No, these are topics about which I felt about as knowledgeable as any layperson has a right to feel, only to discover I knew nothing. For example:
#1 Men's Rights
What I thought it meant
In the early 90s my mother started dating a man named Barry whom she would continue to date for the rest of that decade. At the time I met Barry he was on good terms with his ex-wife, but a short time later the two of them had a falling out, and she began denying him access to his children.
So Barry joined a men's rights group because they were able to advise and console him in his fight to get access to his children. However, his efforts were in vain, and the last I heard he hadn't seen his kids in over seven years, and the one that had reached adulthood refused to meet with him because the child had been told his father had abandon him.
Then last year I stumbled on to this youtube channel that features an Alberta woman who fights for men's rights (I have no idea if she is actually linked to the group Barry was a part of, but I suspect she is). She has a lot of interesting things to say, but she usually takes an absurdly long time to say it and makes some claims that really require more evidence than she provides. But the crux of what she is saying that there are some very important issues on which men don't get fairly treated.
But the Internet told me
That the men's rights movement is actually about douche bags, who feel women owe them sex whenever they want it, getting pissed off because they are socially obligated to be the one who pays for a date.
#2 Nice Guys
What I thought it meant
When I was young and single I used to refer to myself as a nice guy. It seemed perfectly apt, I was nice and a guy. And it long been used to refer to shy guys who had trouble with women, of which I was definitely one.
I used to joke that I was irresistible to women my mom's age because pretty much any woman I knew that was more than a few years older me seemed to be in perpetual shock that I didn't have a girlfriend. Now, I wasn't in shock, I knew the source of the problem, but I didn't have a fix for it. So I remained lonely, and begrudgingly applied said label to myself.
Did I wish I had someone is my life? Absolutely. Did I feel it was somehow owed to me? Of course not.
But the Internet told me
So apparently self described nice guys aren't actually nice at all. Nice guys actually just pretend to be nice because they think that by being nice women owe them sex.
#3 Asperger's Syndrome
What I thought it meant
I know I had heard the term "Asperger's Syndrome" before two years ago, but it hadn't really registered with me what it was. Then one day in 2012 the therapist I was seeing told me she was going to do something different that session. She gave a test, at the end of which she informed me that I probably had Asperger's, but that she wasn't fully qualified to make that diagnosis.
This kicked off a series of appointments where I hopped from doctor to doctor looking for confirmation that this was actually what I had, but every appointment ended with my being told that while I probably did have Asperger's that doctor wasn't qualified to say definitively. Eventually I gave up looking for a true confirmation out of frustration, and just settled on the fact that I probably do have Asperger's.
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| Supposedly this is a very strong indicator of my having AS. |
Asperger's, is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development.
But the Internet told me
Asperger's is not an actual condition, its just an excuse assholes use to cover their asinine behavior.
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