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Opinion as Fact

I don't know how to fully explain this kind of personality, but it goes like this: when discussing music, movies, comics, DVDs and so on with other people, a person presents his/her opinions as unwavering, hard facts. There is no room to debate them because these views come across as strict and binding. The person could care less about another person's thoughts and ideas because he/she refuses to listen to anyone else. Certain ways he/she express him/herself (whether it's tone of voice, amount of time listening to another person or various other mannerisms), often give off the impression that he/she is above and better than everyone else. I wonder why a person is like this, but also realize that it's not something I should dwell on. I don't run into this kind of personality often, but when I do, it's hard to forget.

My first encounter with a person like this was back in college. A friend of a mine knew a guy who knew a lot about movies, music and comics, but he also came across as a jerk when he discussed them. For example, he would tell me all about his thoughts and feelings on John Woo's classic Hong Kong films, but he rarely acknowledged my thoughts and opinions on them. When he did, he often shrugged them off and rarely gave me a chance to respond. All of this gave me the feeling that his views were law. Plus, he would brag about what he had (like his copy of the long out-of-print version of The Killer released through Criterion). In his eyes, because my copy of The Killer didn't have a handful of deleted scenes and Woo's student film, I was prime for ridicule. Folks, just writing all of this down makes me wonder if this really happened in elementary school. I never took offense, but at the same time, I wonder what made him be so snobby.

I have a theory that we all have mental holes in our lives. Some holes are small, some are medium and some are really large. How we work with them is different for every person. Some want to fill these holes with money, material possessions, alcohol or drugs in order to cover up core desires like love, support or confidence. How people show or hide these holes tends to get carried over in aspects of their personality.

As much as I blog here about my views on life, I know that not everyone will agree with what I think. I like to hear about differences of opinion, just as long as they're discussed in mature and tactful ways. I've been at the receiving end of a few one-sided conversations to understand how uncomfortable they can be. I enjoy open dialogue because no one person has all the answers.

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