I was born curious and open to ideas, but unfortunately, not to people really. That has always required work and effort on my part...unless, they're somewhat to very much like me, of course. lol
Coincidentally, did you know that the average age of a FOX viewer is 68? lol That means half of their viewing base is OVER 68. I think older, more conservative people ironically take a certain comfort in having their fears and concerns validated and affirmed;perhaps it makes them feel less alone and psychologically isolated in an ever changing world.
When I was a kid, especially, I loved to be around "old people." I always found them to be rather reserved, stationary and somehow easy to talk to. lol And they tended to reminisce fondly and grumpily (which I've always related to) about the old days and how things had changed, which fascinated me about the world they used to inhabit. Some of my best childhood memories involve staying at my Grandparents' home (which is now my own personal vacation getaway space) all the way in the north of Sweden--during a warm spring in Stockholm, if I still wanted more Winter, I'd go up there. lol; it is an eerily beautiful place, so isolated, so wild, so far removed from people (well, it used to be)--for a long time, the nearest neighbors were a moose, a reindeer and a few beavers. lol I come from a family of introverts and so everyone values quiet and space and privacy and alone time. The loudest noises would come from the birds, an occasional wolf, the river, the wind, the rain and the trees bristling. I was the only person my grandfather allowed into his "tinkering" shed; he was a madman like I am and taught me that it was OK for me to have an external "brain" of sorts that I could step into when I needed to be alone with my thoughts.
But within the past decade, they started to build these high end condos, but could barely find anyone who wanted to stay up there (lol) and so they started to use them to house refugees. At first, I was extremely angry and I honestly felt violated, like my private sanctuary, my home, was being taken away from me by unwanted newcomers who wouldn't appreciate it (very selfish and self-centered, admittedly). But emotions, even "deep ones," are fleeting for me and eventually, a cool, calm head takes over. I've always been one to confront my anxieties head on and so once my Grandparents' home became mine, I started volunteering to conduct "Swedish wilderness immersion excursions" with the new immigrants living nearby. lol Most of them came from hot places so unlike the weird, cold North (the people up there are...amazingly interesting to say the least) that I decided to introduce them to our strange world, to bring some much needed levity and connection to both my life and theirs. Some refer to me affectionately as Yeti, because a few of them spotted a big, barefoot, long haired beast moving around in the distance at dusk and it was just me exercising outdoors.



I try to encourage people, introverts, old people, introverted old people, to face their fears head on and they might be pleasantly surprised and find that the new and unknown is usually not as scary as they think it is.
An Alt-Right *****, probably steeped in IT/Computer science, super weird but they call it "edgy," never been touched by a live girl, occupying someone's basement (which they delusionally believe is their version of The Bat Cave).
lol Never give in Lebrok! People like you give me hope. Automation robotics is my absolute favorite hobby (one of my degrees is in Robotics engineering technology) and I use my vacation home in the north to work on and store all of my cyborg limbs and corpses (my wife hates when I refer to them like this lol) and it used to embarrass me to admit that, at times, I used to feel more connected to machines than actual people. When I was a kid, I got into robotics because I was lonely and thought it would be so cool to build the perfect friend and companion, who would understand me. I've noticed that since greatly expanding my social world, though I will always love my robots (and will continue to design and refine them in case of some Zombie apocalypse), they've become less important to me. I feel like Benjamin Button, the guy who ages backwards--started out as an old man and gradually became young and adventurous!
