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DCC Since: Jun, 2011
Jun 13th 2012 at 3:32:26 PM •••

There are stories which use a trope of advocating disobedience of authority. (And yes, there is an irony in this: "Question Authority—that's an order!")

The writeup is for Peer Pressure Makes You Evil—a different trope.

Ironically, the writeup seems to have the attitude right—not doing drugs, dressing overly sexually, or vandalizing other people's cars is mindless obedience? Hello, Chaotic Evil!

gibberingtroper Since: May, 2009
Aug 9th 2011 at 5:21:31 PM •••

"Be a nonconformist" is usually used in situations like "don't do drugs" or "don't wear grossly sexed-up in-style clothes" or "don't key the unpopular teacher's car because The Libby wants you to." They aren't about nonconformity or being yourself; they're about doing the right thing. Or, to take a morally neutral view of this, obey your authority figures, not your peers, because authority figures cannot be questioned, and if your peers question them, your peers are bad people.

The morally neutral view is not "don't question authority." You abstain from drugs because of the harm that they do. You don't key the unpopular teachers car because there's no good reason too and it causes property damage. You don't wear overly sexy clothing because you don't want to give the wrong people the wrong ideas.

I guess there are some school agers writing these articles. Trust me kids, it may not be obvious at your age just what the harm in these things is but you'll get it eventually. Sometimes, you have to be the victim to get it, but you'll get it.

Could somebody give this article another pass? I'm going to try but this seems like Complaining About Tropes You Dont Like.

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