All I want is films that don't suck and yet I often feel I'm in the minority.

Most of my life seems like this.

My notion of everyone else is far from unitary. So although I may not feel like them, whoever "they" are, I don't imagine any of them do either, exactly.

I do get these moments, don't we all? of sheer amazement that as a species we've developed these incredibly complex conventions of behavior, including languages and institutions and engineering standards and whatever-all else cultures and societies consist of. At times it seems crazy, improbable, and kind of hilarious.

I used to be evangelical Christian, now I'm not. Half of my friends are from my time in bible college, so we have a big disconnect on those issues. The other half don't know anything about religion and look at me cross-eyed when I casually mention it. Half of my friends fully expect the rapture to happen, and the other half ask me what the hell it is and then can't fathom how I ever believed in it. Oh, and then I have other ex-Christian friends who are becoming militant atheists and I don't get that either. (Didn't we decide to stop being evangelical? Did I miss a memo?)

So yeah, I feel that way a lot. Oh, and I moved from a village of 300 to downtown Toronto, and I get that disconnect between people here who don't quite believe me when I tell them that my schoolbus in high school went down dirt roads and this one guy's cows would always get out and we'd have to wait for them to all get off the road, and when I go home, no one understands how I could possibly like living in the big scary city or why I love not having a car.

Does anyone not feel this way?

Republicans don't feel that way.