I am not the fucking Counterculture™. Rejection of elements of The Mainstream™ does [i]not[/i] require acceptance of their exact opposites. Shocking, I know... but I've found a way to process reality without breaking everything into binaries. That your counterculture doesn't include a rejection of the assumption that polarising issues is the best way to understand them suggests to me that your "anti-mainstream" doesn't do what it says on the box. It's a very superficial rebellion, build on the framework of the existing system, only refusing to conform where it is safe and otherwise leaving it untouched.

So just because I identify as a Discordian doesn't mean that I'm going to jump at the chance to attend your anarchist circlejerk, agree with blanket disagreements with the government or dismiss things that other people liked [b]just because other people liked them.[/b] That's nonsense.

That communities cannot exist without some form of social hierarchy, I have accepted. My brain is wired for that. It's not a bug, it's a feature... but I can choose the kind of hierarchy I want the apemeat in my head to recognise. The Mainstream™ and the Counterculture™ (which defines itself in terms of the mainstream) recognise hierachies that I cannot bring myself to care about my natural place on. I think that one of the reasons for this is how easy it is to buy a social status upgrade. I get a nice car; +1 to Mainstream Status. I grow dreadlocks; +1 to Counterculture Status. Fixed gear bike. Big-screen TV. Smartphone. FairTrade Tibetan clothing. I can exchange my currency for the unearned respect of my peers. But fuck those people. I'm not restricted to their unconscious deference or petulant dominance-asserting rejection of one set of rules to convince my brain to reward me with the warm fuzzies. Once you recognise these systems, conforming to them no longer does you any good anyway, because the submission is so transparent.

I still like the warm fuzzies, though, so I need a way to tell myself that I'm making progress.

Being a Discordian, to me, is being a member of the metaculture. We are a community who respects the understanding of our primate functions and manipulation of the bizarre rulesets that emerge from these. When it's useful, we can forge social status though our awareness of the values of the groups we find ourselves in. We're social mammals too. We're not immune to the drama and conflict that can emerge from our confusing relationship with our primitive brains and the members of our tribe but the primary hierarchy we recognise and expect to be rewarded for progressing though is based on the knowledge of how we relate to these systems and their inhabitants. Those who better understand these relationships are more valuable to the group. I find that this is a far healthier method of status-seeking.

Any challenges to my status can be met either by rationally defending my position and motivating the challenger to reconsider their own wiring or by my accepting my own bias/ignorance and FUCKING EVOLVING. There is little motivation to scream and jump about because unlike in less sophisticated systems, this will always have a direct negative effect on my status.