Dreaming in Venn
  • Divine Right
    April 13, 2010

    High School all over again.

  • coray
    April 13, 2010

    arrrrrghhhh

  • Leo
    April 13, 2010

    Everyone’s into Good Charlotte, while you’re in the corner jamming to Talking Heads.

  • Dan H
    April 13, 2010

    I fucking love Boy. He’s Everyman.

  • JJChoi
    April 13, 2010

    Represents all the class, race and gender revolutions throughout history. When included hits back by rewriting superior and inferior, then…

  • Nny
    April 13, 2010

    hehehe

  • Jay
    April 13, 2010

    Tell yourself you’re superior all you want, you’re still left out.
    It’s like a reminder that no matter what you decide to call yourself you’re really just the same as you always were. You may as well introduce yourself by saying, “I’m some guy you may not remember an hour from now so call me whatever you want, doesn’t really matter”

  • rocketbride
    April 13, 2010

    we would all rather feel superior, just as the included do, but are we superior? just because i read or dance or exercise or talk to my kid or cook at night instead of watching tv, does that make me better or is that my justification for being excluded from the endless conversations about dancing with the stars?

  • BigNorse
    April 13, 2010

    Hipsterism 101.

  • Meghan
    April 13, 2010

    suddenly we become the exoticized otter. i actually introduced myself that way once (“it’s okay if you didn’t catch my name; you’ll forget it anyway”) and ended up in a 2-year relationship where i was the token excluded person in his life. exclusion becomes the reason for association and the reason for its termination. besides, saying you’re superior is just a way to tell yourself that you’re excluding them, not the other way around.

  • Ross Hershberger
    April 13, 2010

    I work at a large high school. Lunchroom segregation is by grade and 12 categories defined by Male/Female, Black/White, Jock/Nerd/Other. In a large, tightly compressed group of people who are very like you in age/location/experience, the pressure to differentiate is enormous.

  • Ross Hershberger
    April 13, 2010

    And BTW: Two really stupendous and imaginative comics in a row. D.G. on a roll!

  • Fady
    April 13, 2010

    Dreaming in vai- oh! Ha ha!

  • Ross Hershberger
    April 13, 2010

    I’d personally have been happy to have been left alone to eat at school. I can socialize any time. People just don’t take meals seriously.

  • Sylvia
    April 13, 2010

    Thanks for reminding me how silly this thought pattern is. I find myself still trapped in it, sometimes, and have been trying to escape it for a few years now. (I am in college, still, and was annoyed by how similar college-aged social interactions are to high-school-aged ones, and found myself still somewhat trapped in old, stupid hipster patterns.)

  • Jacob Adam
    April 14, 2010

    Jeez, why not just show him reading “The Fountainhead” and be done with it.

  • Alan
    April 14, 2010

    Ahahaha. Adam, your post was great. I like you

  • Aaron A.
    April 14, 2010

    I think the premise of a dominant monoculture is flawed to begin with. As Ross said, the prevailing urge is not so much to be like everybody else, but to find a way in which you’re different from everybody around you. Sure, we absorb the habits of those around us, and we make some concessions so we can associate with and reach out to others, but the people listening to Good Charlotte would consider themselves non-conformists as well, because at least they’re not like the Fitch-wearing zombies all around them.

    American Eagle, Gucci, Hot Topic, and the indie handmade clothing store all market their wares the same way, as a means to express who you are through what you own. There may be one Included group that’s more visible or more powerful or more arrogant than the others, but there are also dozens of tiny enclaves who consider themselves superior to anybody else.

  • Craig!
    April 15, 2010

    OH MY GOODNESS. COLOR.

    Also, oh my goodness, the crushing realization that the popular people in high school are still as charismatic and social in the ‘real world’, and are thus still most likely to be successful.
    Disappointment is fun.

  • Carrie
    April 17, 2010

    The Cat and Girl Comments Section: Singlehandedly restoring my faith in the internet as a medium for intelligent discussion. Cat and Girl Comments Section, I love you so.

  • soulman
    April 18, 2010

    Why is that ugly bald guy allowed to sit with the cool kids?

  • Abdullah the Gut Slasher
    June 7, 2010

    And the moral of the story is… 90% of everything is complete shit!

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