I began to write the following on a anime forum I usually lurk within, in response to a procession of pseudohip sheep baa'ing about how they were avoiding Azumanga Daioh because of all the "pedophiles and Love Hina fans" that like the show:

Strangely enough, I tend to judge people by what they like, and not things by which people like them. Maybe I'm strange that way, I don't know.

Maybe it's because I try to take things on their own merits, and not in an imagined context of whether some hypothetical somebody is gonna think I'm a pedophile, or a homosexual, or a Republican because I like this or that.

I'm sure you've spotted why I paused, and shut down the window. Self-consciousness is a temporary, and precious gift. It's not that often that I catch myself in such a blatant display of cognitive dissonance. I think one of the above notions is antithetical to the other. Which one is crap? *Is* one crap? How the hell did I manage to hold both ideas in my head *at the same time*?

I guess it's a species of hypocrisy, in which I both insist on judging others based on their tastes, while refusing to consider the inevitable reciprocal consideration. You could make the argument that it's a refusal to tailor one's actual taste to one's self-image, but I'm not sure I can credit myself with that much principle. More likely, it's just a sort of unthinking stubbornness.

What do you think?