why are quiet people assumed to be docile or passive?

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i know first impressions do count a reasonable amount but one girl who i have met twice who i know through a club i belong to today told me that she couldnt imagine me having an argument with a random person on the bus (which i did, although moderate yet tense dispute is more accurate). just because im a somewhat laidback guy, that doesnt mean that im a pushover. im not passive. it just takes me a little while to warm up to people and be my normal more talkative self. im not really that great at being totally relaxed with a group of people who i dont know. it takes me a while. im not even that quiet really, sometimes i just dont want to talk a lot of shit about something i dont know.

kieran (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:26 (eighteen years ago)

shut the fuck up, you

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

shut your cakehole

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0485.jpg

It's Tough to Beat Illious (noodle vague), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

they're not.


next question.

chicago kevin (chicago kevin), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:35 (eighteen years ago)

http://images.scotsman.com/2003/02/23/2302duncb.jpg

It's Tough to Beat Illious (noodle vague), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:35 (eighteen years ago)

they are though.

this isnt a joke post by the way, i do mean it quite seriously.

kieran (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:36 (eighteen years ago)

http://d.aerno.com/serious.jpg

It's Tough to Beat Illious (noodle vague), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:38 (eighteen years ago)

they aren't though.


next question.

chicago kevin (chicago kevin), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:38 (eighteen years ago)

speaking as a complete chatterbox, kevin is completely and 100% OTM. quiet is also not the same thing as "laidback."

Allyzay doesnt get into the monkeys or vindications (allyzay), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:39 (eighteen years ago)

ok, but if someone is thought of as purely just quiet, are they then regarded as being passive?

maybe you guys just arent quiet people.

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:40 (eighteen years ago)

FUCK YES WE ARE

senator second p. newcastle (a_p), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:41 (eighteen years ago)

I'm sullen.

It's Tough to Beat Illious (noodle vague), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:41 (eighteen years ago)

I am a shy recluse.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:42 (eighteen years ago)

I don't have time for quiet people, they take too long to get around to saying things. Gotta keep moving, maan.

Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:42 (eighteen years ago)

trust me, i'm one of the most quiet people you will ever meet and i doubt ANYONE would characterize me as docile or passive. "passed out drunk" or "fubar" perhaps but not docile or passive.

chicago kevin (chicago kevin), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:42 (eighteen years ago)

It really depends on in what way they are quiet. There is no one in the entire world regarded as purely quiet, like that is the only thing you can say about them, "They are quiet and I can't really say they are shy quiet or creepy quiet or murdering quiet or actually a mute." I mean, that just doesn't occur.

Allyzay doesnt get into the monkeys or vindications (allyzay), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

there are differences between quiet and passive and deferential and bored and respectful of context, but they may go together

gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:44 (eighteen years ago)

You have to be quiet in that "I'm imagining your head on the end of a stick" way.

Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

im quiet and proud. im sick of people saying 'oh youre quiet' as an insult.

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

I love such assumptions. Stealth, baby -- when I unleash the power they're helpless.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

i'm pretty quiet but last friday i got into a weird thing with a guy on the bus because he got on and sat opposite me facing me but decided my knees were coming out too far and he tapped my right knee with a brochure or something and muttered "close your legs" and some other shit. i do not actualy sit with them far apart or anything. i muttered back but then he started chatting breezily to the guy next to him about the mag this other dude was reading, then turns back to me and says "see some people can be civilised". i'm annoyed by this so retort "yeah you just hit my leg, you only had to ask but no worries". a few minutes later a couple of seats across from us become free so i sit over there. he tuts, mutters again and calls me a poof'. at this point i expect him to start caling me racist but i just say "i prefer facing forward this way, no offence, nothing personal" and it's left at that. but yeah FUCK THAT GUY already.

annoyingly this little episode has been bugging me all week so just wanted to get it out somewhere relatively approriate. carry on.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:47 (eighteen years ago)

how strange. i dunno if youre taking the piss but i had an incredibly similar problem on the bus the other day as well.

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:50 (eighteen years ago)

The next morning came.

“Bartleby,” said I, gently calling to him behind his screen.

No reply.

“Bartleby,” said I, in a still gentler tone, “come here; I am not going to ask you to do any thing you would prefer not to do—I simply wish to speak to you.”

Upon this he noiselessly slid into view.

“Will you tell me, Bartleby, where you were born?”

“I would prefer not to.”

“Will you tell me any thing about yourself?”

“I would prefer not to.”

“But what reasonable objection can you have to speak to me? I feel friendly towards you.”

He did not look at me while I spoke, but kept his glance fixed upon my bust of Cicero, which as I then sat, was directly behind me, some six inches above my head.

“What is your answer, Bartleby?” said I, after waiting a considerable time for a reply, during which his countenance remained immovable, only there was the faintest conceivable tremor of the white attenuated mouth.

“At present I prefer to give no answer,” he said, and retired into his hermitage.

roger goodell (gear), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

straight up kieran. nice email address btw

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 22:05 (eighteen years ago)

i wouldnt worry about that guy - theres alwyays idiots and weirdos on public transport. half the time though we just never say anything when someones acting like a nob.

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 22:09 (eighteen years ago)

b/c extraverts tend to think that anyone who doesn't drop everything that they are doing to listen in enraptured awe to whatever it is that's spewing out of their mouths at a given moment suffer from some sort of defect -- quiet folks don't give 'em the affirmation that these folks need, for whatever reason.

that's my take on it -- believe me, i live this every day.

Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 8 February 2007 00:32 (eighteen years ago)

anyway, the opposite cliche (that intros have about extros) is that all extros are hopeless, shallow blabbermouths (which in turn feeds further taciturnity on the part of the intros):

http://joyofsox.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/blabbermouth-755437.jpg

Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 8 February 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

I am the quiet person in my office, usually. This is not because I am docile or passive, but because I don't want to say anything in case it accidentally comes out as "SHUT UP YOU FUCKING MORON I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENED ON EMMERDALE LAST NIGHT, OR WHAT YOUR BOYFRIEND'S SISTER SAID TO HER BEST FRIEND ON THE PHONE".

ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 8 February 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

RUN DMC LYRICS

"You Talk Too Much"

Shut up!!!

You talk too much...
You talk too much...
You talk too much...
You talk too much...

Hey! You over there, I know about your kind
You're like the Independent Network News on Channel 9
Everywhere that you go, no matter where you at
I said you talk about this, and you talk about that
When the cat took your tongue, I say you took it right back
Your mouth is so big, one bite would kill a Big Mac

You talk too much You never shut up
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never shut up

You talk about people, you don't even know
And you talk about places, you NEVER go
You talk about your girl, from head to toe
I said your mouth's moving fast, and your brain's moving slow

You talk too much You never shut up!!
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never shut up

You're the instigator, the orator of the town
You're the worst when you converse, just a big mouth clown
You talk when you're awake, I heard you talk when you sleep
Has anyone ever told you, that talk is cheap

You talk too much You never shut, up!!
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

Talking is the one thing, that you can do best
You told the cavity creeps, to watch out for Crest
You never have the story, right and exact
And then you always try to bore me, with your yakkity yak

You talk too much And then you never shut up
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

Everyday you are out fighting someone in the street
And you're always fighting someone you know ya can't beat
Then you wonder how, you got in this mess
Just think of what you said, then take a guess

You talk too much You never shut up!
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

You're always spreading rumors, whether bad or good
You're the damn Walter Cronkite of the neighborhood
The Barbara Walters, and the Howard Cosell
You always come around, with a story to tell

You talk too much And then you never shut up
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

Said it's everybody's business that you love to mind
And talkin to you, is like dropping a dime
You're spreading the word, like it is your job
You should be a stool pigeon, who works for the mob

You talk too much And you never shut up
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never shut up!

A big blabbermouth, that's what you are
If you were a talk show host, you'd be a star
I said your mouth is big, size extra large
And when you open it, it's like my garage

You talk too much And then you never shut up
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never shut up

You always like to gossip, just like a girl
You talk so damn much, it's outta this world
When you're reincarnated, in your second life
You won't be a man, you'll be a nagging wife

You talk too much Then you never shut up
He said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

SHUT UP!!!
SHUT UP!!!

Twenty-five hours, eight days a week
Thirteen months outta year, is when you speak
I'm tired of listening to the garbage you talk
Why don't you find a short pier, and take a long walk

You talk too much Then you never shut up!
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!
You talk too much You could be, out of breath
You talk too much Man you naggin me to death
You talk too much Tired of hearing you speak
You talk too much Eight days a week
You talk too much Then you never shut up
I said you talk too much Why don't you ever SHUT UP!!!
You talk too much Then you never shut up!
I said you talk too much Homeboy you never SHUT UP!!!

Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 8 February 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago)

John Ford's "The Quiet man" to thread!

Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 8 February 2007 01:54 (eighteen years ago)

why are quiet people assumed to be highly intelligent and thoughtful?

milo z (mlp), Thursday, 8 February 2007 02:02 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.huntingtonactionfilms.com/images/sitesilverdailynews.jpg

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 8 February 2007 03:20 (eighteen years ago)

His other interests include magnetic levitation, plasma nuclear fusion, and squirrels.
- Wikipedia

i don't want to know.

tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 8 February 2007 04:43 (eighteen years ago)

why are quiet people assumed to be highly intelligent and thoughtful?

shhhh, don't give this one away -- it's one of our best defenses against the motormouths!

Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 8 February 2007 07:14 (eighteen years ago)

What bothers me is the constant mixing up of "shy" and "introvert". Although they may appear similar, they are not the same thing. Shy is about fear, about anxiety and social phobia. Introvert is simply a way of being, of needing solitude to recharge one's batteries, so to speak.

Many shy people have an extravert inside them dying to get out. Maybe strong introverts can and do engage in quite social occupations, provided they are given the time to recharge.

But they are not the same thing at all.

Probability Smear Of Possible Quantum Katehood (kate), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

xpost
because there couldnt possibly be nothing going on in therir hands while theyre keeping quiet could there? ;)

kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

Well, perhaps it's because one of the standard methods that introverts employ to get people to leave them alone, not engage with the world while on the bus or the train, or other public situations etc. is to bury themselves in a book.

Probability Smear Of Possible Quantum Katehood (kate), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)


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