simulatedworld
Freshman Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2008
- Messages
- 5,552
- MBTI Type
- ENTP
- Enneagram
- 7w6
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/so
With all due respect, you've been here a couple of months, and I've been here since the site was started, as a spinoff of INTP Central where there was a lot of anti-S and anti-F sentiment. Since then I've seen it many, many times here--a person forms an idea about what an S is like, and finds it consistently proven by data of their own choosing. It's called confirmation bias. It's a bit more complicated than "this person is mistreating me, therefore they are S." It's more along the lines of "I don't get along with or like this person, and because of that I notice that they seem to me to be narrow-minded and short-sighted, so they are probably S. In turn, Ss are narrow-minded and short-sighted." And so on, in loops. The flipside of it happens here and at INTPC all the time: "You're so cool, are you sure you're an S?"
Well, I guess I figured that was poor enough reasoning that no one worth listening to would actually use it. I realize you've been here much longer than I have, but I don't mean to defend such poor reasoning. Though I've never actually browsed INTP central, I imagine a forum dedicated entirely to INTPs would probably be more hateful toward Sensors than one that's designed to be open to all types. Maybe not; just a guess.
Most of the S people floating around here seem to be pretty cool. As I said, haven't been here that long but most of the anti-S complaining I've seen has been about some general S characteristic that frequently doesn't apply to most of the regular posters here who are Sensors (the very fact that they care about and understand MBTI suggests that they'll be a little more open-minded about differences in others.)
Personally, the people here that I've had the most friction with have all been Ns. I understand that it can be hard not to take generalized speech about one's group personally, but there may also be some validity to some of the "I hate when Ss do this..." complaints, just as there is in most of other type- or preference-specific complaints. Most stereotypes do come from somewhere. Not all ENTPs are argumentative jerks, but enough of us act that way often enough that we get the reputation for it, and that's not necessarily a bad thing in all cases.
You must realize that what you are suggesting here actually is protecting Ns from criticism for criticizing Ss. It all comes back on itself. If you really are talking about letting people criticize others, you cannot come back and say that people disagreeing is "protecting certain type from criticism." See what I mean?
It's also protecting Ss from criticism for criticizing Ns. It certainly does come back on itself.
Point being, criticism is not inherently bad and can sometimes be helpful. It depends on the wording and the context. Note that I haven't actually demanded that any of your posts be censored or forcibly altered, even the ones I don't like.
I don't think any type deserves protection from open criticism. Specific people do deserve protection from harassment directed at them personally, but I don't see any problem with threads started to complain about Ns or Ss or ISTs or EFJs or any other type or letter combination--as long we understand that types are limited labels which cannot fully describe any real people, and as such type-related generalizations cannot ever describe all members of a given type or preference. The dialogue and communication that occurs as a result (when the participants are serious about being productive) is the way that typology helps us all to recognize our own unconscious biases and grow as people. You have a right to complain about it if you want to, and I have a right to tell you why I think your complaints are misguided. As long as we're staying relatively civil and on point, none of us deserves any protection from criticism at all.