Shari Vaidya- Q2 Blog 5- A Blind Allegiance
Since she was a child, Shari has always been a particularly outspoken and outgoing girl — even if it was towards her own detriment.
A specific example of this could be the time when she banged on the window of a fellow tourist’s car in Greece to let him know that she was not very appreciative of the racist comment he muttered under his breath.
Okay, but he should know that I am not the one! Don’t say stuff if you can’t handle the consequences. I can handle them, but he clearly couldn’t because he couldn’t even look me in the eye when I was yelling at him!
Hush Shari, I am talking.
Anyways– Shari is not one to back down from a fight (you as her peers have probably seen this?), she is very opinionated!
So, when she saw a text notification on Instagram from a former fling… let's just say she was ready to argue back.
Let’s call this boy E. A San Jose native, E spends his time reading political news, debating, and wasting girls' time. He did the third to Shari, and the funny thing is, she hates when her time is wasted, but she happens to hate the debate bro aspect of him even more.
“You are basically supporting fascism then.”
She scoffs and rolls her eyes. Typical. E tends to do this when he is losing an argument.
“That is NOT what I said, stop acting like you don’t understand what I am saying.”
She blames Jubilee and those TikTok videos that blame pro-Palestinian activists for Harris losing the election.
“You just don’t seem to know what you’re talking about, which is fine. I don't really expect much. You try to act smart, but I don’t think that you are. It’s ok, not everyone really understands politics.”
Yeah ok, Shari is now pissed.
E doesn’t understand that this girl has matured; she’s more calculated now, and she concludes that he is actively rage-baiting her.
“The fact that you have to insult my intelligence is really funny to me, because this entire time you have been using your ‘academia-speak’ to try and confuse me so you can dodge my valid arguments. I think you need to step out of your wealthy private school debate-bro bubble and try to actually be a realist. Our situation is the product of two poorly managed political parties. You can figure that out by yourself, because I can't deprogram your brain.”
Why do people think like this? Shari has always been critical. Blind allegiance to anyone and a refusal to listen to your audience are why we are here. She is terrified– seeing headlines on the news of people being kidnapped, research being abandoned, and the active censorship of people who reside in the ‘land of the free’ – it makes her head spin. The other side is no better in her opinion, just shaking their head, wagging their finger, and stating the obvious, like that's going to do anything.
Ding
It’s from him.
“Lol”
He’s angry, she knows that. The mask slipped, and she knew that she had won. He thought he could talk down to her, but she won this chess game.
Point Shari.
Hey Shari! As a fellow “debate-bro” myself, I can tell you that you very successfully managed to de-link and impact-turn the logical fallacies in his contentions (see what I did there :). I think it’s amazing that you’re opinionated and outgoing, which I’ve definitely seen through our interactions! It’s hilarious that he was the one to tell you you didn’t know anything about politics: from what I’ve seen, you definitely seem to know a lot in the area! In your writing, I think the way that you use different perspectives of yourself honestly acts as a sort of narrator that really adds a lot of context to your story, which is amazing for getting your point across! Is this a Capote inspiration? Specifically, your references to yourself in the third person allow it to be more of a story, which makes it all the more interesting in my opinion. Your one-word paragraphs also add emphasis to your writing (such as when you say “‘Lol’”, which in my opinion exhibits how infuriating his response must have been to Shari before she matured and knew that this was actually a concession: “Point Shari” for sure). Shari, as someone who does Mock Trial, do you think you’d be able to beat E at argumentation? Overall, I believe you got your personality across really well in this great piece!
ReplyDeleteHi Shari! I genuinely loved your blog so much this week. I seriously appreciate it. From your description I don’t think E and I would get along either. My parents have told me multiple times not to let my emotions show when people irritate me, but rage-baiters are just a little too good at rage-baiting. When I read you told off a racist man in Greece, a grin stretched out on my face. While I hope your arguments never get physical, I support you standing up for yourself.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the style you used throughout the blog. The “Hush Shari” made me chuckle.
I think the message of your blog is really important. Oftentimes when my friends and I or my uncles and I have conversations about politics and current events, I see that they blindly defend others who have clearly done something wrong. I understand being stubborn, because I am too, but to what extent does it become so detrimental we can’t differentiate wrong from right? It’s interesting how you mentioned “Jubilee and TikTok videos” because they really do show how easily people, me included, sway our stances just because of what we see online and how we adapt to fit with the crowd.
You banging on a racist guy’s car window brings me back to Blog #1 from last quarter where you recounted how you laughed in someone’s face when he told you to smile more. In both instances, I approve of your passion!
ReplyDeleteE is an oh-so familiar archetype; I cringed when I read your introduction of him because I was instantly reminded of several people in my life that possess those same qualities you describe. I swear, some of them have built their entire personality around being the immature devil’s advocate, which, for a lack of better terms, is incredibly annoying.
Even though I don’t usually encounter debate bros in my life, I would like to join you in blaming their behavior on conservative TikToks and YouTube channels like Jubilee. I used to enjoy watching Jubilee videos, but now their concepts have become insensitive and frankly stupid. “Anorexia vs Obese | Middle Ground”?? What the heck does that even mean…?!
I’m rooting for you in the battle against indoctrination, and I hope you continue to score many more points on boys like E!