In defense of weird
Weird is good
Weird is good.
Weird people created the modern world, which is itself WEIRD.
Alan Turing was weird. Nikola Tesla was even weirder. Benjamin Franklin enjoyed taking "air baths" by sitting naked in front of an open window each morning for 30 minutes to an hour.
Audrey Tang is weird, as is Robin Hanson. Jimmy Butler is weird and a six-time NBA All-Star.
Socrates and Jesus Christ were killed for being too weird.
Pythagoras founded a cult that believed beans contained the souls of the dead.
Diogenes the Cynic lived in a barrel and urinated on people he didn't like.
Steve Jobs walked around barefoot and believed that his fruit-based diet eliminated body odor (it didn't).
Oscar Wilde liked being spanked. Richard Feynman was a womanizer. Erwin Schrödinger had two wives in an open relationship (they made love in superposition).
Michael Jackson was pretty weird, though not as weird as the first person to milk a cow.
Mark Zuckerberg used to be weird until he started wearing a gold chain.
Austin, Texas, is still weird, but only because they kept it that way.
Dominic Cummings once asked for “weirdos and misfits” to join the British civil service. He was promptly reprimanded.
We’re talking about the sweaty uncle you can’t leave alone with the kids weird; inspect the kids’ genitals before the ballgame weird; track women’s menstrual cycles in a state database weird; calling teachers “groomers” weird; calling books with gay characters pornography and banning them weird. You know what it’s about and you don’t actually think it’s good.
In my hometown, there was a guy who wore a feathered cap. He walked around all the time. We all knew him as “feather hat guy.” We loved him. Someone painted a mural of him, named a beer after him, and even made an action figure of him.
But I am pretty glad he was never in a position of political power.