#have a post up explaining socs and another on my ‘only thing’ line interpretation from way back

[dallasgallant]

The whole “going soc” thing is taken from a few small lines of the musical, and I agree, I think we’ve really gotten away from the context of class divide. I’d loooove to hear your thoughts on the difference between “the only thing keeping him from being a soc is us” and “going soc”

It makes it seem like they’re in middle school treating it like a ‘cool kids club’ or a more formal thing than they are and it weirds me out a little bit.

It sort of diminishes Soc’s too to just being “popular” when they’re particularly socialites! They’re young but of the super rich variety, being popular doesn’t make you a Soc. Just as getting jumped or looked down on doesn’t make you a Greaser. It’s more than that!

Darry was popular in high school, he was well liked and had a bunch of friends. Even Paul. That was sort of the thing about him was he was really that guy™️ everyone liked, he got good grades, behaved and got along. That’s not soc behavior if anything that’s “middle class” behavior… that’s being some guy.

I can understand the context for “going soc” is likely emotionally charged but it feels like something that’d be easier for a soc to say someone’s “going greaser” or “slumming it” by dressing out or the norm or having a emotional outburst. And it makes sense as there’s a superficiality to them and the friend groups they form are conditional (not status asXYZ)

In contrast “the only thing keeping him from being a soc” is something that’s in reference to Darry’s nebulous future. That the gang— at least two bit— on some level all think they’re holding Darry back from getting out of poverty. Getting an education. A while collar job etc.

Now that isn’t exactly the case either, in the book and movie Collage is only ever a “could have”… something they couldn’t afford to send him to even with scholarships and if he found a way he’d still have to work through. It’s more the idea that he could have than a genuine actual chance of getting out. They don’t literally mean him being a Soc.

He’ll always be a greaser just like he’s always been a part of the gang/the leader. He’s a part of their friend group and a poor kid from the east/north side. (In that even if he hypothetically made it $ wise he’d still be a friend/family)

[dasaene-archive]

Sx-blinds Mistyping as So-blinds

I never made a proper post about this, but I’m seeing an ever-increasing number of people that from my observations mistype themselves as so-blind (usually as sp/sx, since secondary so is harder to type) or as so/sx but are actually sx-blinds that don’t understand the soc instinct or are in complete denial that they don’t understand sx either. This seems to be a popular topic as of late and I think it would now be an appropriate time to post this. As an sx-blind myself I hope to offer a different perspective on sx-blind motivations and faults. There are many questions about soc/sx-blindness that I wanted to answer in this post (like what passion means to sx-blinds, what do you think is soc’s best quality, how can I tell if I’m sx-blind or just have a 9 core/strong fix), but for some sort of consistency in this tertiary Ti infodump I will elaborate on those in a different post.

I think it should go without saying that if you’re serious about learning about typology you shouldn’t get all your information from Tumblr, but a lot of people still rely on it for the majority of their information. Tumblr is an excellent resource if you know the right people and figure out how a proper way to interpret information, but it’s not great for confused sx-blinds. I don’t claim to have a perfect understanding of instinctual variants, but most experienced and reliable members of the Tumblr typology community are so-blind, and although they do a good job, they can’t help being biased from their negative experiences with badly developed sx-blinds or sx-blinds that made no effort to understand so-blindness. I mean I’m pretty sure the reason why a lot of so-blinds become so-blind is due to the influence of unhealthy, overbearing sx-blinds in formative years.

However, so-blinds are not the only people to blame for the confusion, rather sx-blinds themselves. A main criticism I have of sx-blinds is that not enough are sure of their typing/willing to rock the so-called community boat and come forward to try to explain soc with all its good and bad. It’s pointless not to at least try to speak up about your thoughts, since so-blinds are not superior nor do they care about “community values” and are more than happy to refine their own and by extension your ideas. Until I asked questions and tried to understand an so-blind point of view, I didn’t get sx very much at all, and I probably still don’t, but I’m far less clueless than before. That’s the purpose of discussion lol, there shouldn’t be any shame in trying to get a grasp on your lack of sx or try to help other people form a more conclusive idea about soc

The words of those in “higher standing” in a community (something I will elaborate on further in) can bother sx-blinds, and many will be afraid of being sx-blind because they are afraid of/don’t relate to/don’t get what the materials they read are really trying to say about all the bad qualities of lacking sx. Being affiliated with the image of soulless, bossy, desperate people incapable of fulfilling relationships isn’t appealing to them. People with soc generally want to be “nice,” they want to be “good,” they want to be likeable and cool and accommodating. If they read a lot of things that say differently from what they perceive themselves to be like or try to be like, they will mistype.

I’m not saying that sx-blinds are insecure or incapable of critical thinking, but when they first start out learning about anything, having many people to rely on as good sources and available to provide feedback is important to them because their relationships always act as a network of information (”networking” put under sx-blind descriptions isn’t wrong, even if that behavior is commonly misunderstood). Being able to rely on the numerous connections they create is what has benefitted them in society, although not necessarily benefitted them in understanding themselves. So when their sources conflict with their self-perception, it usually causes misunderstanding instead of something more productive.

Because sx-blinds are unfortunately pretty susceptible to the words of others, so-blinds are usually put into a “higher standing” in an sx-blind mind because they are more confident in their words and actions as a result of being able to ignore other people in a way sx-blinds can’t. Which is why so-blind sx-blind interactions usually go one of three ways: sx-blinds being frustrated by so-blind criticism since they feel incapable of arguing points that they know will fall on deaf ears, sx-blinds approaching so-blinds for friendship or attention in ways and for reasons that would never appeal to the latter party, or sx-blinds becoming literal sheeple.

Many well-known so-blind users have recently made posts about how the grouping or ranking of people is nonsensical to them, because this grouping is the main way sx-blinds view multiple people who share opinions, style, or way of communication. This grouping is also the reason why so-blinds feel like sx-blinds treat everyone the same way. Although sx-blinds do group people, it creates a helpful organization or hierarchy that helps them understand why certain people are friends with others, why certain trends in their communities are happening, and why some people are more “powerful” (higher-ranking) than others. This doesn’t mean they have to make the structure rigid, although many unfortunately do and that’s what causes the cruel, awkward, or just plain weird interactions so-blinds have faced with sx-blinds.

When healthy, sx-blinds understand that just because they have grouped a person with another superficially similar person doesn’t mean they can’t adjust to them as an individual or remove them from a group entirely once they have more information. There are some complications that come with grouping people in the first place, and I have made other posts explaining how sx-blinds figure out who’s safe for them, but group structure is what makes sense to sx-blinds, who see people in communities. It’s not an inherently negative or positive thing, although sx-blinds sometimes have trouble figuring out where the lines are when they think of themselves as a part of a specific group with a specific role. If they manage to get the group organization and their self-perception right, they are excellent at teamwork, realistically dismantling social structures that they have seen to be more harmful than beneficial, and understand the limits of their sx blindspot and which weaknesses can be worked on. If they get it wrong, well, there’s enough stories of sx-blind mishaps out there for you to probably figure that out. Enough unhealthy sx-blinds are out there to make people pretty confused about their variants, because one sx-blind can be totally chill if a little plain while another is going to be super annoying to deal with.

Mistyped sx-blinds think because they have basic requirements for so-blindness (hobbies, close friends, etc. etc.) that they could never be sx-blind. They don’t understand what sx is just from its descriptions, but because soc descriptions make less sense to them, they stick with being so-blind and begin to idealize it until they really believe that it’s what they are. This is an especially common problem for sx-blind introverts or people in the withdrawn triad, since a lot of activities described as so-blind are one-on-one or personal pursuits, although neither are so-blind-only things. A miscommunication occurs; so-blinds are the majority in making these posts, and because so is their blindspot they can’t explain it in a way that applies to less extreme sx-blinds, and because sx-blinds have sx in their blindspot they think that sx fits them even when it doesn’t. So-blinds are pretty decisive and make posts that express that decisiveness, which some more impressionable sx-blinds take as fact instead of a different way of communication. OP vs reader blindspot disagreement is a major cause of mistyping.

Sx-blinds generally have less of an objective impression of their own strengths and weaknesses than so-blinds due to being influenced by the opinions of others and lacking the specificity that sx gives people, so although some of the negative attributes given to sx-blinds are true even if exaggerated sometimes (like being boring due to the fact that they talk about obvious things to maintain distance and don’t express passion like sx-users), they make sx-blinds defensive and mistype out of fear that they could ever be a part of that sad group. There’s nothing objectively wrong with being sx-blind, but sx-blinds care about being respected in general, and they don’t think that with those qualities associated with them that it’s possible for them to be. Which is pretty sad, although I agree that it’s no one’s responsibility but their own to get over themselves, accept weaknesses, and recognize when someone’s opinions are just opinions even if they can have potentially valuable information.

Being unable to acknowledge weaknesses seems to be a pretty common problem in mistyping in general, which imo is odd since you would assume that people looking deeper into typology would be willing to accept the problems that come with being each type and learn from them instead of forming their identity around a stereotype and being Totally Definitely 100% So-Blind™ to avoid their problems.

To summarize, the basic qualities of average sx-blindness are these: understanding the social environment based on groups, lacking motivation/having embarrassment in pursuing or publicly expressing dedication to interests, a degree of confused self-perception (especially in low Ti or those lacking a 4 in their tritype), and being [too] receptive to the opinions of others. Mistyping is connected to the perception sx-blinds learning about instinctual variants have of soc and sx, and how they wish to distance themselves from the idea of sx-blindness because many descriptions they read are worded in an so-blind way that they don’t relate to or are true things that they refuse to see in themselves. Sx-blinds are easily affected by changes or the popular opinions in the communities that they see themselves a part of and therefore have many misconceptions of their own behavior or lack the self-awareness to work on the flaws that cause them to have a weak sense of self in the first place. [soc voice] If sx-blinds wish not to be misunderstood, they should work on understanding their own thought process and sharing their views, instead of denying that they have soc or lack sx.