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Pretentiousness?

Perch420

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Jan 21, 2011
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NiTi
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5w1
What is pretentiousness? Does it have a link to MBTI? Pretentiousness seems to be a trait that I personally can pick up very easily on, in the first few minutes of meeting a person or instantly if I'm reading someone's post online. It's the trait that I dislike the most and I generally avoid people who fit under that category. I don't really know how to define it. It has very little to do with intelligence or anything else.
 

Sunny Ghost

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I agree, it's a very unattractive quality. I prefer modesty and people who are humble or with some humility.

I don't know that it has a link to mbti... maybe insecurity.
 

chickpea

perfect person
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Sep 12, 2009
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sp/sx
since everyone else is too scared... all the most pretentious people i've known have been nt's, i think n's in general tend to be more pretentious though.

maybe fi could have something to do with it too? idk ignore me i'm high
 

gromit

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To me, pretentiousness is not allowing for the validity of other people's experiences/perspectives.

Edit: thinking your way is superior, or the best/only good way.
 

lunalum

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What is pretentiousness?

Pretentious: "expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature"

Does it have a link to MBTI?

Judging by myself, and the previous posts, maybe. So far there is a pattern of INTPs being pretentious, ISFPs being repulsed by it, INFPs being kind of conflicted, and ENTJs eating popcorn (perhaps too pretentious to be lowered to the level of other pretentious people ;) ).

It's the trait that I dislike the most and I generally avoid people who fit under that category.

I wonder why that is. It is usually pretty harmless and usually infinitely more interesting than that icky modesty nonsense.

It has very little to do with intelligence or anything else.

Are you sure about that? :coffee:
 

funkadelik

good hair
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lmao
To me, pretentiousness is not allowing for the validity of other people's experiences/perspectives.

Edit: thinking your way is superior, or the best/only good way.

I don't think that thinking that your way is superior is pretentious, but thinking that it's the best (or only good way) without allowing for other input or perspectives is.

There's always going to be a way of doing something in your mind that trumps all the other ways and it will probably trump a few other people's ways of doing the same thing as well, but if another person's view that is superior is presented to you and you reject it, then not only are you being pretentious (by adding unwarranted value to your idea than is actually there), but you're also being close-minded. I guess pretentiousness also means lauding your bloated-valued idea to everyone and anyone in an attempt to impress the masses, but I think that it can be quiet and simply dressed, as well.

That being said, I don't actually have an answer to the original question. :laugh: It seems more to be an individual thing than a type thing (an "F" could be pretentious about their values and a "T" can be pretentious about their ideas).
 

gromit

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I don't think that thinking that your way is superior is pretentious

:laugh: Yeah I was thinking something like that after I posted. Because if you didn't think it was better, why would you think that way/do it that way???
 

chris1207

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I think that being pretentious goes hand in hand with being pedantic. Acting like you have every nuance and detail figured out. And that's very Ti.

I've seen ESFJ's be pretentious jackasses, saying that what they believe is superior because it's what they and their families have believed forever and ever (which is Si justifying Fe by using Ti as a discerning mechanism.)

I've seen INTP's use it as a tool to push people away and then believe that they somehow are more objective for doing this. By pushing people away, using just Ti, they prevent people and their emotions from encroaching on their 'amazing' rationale. And they sit there and smirk from there perch. Only later do they realize that they're jackasses and that that's not what they really wanted and they hate themselves, quite secretly, for it.

Even if pretentiousness does pertain to intelligence it does intelligence a disservice. The ultimate goal of Ti is to gather as much information as possible to make an informed decision. Being pretentious is socially objectionable and thus a road-block to open dialogue between individuals, a hindrance to the collective sharing of ideas.

Nuff said.
 

Red Herring

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Okay, Merriam Webster says:

1: characterized by pretension: as
a : making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing) <the pretentious fraud who assumes a love of culture that is alien to him — Richard Watts>
b : expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature <pretentious language> <pretentious houses>

2: making demands on one's skill, ability, or means : ambitious <the pretentious daring of the Green Mountain Boys in crossing the lake — American Guide Series: Vermont>

The second definition is what people acting in a way described in the 1.a and 1.b think they are doing. Pretention, the way I understand the term, is all about striving to be what you are really not. The desire to be more artsy or more intellectual than you actually are in your heart of hearts. It is teenage poetry. It happens to great artists as well. I love Woody Allen, but when he tries to copy Bergman, he fails and comes across as pretentious. Then again, the attempt that miserably failed in the eyes of one person might be a success in the eyes of the next, so who's to say? But that's what I think it comes down to. You are pretentious when you aim at somethink you consider of high (intellectual or other) value and fail in the attempt without noticing and actually feel superior about it.
 

knight

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:laugh:

i don't think it's really a type thing. people just are pretentious over different stuff and show it in different ways.

some people are super model attractive in comparison to others, maybe in a bar or some other setting will never glance over the same person twice or care to make eye contact. I dont think there is intelligence in being naturally that gorgeous, yet there is an air of pretentiousness.

it comes from being better in some aspect that others are not or having more of something. I agree with sky
 

jixmixfix

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I think that being pretentious goes hand in hand with being pedantic. Acting like you have every nuance and detail figured out. And that's very Ti.

I've seen ESFJ's be pretentious jackasses, saying that what they believe is superior because it's what they and their families have believed forever and ever (which is Si justifying Fe by using Ti as a discerning mechanism.)

I've seen INTP's use it as a tool to push people away and then believe that they somehow are more objective for doing this. By pushing people away, using just Ti, they prevent people and their emotions from encroaching on their 'amazing' rationale. And they sit there and smirk from there perch. Only later do they realize that they're jackasses and that that's not what they really wanted and they hate themselves, quite secretly, for it.

Even if pretentiousness does pertain to intelligence it does intelligence a disservice. The ultimate goal of Ti is to gather as much information as possible to make an informed decision. Being pretentious is socially objectionable and thus a road-block to open dialogue between individuals, a hindrance to the collective sharing of ideas.

Nuff said.

Fe can be just as pretentious as Ti, Fi, Te and any other function it's defiantly not limited to function and if you think so you're merely speaking out of subjective experience.
 

rhinosaur

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Pretentiousness is the belief that you have a superior opinion on matters.
 

Mole

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What do you want to tell me?

I love pretending which is unfortunate as I live in a country where the only sin you can commit is pretentiousness.

I must admit I do have a frisson of schadenfeude when I tell them, "I make things up", and see the shock on their face.

But of course they live in the quotidian literal world and making things up comes as a shock. I mean, where would it stop? What would happen is everyone made things up? "Don't you think you are letting the side down a bit?", they ask.

But I can't help myself. It's as though each door holds a secret and I can't help opening it. It's as though each object wants to tell me something and all I have to do is listen. And it as though each person is waiting to reveal their deepest self to themselves - and I can already hear the whispers.

So in the meantime I pretend in the face of dumb objects and dummies who have buried their deepest self so deep, they can't even hear its whispers for help.

So I make things up. I pretend. I am pretentious - the only sin you can commit in Oz. I pretend to hear secrets. I can almost hear the whisperings of your soul. What do you want to tell me?
 

wildcat

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Yes, Victor.

If you are good at anything, it is seen as pretentiousness.
A building, a garden, a fountain is pretentious if it is well done and a light for the eye.
What is monotonous and boring, is homely and unpretentious.

Pretentiousness offends the eye and the mind of the garden variety.
Never make sense, because if you do, you are pretentious.
Intelligent women are pretentious. They are a threat to all the men in Stepford.
So they have to be murdered. Robots are not pretentious.
Beautiful women are pretentious, too. They are a threat to all the wives outside of Stepford.

There was a beautiful young woman. One day she looked at herself in the looking glass. It was then she knew.
She confessed to an abbedissa, of course. The abbedissa damned her. She made her a warning example to all the other girls in her sermon.
Pretentiousness is one of the seven deathly sins.
There will be no pretentiousness in New Jerusalem.
 
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