Everybody is Normal Until You Get to Know Them

[MysterionMuffles]

Is there any objective basis for what constitutes as a "normal" person? Or is normal just subjective based on the circle of people you're used to?

 

It has been my experience that everyone appears to be "normal," but if I spend enough time to get to know them, I recognize weird stuff about them. Stuff that they are either unconscious of, or stuff that they share with me that makes me recognize their weirdness. Not that there's anything wrong with weird, just a thought!

[ribuck]

There's a traditional Yorkshire saying which goes "There's nowt as queer as folk", which means that every person is strange in their own way.

[Guest Exceptionalist]

If you life arround zombies, being a zombie is normal. Normal hasn't any normative connotation.

[Wesley]

I think I would consider someone calling me normal to be insulting.

 

When I imagine the normal person as far as physical characteristics, ideas, work life, social relationships, and actions performed in life (maybe add a few more categories, but you get the idea) I probably would have a template of what not to do.

[Cornellius]

A normal person is a person who conforms to a mass of norms that is subjectively large, or holds conformity to norms as a moral virtue.

[Marcus Clarke]

It has been my experience that everyone appears to be "normal," but if I spend enough time to get to know them, I recognize weird stuff about them. Stuff that they are either unconscious of, or stuff that they share with me that makes me recognize their weirdness.

 

Do you think that weirdness is objective?  Why is the word "weird" used instead of the word "abnormal" to potentially describe the opposite of normal?  What is your definition of "weirdness" in this context?

[Stefan Molyneux]

"normal" means: swallowed whole by the predator called 'culture'

[Marcus Clarke]

The idea of "Normal" is created and used by abusers to invoke our universalization processes

with the goal to create a false universal identity that everyone should conform to that has no logical or rational basis.  The purpose of this is to help them control their own emotional reactions to people who do not fit in to the “Normal” identity that was imposed on them as a child.

[ThomasDoubts]

I put tuna fish in my mac & cheese. 

[Carl Green]

it's also good with some tomato sauce instead of the cheese sauce.

[MysterionMuffles]

"normal" means: swallowed whole by the predator called 'culture'

I had a feeling your Facebook status had something to do with my thread lol.

Do you think that weirdness is objective?  Why is the word "weird" used instead of the word "abnormal" to potentially describe the opposite of normal?  What is your definition of "weirdness" in this context?

Strange habits, independant thought patterns, irregular bodily functions. Like I have a friend who I didn't know had a decade long chronic illness, and I guess I found that weird in the most respectful way possible. There was this other friend I had who I thought was just a straight shooter alpha male who turned out to have his own array of vulnerabilities I didn't expect from someone of his stature and social class. Now that I think of it, it is also hard to define weird if my examples don't suffice.

 

The least I can say is that I don't consider weird as a negative thing. I also have this other friend who got into a car accident and injured his spine, and I didn't notice till he mentioned it, but he often twitches and has these tics, basically strange bodily movements that he does in order to realign his spine and neck at times.

[Cornellius]

I had a feeling your Facebook status had something to do with my thread lol.

Strange habits, independant thought patterns, irregular bodily functions. 

 

I think by definition weirdness can't sustain itself in a personality, therefore it is only temporary in someone's life. Maybe weirdness is a phase like you described, in relation to the more stable rest of the person's life.

[LovePrevails]

George Bernard Shaw told a story about when he went to the opticians who assured him his eyesight was "normal"

 

turned out he was one of only about 5% of people who had "normal" eyesight.

[Livemike]

The idea of "Normal" is created and used by abusers to invoke our universalization processes

with the goal to create a false universal identity that everyone should conform to that has no logical or rational basis.  The purpose of this is to help them control their own emotional reactions to people who do not fit in to the “Normal” identity that was imposed on them as a child.

It's only when someone wants to praise or condemn something without reference to morality that "normal" and "abnormal" need to be brought in.

[MysterionMuffles]

So is normally really just a subjective cultural thing? Whatever is more popularly accepted, that's what constitutes as normal?

 

For instance being honest and virtuous are better practices in life, but are not neccessarily considered normal in today's society?

[cynicist]

So is normally really just a subjective cultural thing? Whatever is more popularly accepted, that's what constitutes as normal?

 

For instance being honest and virtuous are better practices in life, but are not neccessarily considered normal in today's society?

 

Yeah, it's what is commonly accepted, although there is a certain positive connotation to the word in society. (even though slavery would have been normal at one point) Just check out the antonyms for normal and see how many you would like to have applied to yourself:

 

abnormal (vs. normal), unnatural, aberrant, deviant, deviate, anomalous, antidromic, atypical, irregular, brachydactylic, brachydactylous, defective, freakish, kinky, perverted, subnormal, supernormal, vicarious

 

 

Or is normal just subjective based on the circle of people you're used to?

 

Imagine any group you would find strange (for me its thugs, goths, punks, christians, etc) and then ask yourself if they see themselves as strange. 

[MysterionMuffles]

Guess it is definitively subjective when people use the word "normal," even though I would argue "normal" people should be the ones who are mentally sound. SOME DAY! Some day...