Ok, now I want a go at it too:
Some say prose is creative, others claim it's brain farts
Farts contain sulfur, and in third world countries, children are forced to work at sulfur mines.
But after all, aren't children nothing but mere farts of the Creator?
Also, MBTI is a cult.
Ok. Thanks for clarifying that. However, I have read the thread. Maybe that will reveal that I'm an ignorant idiot, but perhaps that also means that some people respond in a manner that seems like "they didn't make any effort to understand you", but in fact maybe they just found some of your stances unclear or contradictory. Then you reply to them in an abrasive manner (because you're always perfectly logical and consistent and brilliant and if they don't get you they're ignorants who don't deserve your time anyway, I assume), and the discussion gets nowhere.
I don't really mind if the discussion gets nowhere with someone whose opinion I'm not interested in anyway.
The thing I found strange was that in your OP, you seemed to attack only two people from another thread, aka "only paranoid Fi-doms". However, in later posts you accused other INFPs of being paranoid in the sense they always react defensively even if no ill intent was implied. That was already quite a huge generalization, because it's probably not the opinions themselves that trigger the reaction but the aggressive style, which you didn't take into consideration back then. Also, later you admitted you find many Fi positions irritating and unreasonable and you like to provoke INFPs and see their reactions. From this, it wasn't entirely clear anymore if you mean only the paranoid INFPs in your OP or "all unreasonable INFPs". That made other INFPs wonder where you take the right to judge who is reasonable and who isn't.
"Paranoid Fi doms" are a separate thing from the general INFP tendency toward taking everything as a personal attack. The latter doesn't constitute paranoia, just oversensitivity.
For purposes of this discussion, "paranoid Fi doms" are Fi doms who invent bizarre conspiracy theories about MBTI. This is, admittedly, pretty uncommon, but the people I've seen do it have almost always been Fi doms.
On a
separate note (which I also happened to mention in this thread once PeaceBaby decided to turn my compliment to Udog into an insult), many INFPs seem to display a tendency toward reading hostility into people's words and actions when none was really intended. This is far more common than the kind of conspiracy theorizing I was attacking in the OP, and I didn't mean to imply that these people are all "paranoid" in the same way as the conspiracy theorists mentioned in the OP.
I admit my response might have been a little off-topic, but it wasn't a result of not reading the thread. It was more of a result of my thoughts wandering off into realms I've been lately thinking about and found related at the moment. Call it NF diffused thinking if you want.
I don't mind off topic posts at all, actually. You got a flippant response because your whole post consisted of putting words in my mouth, inventing positions for me that I don't support, and demanding to know why I support them...when I actually don't. If you'd read the thread, you should know I believe that:
A) Paranoia/conspiracy theorizing is not a uniquely Fi-dom phenomenon,
B) I don't unconditionally hate all Fi people, and
C) Most Fi doms are not paranoid conspiracy theorists.
The only reason I mentioned Fi in the subject line was that the people who make "omg MBTI is turning us all into soulless robots!!!" arguments tend to be Fi-ers...
even though most Fi-ers don't actually believe this.
I think this is extremely arrogant on its own right. You don't care about my opinion, so you have to call me names and show me as clearly as possible what an idiot you think I am? There are sure other methods how to show your superiority to other people, more subtle and more effective. But maybe you just prefer to show off and make an impact to truly enlightening ignorant masses - in that case you've chosen the right method, true.
If you don't want to be shot down, don't put words in my mouth and demand that I defend them.
Examples:
You can box all the values in this world into a Fi box, say that Fi is a nuisance and throw them out of the window; you'll throw away a very significant portion of all myths, religions and literature, but apparently you won't mind.
I've said nothing whatsoever about throwing Fi entirely out the window or throwing away mythology/religion/literature. You made this up. My thread addressed one type of MBTI criticism that seems rooted in extreme Fi--this doesn't mean that I think Fi and everything related to it should be abolished.
Why do you hate Fi so much? Do you perceive it useless, threatening or what?
I've said nothing whatsoever about hating Fi. You made this up. I've said that some Fi-ers do a number of things that I find irritating, but I've also pointed out that there are Fi-ers I like, Fi-ers I think are reasonable, and a number of valuable things about Fi. Conveniently you didn't notice any of my positive comments.
Of course, when I overtly compliment an Fi-er (like when I called Udog "balanced and reasonable" in this thread), another Fi-er (PeaceBaby) showed up and tried to twist it into a subtle insult. This is what I mean about INFPs bending over backwards to take offense--but it's not the same thing as being a paranoid conspiracy theorist (which is what the OP was about.)
Trying to categorize values and feelings about things makes one dissociate from them altogether.
No, it doesn't, and this is exactly the kind of Fi thing that I'm talking about when I say that some Fi-ers are paranoid about being "dehumanized" by MBTI. Noting that some people feel this way for this reason and others feel that way for that reason in no way threatens your individuality or connection to your feelings and values. You (and several other Fi-ers) made this up.
Again, I don't have to directly empathize with your viewpoint to be able to categorize it. In fact, as a Ti-er, it's actually
easier for me to understand in categorized terms since I can't directly experience it firsthand. Labeling people who make internal judgments via subjective personal emotions as "Fi users" does not threaten their ability to express themselves uniquely.
My point was that self-expression is so important to Fi that some Fi-ers become threatened at the drop of a hat by perceived attempts to "box them in", when in reality we're just putting a label on what's already there because it helps our understanding of it. We're not insisting that you alter your personality to fit arbitrary criteria and we have no interest in threatening your right to self-expression.
