@scalzi Will the real John Scalzi please stand up? Please stand up?

Will the real John Scalzi please stand up? Please stand up? Please stand up?

@scalzi Yup, and one take-away was this: "You don’t know everything even about your parents or siblings or best friends or your partner"

When my late sis and I were doing genealogy research of the family, she discovered that although my dad's parents were 'ramrod-up-the-jacksie' and very 'Victorian' in attitudes, my dad's birth was registered 6 months after they married!

So no, we do not know everyone else's back-story!

@scalzi This was a solid and refreshingly honest piece. It's understandable, to an extent, that when someone creates something that speaks to you on a personal level you form a sentimental connection with the material that extends to the person, because you feel that this person understands you in a very specific way. But there's a difference between being inspired by someone and putting them on a pedestal and expecting them to live up to impossible standards, and to single-handedly prove to you the goodness of all humanity with their every word and action.

There are people in the public eye with excellent public personas who do horrible things behind closed doors, and when something like that happens disillusionment is inevitable, but losing faith in people in general because that one person you never met, and who doesn't know you exist, wasn't who you expected them to be, isn't healthy. There are also people in the public eye who may come off as aloof or abrasive, but might be sweet, kind, empathetic, even awkward and shy when you meet them in real life. I know I've met at least one. Tl;dr you don't really know someone until you meet them, and humans are flawed and imperfect, and even good folks have bad days and make bad decisions, so parasocially expecting someone to be infallible is never, ever a good idea.

@scalzi

Thanks for this.

This quote in particular is useful outside the context of idolizing other humans:
"But none of us — not one! — has always lived up to our own standard of behavior, and all of us have had the moment where, when confronted with a situation that would become an immense pain in the ass if we stuck to our guns, or demanded the inconvenient truth, decided to just bail instead, because the situation wasn’t worth the drama, or we had somewhere else to be, or whatever."

@scalzi

Brian: I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? Honestly!

Girl: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.

@scalzi

all idols have clay feet.