You don't have to buy it, but it makes sense to me.


Ask her how you can protect yourself. You might gain some trust if you go with her and work with each other, instead of getting on the defensives. Of course, she'll have to have the same attitude, so it might not work.



<edit> I'd never thought I'd ever admit to the "gifted people, serial killers" argument.

Damn.

But I'll stick with it what I said, as there's no sense fearing each other. </edit>

How true! That was utterly maddening to experience. In the end I had to settle for just pretending to acknowledge whatever she said and dropping the subject as quickly as possible.

I'm not completely gullible. I grew up with a cynic for a father (ISTJ) and a paranoiac for a mother. I'm not just going to trust any given person blindly, and I'm very reserved with information that I deem "unsafe". It just really annoys the heck out of me to have all the same old warnings repeated again and again, despite my insistence that I've already covered those possibilities and that they're irrelevant to what I do here.

Hmm... thinking about it now, what if it's the impersonal aspect of the internet that scares them? My mother seems so strangely credulous when it comes to things told to her by people she can actually see, whether it's friends and relatives or even people on TV. I'm far more inclined to distrust those people because they can actually gain personal advantage and cause damage through deception. But to her, it's the horde of nameless, faceless people out there on the 'net that are always bad and untrustworthy...

That sounds familiar indeed. My grandmother is most likely an ESFJ, and my father an ESTJ. For some reason, they seem to find the faceless masses a neverending threat. I mean, yeah, it's generally good to be careful when walking around at night/in the rain/etc. but there's a fine line between 'careful' and 'paranoid', and I'm not entirely sure if they understand where it is.

At least my father will respond to a well-reasoned argument, most of the time. If it's against some group he's chosen to affiliate himself with, though..

Ack! ISFJs are just as bad. My mother has problems with paranoia. She's always checking the rear-view mirrors to see if people are following her. Stuff like that.

Whenever we moved into a new neighborhood, the neighbors were officially declared untrustable until further information was gathered.

Ha... welcome to the club of the doomed... me too.

That's scary. It's actually my personal philosophy on the matter. Maybe it's extreme apathy induced by paranoid SJs?

Seems like it. I can corroborate, as I've thought the very same thing more than once. How odd...

Likewise. I've never voiced that opinion though, as fatalism tends not to go over well. If I want an explosion, I'll get myself some nitrogen fertiliser and a book of matches.