Wrong Place, Wrong Time?

[davidklecha]

You ever get the feeling that you're not where you're supposed to be?

I've been getting that a bit, lately. Had a conversation with dsudis the other day on this topic. She noted, not for the first time, that my chosen associations seem to include a great number of liberals and non-Christians, and that this could be troublesome for the moderate-to-conservative Catholic that I am. Of course, I've already noticed that to be the case over the years. marnan and I used to have epic (or so I remember them) arguments about all manner of things relating to our wildly differing views on just about everything.

So, with the notable exception of my journal post of last week, I've been trying more and more lately to avoid discussing contentious topics, no matter how much I may disagree with the local consensus. But I still find myself on the "wrong" side of discussions and arguments, more often than not finding myself being ganged-upon. It happened last night (of course, this isn't out of the blue) in a chat with other aspiring genre author types. I stated an opinion, not that unequivocally, which I didn't think would cause that much of a stir... yet I suddenly found at least five people arguing with me, denouncing me (by way of my opinion) as backwards, narrow-minded, etc.

And for the most part, this was my response: ...

Ever try to argue with five people in a chat, simultaneously? Friggin' impossible.

And that's not the first time it's happened. So, naturally, I wonder if there's something wrong with me, or is it just that I see the world in such a way that pisses off a large number of people. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I can't count the number of times I've been in a situation where people expected there to be something resembling a consensus opinion, or common knowledge, and I was the odd dude out.

Am I in the wrong place? Should I eschew SF/F fandom entirely? I know I felt like turning my back on it last night. But, then what? How pathetic is it to feel like an outcast from a group traditionally on the fringes of society? So it's either back to the mainstream (no thanks), or I join the general trend of internet groupings and see if I can find My Particular Niche Group.


Off to find my niche, then, I guess. Wish me luck.

Comments

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

Okay, there used to be this feature where you could find users similar to yourself on the basis of shared interests (extra weight given to 'unusual' interests, so everybody I got was a slasher and etc.) which would allow you to find other people interested in, e.g., Catholicism and science fiction and guns or however you might fiddle with your interests to find people. But that feature has apparently evaporated, and they don't allow you to search the directory for the conjunction of two interests, so. Now I am frustrated with lj.

You could try dropping posts into some of the 81 communities that list Catholicism, though (yay for clicking through your interests!) looking for fannish types.