this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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That's possible when people in your town see knowledge as something positive. I was (still am) socially awkward so the mascot strategy never worked. I tried the encyclopaedia one but turns out bigotted farmers are not fond of people who know things. The only way to stop being bullied was leaving the town when I was 18 to move to a big city.
Yep, I definitely got lucky. And people certainly do not appreciate actual knowledge that defies their pre-existing beliefs.
It wasn't all great.
But my particular type of weirdness, combined with a tendency to ignore or not recognise what would normally be humiliation, got me enough laughs that I could spout all sorts of facts about astronomy or whatever without being threatening to the ones that knew me best.
Are you me? Moved from 3500 pop bumfuck Wisconsin to 3.5m pop Los Angeles at 18. Greatest decision I've ever made, although staying out ended up a harder challenge than I expected due to the aforementioned lack of and hostility toward knowledge and behavioral health care.