Condescending People

There is one thing that I hate in adults above all else - especially teachers. It's not superiority. It's not torrid amounts of homework and other expectations. It's not even pompousness (though that is a close second. Self-importance makes me want to spit).

It's condescension.

When you meet an adult, you can tell right away what kind of an adult they are by the way they treat you. If they treat you as an almost-equal, like most normal teachers, who have expectations of you and will not be pitiful if you do not submit your homework on time, then they are respectable adults - at least, they would have your respect.

If they smile a lot and talk to you in a cloying, sweet voice, if they give you super-easy things to do and say "Gooooooood!" when you reach their expectations - they are condescending and I would have just as much respect for them as I would for a spider.

Which is to say - enough to restrain myself from doing what I want to do, but not much.

 If I am treated condescendingly, like a little kid that needs to be humoured, then I will not restrain myself in the slightest in giving them a piece of my mind. Or, at least, I wouldn't restrain myself if I could get away with it and not be assailed by all the respectable adults around me. Which, if you have failed to guess - I can't. Never could.

So why this sudden interest in bashing the condescending adults?

Today for jazz class we had a substitute teacher - a ballet teacher standing in for our jazz teacher. And she was horrible. She made us GALLOP IN A CIRCLE! Like three-year-olds! She did some sort of hip shake for a warm up - and the whole "Look up, look straight ahead, look down. Repeat. Look to the right. Look straight ahead. Look to the left. Repeat" neck exercise. Ridiculous! And then - much too soon - she made us do the splits! With hardly any preparation at all! I didn't even try, knowing I would probably bust something without the proper exercises.

I was steaming with negative thoughts by the end of the class, with unused sarcasm and biting words that social normality would bid me not to use. When I went to sleep, I was still imagining using a bit of the Teenager Attitude that, like a kindergarten teacher, she would defend herself against with more condescension and raised eyebrows and a pouty voice. "Now, now, is that any way to speak to me? What will your mother say when she comes to pick you up? Hmmmm?"

Gah.

Actually, this brings up something interesting I saw the other day. I was walking down a locker hallway and up a set of stairs when an adult - a hallway supervisor, I think - and two teenage girls came down the hallway. It went a little something like this:

Supervisor: [coming closer] . . . asked you nicely, but you didn't do as I asked! Now, come this way. [leaning towards stairs.]

Girl #1: [heads further down hallway, against Supervisor's wishes.]

Supervisor: [sounding scandalised] Excuse me? Excuse me? [Obviously trying to retain control as the girl walks farther down the hallway] All right, let's go to the office. [Laying on the superiority.] Excuse me, what's your name . . . ?

I wonder if that girl got away, or if the pressure eventually made her stop and face the You'll Be Sorry You Assumed I Was Just A Lowly Hallway Supervisor, I Know Your Superiors! wrath of the hallway supervisor? It would have been worse the more she'd resisted that adult, but if she'd got away, she may have had temporary relief from the authorities - a rare feeling.

I wonder if she'd started running, in the name of getting away with it, or if she'd continued with the restrained walking, in the name of keeping her dignity and her temporary upper hand over the supervisor?

Stick around for Part Two: What I Hate In People. Other behaviours, like being condescending, that make me want to hit something.

Objections against Magical Mystery Cure

Let me just say: there was waaaaay too much singing! I mean, SIX SONGS in like thirteen minutes?!

Also: the cutie mark switcheroo makes no sense at all.
Cutie marks are supposed to be reflections of what a pony's meant to do in life, their TALENT, what makes them special. You can't CHANGE your cutie mark even if you become really, really good at something else and you know that THAT'S what you love?

This is what Magical Mystery Cure tells us: the cutie marks of six ponies were switched. Shouldn't that mean that their TALENTS were switched up, too? Aren't cutie marks there because of a pony's TALENT??
Say the answer was no. Say that the cutie marks were switched. Then: helloooooo, they are only IMAGES on the side of a pony's flank! Magical Mystery Cure is suggesting that the cutie marks are tied to a destiny, but apparently not a talent, because talents were switched up. How is that possible? It doesn't make sense. How can you be destined to do something that you have no patience for?

My second big objection is what followed the switcheroo. Yes, Fluttershy helped Rainbow Dash (that on its own is kind of surprising, because Rainbow Dash seems to be nothing but self-centered and arrogant). Yes, she realized she liked being around animals. How does that give her, her cutie mark back? How does that prove "the magic of friendship"?? You discover what you like - how does helping a friend get you your cutie mark back???? It makes no sense at all!!!

Okay, number three: Twilight apparently becomes an alicorn because she 'deserved' it - because she created a new kind of magic. Hello - she did not CREATE the magic of friendship - even if there was an actual magic to it. Wasn't the whole point of MLP that it was always there?

Plus, aren't alicorns immortals? Celestia and Luna are definitely immortal. BOOM, another goddess out of nowhere! And why so young?

That being said, okay, she was a gifted magic apprentice, so maybe she was always meant to be powerful. Her cutie mark does seem to be vaguely galactic.
Alicorn I can deal with.
But a princess?

JB is all for World Peace

You know that song by Justin Bieber - Pray - that makes some people cry? Well, I guess I'm immune to the *sarcasm* bright light of hope that is instilled in some when they hear that song. Because, honestly, it doesn't say that much.

I just can't sleep tonight, knowing that things ain't right
It's in the papers, it's on the TV, it's everywhere that I go
Children are crying, soldiers are dying, some people don't have a home

But I know there's sunshine behind that rain
I know there's good times behind that pain, hey
Can you tell me how I can make a change?

I close my eyes and I can see a better day
I close my eyes and pray  (x2)

First of all. How can there be all that stuff he described where he goes? Renovated houses and living spaces, concerts, dates - cities? Secondly - he knows there's sunshine behind the sadness? Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that Justin Bieber has no clue what those kinds of sadness feels like; he can only say "Hope! Believe in yourself! Dream!" because - hel-lo - he's a freaking superstar that gets tons of adoring fan mail and makes a living by proclaiming his love in front of thousands of people, making the aforementioned fans swoon even though he already HAS A GIRLFRIEND. What does he know about homeless people, orphans and war?

Also, I have a problem with how it sounds like he's saying that "Do you feel sad? Dejected? Or, I don't know, do you suffer a disorder or live in Africa and have no clean water? It gets better!" And flashes a perky smile. Like he's all superior, the good guy who says that, though we accept our problems and we are ones that feel the pain, he (in the midst of his famous-singer-who-never-missed-a-meal-or-had-financial-problems world) is all positive and sunny and "Why so pessimistic?"

Yes, I can tell you how you can make a change. You can make donations to charities, with the millions you earn onstage. You can join Free the Children. You can help homeless people on the street. You can make speeches or speak in interviews that will get published in the newspaper so that you can use your influence to spread awareness. Or have you not noticed how so many preteen girls look up to you with awe and admiration?

Naw, it must have escaped your notice.