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One thing I know for sure is that I'll never listen to skateboarders when it comes to politics. Why would you listen to a group of people who have historically been some of the biggest followers ever to exist? Everything they think is "cool" or "kooky" is often times because of the general consensus of herd mentality, and if you ask a skateboarder why they think the way they do about something they'll usually have no reasoning behind it other than "it's sick" or "it sucks." From the tricks they do, to the skateboarder's uniform they wear, to their thoughts and opinions on the industry, the vast majority of it isn't their own. I know we like to sit in a circle jerk and claim we're special because skateboarding is unique, but it's really just a handful of unique people followed by the hundreds of thousands (millions if you count the "lifestyle" latchers) who watch their every move and treat it as gospel.
Don't believe me? Ask someone who started skateboarding recently if they like the Gonz, and then ask them why. They won't be able to name most of the shit he's responsible for in skateboarding, or why they think his artwork is unique or whatever. There's an enormous chance that their answer will be something that they're parroting that someone else told them, and they accepted it as such since they see it as the equivalent of skateboarding' Masonic handshake. Actually, I can think of people who started skating before I did who fall into this category.
Saying "fuck Nike/ big corpo" is like our version of saying "Trump should be impeached."
Or maybe you see people don't agree with you, so like many, you trivialize the opinions of others based on arbitrary criteria
incorrect. I don't have a dog in this fight, so I don't have an opinion that anyone can agree or disagree with.
I don't know what your experiences have shown you, but my experiences have shown me that academic achievements don't have a direct correlation with outside-the-box/ independent free thinking. Oftentimes it's conformity at its finest, and most institutions don't teach (or even encourage for that matter) you to go against the grain.
In reality, most professors reward students who conform to the mold that the professor sees fit. I saw it with my girlfriend's sociology masters program especially, which would technically deem her as some sort of "expert" in many of the topics that have been mentioned in this thread. It was a politically biased program to begin with, and most of the time she had to go against what she actually believed to be true from experience & educated independent opinion to do well in her classes. She attended a prestigious private university, and I had the luxury of sitting in on most of her classes and even helped with her assignments.
I wish I saved some of her emails that she had with her professors going back and forth about certain papers and projects, because they pretty much came out and said that she needed to parrot everything they were pushing in order to get an A.
That's getting off topic though, are you saying that the majority of skateboarders aren't followers?
So you don't think the vast majority of skateboarders aren't trend hopping followers who like things because everyone else likes them too?
I said masters program because that's what I witnessed first hand, I didn't attend her doctorate level classes. She has letters at the end of her name and she has a work history that would deem her an expert, and she said that the requirements she had to submit to were the same when it came to not thinking outside the box. The majority of skateboarders (or people in general for that matter) don't hold a masters degree. Either way, My point was to show that holding a higher education doesn't = having your own thoughts and opinions, not to go tit for tat by comparing dick sizes when it comes to education.
I would say most people are trend hoppers from sports fans to yoga moms, but I don't dismiss an educated opinion because of it, nor do these things incapacitate a well informed intellect
I agree that it does not mean you have your own thoughts and opinions, but you will have a much greater knowledge of the topic which gives you the material to form an educated opinion. Like the famous phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants", a strong academic background in lieu of intensive private study give you the foundations for creativity, as with many things, "you have to know the rules before you can break them". No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater imo, yes some academics might conform to further their own career(or whatever) , but they still are the most knowledgeable and the most equipped to put forth assertions or theories, in certain respects.
Topic: Pro-Trump Skaters? (Read 82254 times)