He doesn't understand and doesn't realize this -

[DykesDykesChina]

The student who observed Chris at UVA wrote on his/her livejournal "he doesn't understand and seems intelligent enough to understand that he doesn't understand" - or something along these lines.

I have to disagree. It just occurred to me that Chris's central problem, the root cause of his fucked up life, is that he doesn't understand how reality works and lacks the insight to realize that he doesn't understand it. In fact, he probably thinks that his perception of the world is completely normal.

This guy believed in Santa into his twenties, thinks that the world works like a video game, considers playing pokemon TCG with small children valuable job experience to put on his resume, is convinced that his artwork is professional quality and that his creations have billions of fans.

To us, this is a bizarre infantile worldview. To him it's completely normal and those who point out that his ideas are unrealistic are crazy. He views the universe in a warped mirror and thinks he sees reality the way it really is. Sort of like an autistic version of Plato's cave.

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

I said in the "is Chris retarded?" thread that I don't think being dumb is his problem. Sure, he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it's the fact that he has an extremely warped view of the world and expects people to cater to his every whim that's the problem.

And like everyone always says, he's pretty much an 8-year-old in an adult body.

 

[Big Bob Pataki]

it's like chris is trapped in eternal playtime. everything he's done is kinda like how an 8-year-old would play pretend, but yet no matter how hard he tries the public went past playtime years ago...

 

[LordCustos3]

The student who observed Chris at UVA wrote on his/her livejournal "he doesn't understand and seems intelligent enough to understand that he doesn't understand" - or something along these lines.

Well, the first step to wisdom is "knowing how much you don't know"

I have to disagree. It just occurred to me that Chris's central problem, the root cause of his fucked up life, is that he doesn't understand how reality works and lacks the insight to realize that he doesn't understand it. In fact, he probably thinks that his perception of the world is completely normal.

Maybe this is the 5 millionth time someone linked to this specific page of the Wikipedia, but in this case, it bears repeating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Krueger_effect

This guy believed in Santa into his twenties, thinks that the world works like a video game, considers playing pokemon TCG with small children valuable job experience to put on his resume, is convinced that his artwork is professional quality and that his creations have billions of fans.

To us, this is a bizarre infantile worldview. To him it's completely normal and those who point out that his ideas are unrealistic are crazy. He views the universe in a warped mirror and thinks he sees reality the way it really is. Sort of like an autistic version of Plato's cave.

^THIS.
According to Chris, this is His Universe, and all us twolls just live in it. :mrgreen:

 

[Hyperion]

Plato's cave.

dat reference :ugeek:

 

[BigAltheGreat921]

The student who observed Chris at UVA wrote on his/her livejournal "he doesn't understand and seems intelligent enough to understand that he doesn't understand" - or something along these lines.

I have to disagree. It just occurred to me that Chris's central problem, the root cause of his fucked up life, is that he doesn't understand how reality works and lacks the insight to realize that he doesn't understand it. In fact, he probably thinks that his perception of the world is completely normal.

This guy believed in Santa into his twenties, thinks that the world works like a video game, considers playing pokemon TCG with small children valuable job experience to put on his resume, is convinced that his artwork is professional quality and that his creations have billions of fans.

To us, this is a bizarre infantile worldview. To him it's completely normal and those who point out that his ideas are unrealistic are crazy. He views the universe in a warped mirror and thinks he sees reality the way it really is. Sort of like an autistic version of Plato's cave.

Does autism factor in too?

 

[Tubular Monkey]

Sort of like an autistic version of Plato's cave.

Except the cave has been filled with broken baby carriages and snoopy calendars from the 80's, forcing Plato's protagonist to take shelter at McDonald's.

 

[GFYS]

To Chris, I suspect reality is his perception. The world only exists as an extension of his thoughts, needs, and desires. He doesn't consider how his perception varies from other people, because I don't think he even perceive people as sentient beings - just servants or JERKS.

 

[Asperchu_Super_Fan]

You hit the nail on the head, DDC.

Lots of people expect the external world to conform to their minds. Chris isn't in this pickle because he's autistic, he's this way because he genuinely believes that he controls reality. The autism just exacerbates it.

 

[SPARKLETWAT]

I think some of it also boils down to Chris lacking theory of mind.

 

[TheRetroReplay]

I don't think it's a matter of Chris not understanding, it's a matter of him refusing to accept reality.

If we were look at a lot of the things he's done and what he's gotten in trouble for, it seems that he does understand. Like the attraction sign, he has been told by authority figures to stop but he refused and got into arguments with them. But when his mother told him to stop it, he did, for awhile at least because he started doing again during Fridays After Five. When his spending on his PS3 went out of control, and Bob had to control his spending, Chris would go behind his back to acquire another credit card. So Chris doesn't even listen to his own parents, except for the time he drove to Ohio and they threatened to kick him out if he did something like that again.

Chris's rejection of reality is further proved in the comics, where he takes the main events in his life and puts them in the comic so he can come out as the victor, Mary Lee Walsh and the Jerkops are perfect examples of Chris rejecting reality. Chris has even tried to alter reality, the time he lost that PaRappa the Rapper contest, he created a fake web page declaring himself the winner and that Adam Stackhouse was disqualified and actually posed as someone else, sent the link to Sony thinking he could fool them into giving him the prize he wanted.

Chris understands, but he chooses to reject reality and substitutes his own.

 

[Henry Bemis]

Chris is a potent combination of autism (has difficulty connecting to certain aspects of life), narcissism (has no interest in making those connections), and not being very smart to begin with (even if he had the interest, they'd likely fly right over his head).

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: Chris was raised to believe that, regardless of help, he would never accomplish or understand anything in his life.

 

[Marvin]

I don't think it's a matter of Chris not understanding, it's a matter of him refusing to accept reality.

If we were look at a lot of the things he's done and what he's gotten in trouble for, it seems that he does understand. Like the attraction sign, he has been told by authority figures to stop but he refused and got into arguments with them. But when his mother told him to stop it, he did, for awhile at least because he started doing again during Fridays After Five. When his spending on his PS3 went out of control, and Bob had to control his spending, Chris would go behind his back to acquire another credit card. So Chris doesn't even listen to his own parents, except for the time he drove to Ohio and they threatened to kick him out if he did something like that again.

Chris's rejection of reality is further proved in the comics, where he takes the main events in his life and puts them in the comic so he can come out as the victor, Mary Lee Walsh and the Jerkops are perfect examples of Chris rejecting reality. Chris has even tried to alter reality, the time he lost that PaRappa the Rapper contest, he created a fake web page declaring himself the winner and that Adam Stackhouse was disqualified and actually posed as someone else, sent the link to Sony thinking he could fool them into giving him the prize he wanted.

Chris understands, but he chooses to reject reality and substitutes his own.

If Chris understood what reality was, wouldn't he believe it isn't possible to contradict it? I think you're overestimating Chris' understanding of the world.

Jimmy Jazz and myself were talking about this the other day, actually. Really, I wish I could remember exactly how Jimmy Jazz put it, because he described it perfectly. Chris' understanding of the world almost works like a preindustrial society. He knows that language is a useful tool to him. He also, mistakenly, believes the world is (or should be) a logical and ordered place. And so he tries to impose his will on the world with his language. And that's where all his crazy voodoo spells come from.

I've been reading the Jackie emails we just dropped and old emails and stuff that hasn't been dropped and it's really reminding me of how frequently he tries to essentially cast spells on the world.

* he'll beat you up in soul calibur
* curse-ye-ha-me-ha - oh, and for curse-ye-ha-me-ha's, he got tiniest bits of evidence supporting that they actually worked and jumped on that theory
* torturing lego-god
* and yes, like you said, making the page listing him as the winner, not Adam Stackhouse
* how he got super mad at trolls saying Billy Mays was the mayor of cwcville. Chris really believed that that was a threat to his cwcville world and that he had to counter it
* he confuses the motivations of trolls saying he's gay. we all know we're just fucking with him, but he believes they're trying to somehow induce homosexuality in him, just by calling him gay.
* maybe drawing himself fisting Megan was an attempt to bring her to him? He did describe it as "wishful thinking" before.

I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples, but I can't think of them right now. Preindustrial societies might have a medicine man to pray for rain. Chris is praying for his enemies to be defeated in a very similar way.

 

[TheRetroReplay]

If Chris understood what reality was, wouldn't he believe it isn't possible to contradict it? I think you're overestimating Chris' understanding of the world.

Jimmy Jazz and myself were talking about this the other day, actually. Really, I wish I could remember exactly how Jimmy Jazz put it, because he described it perfectly. Chris' understanding of the world almost works like a preindustrial society. He knows that language is a useful tool to him. He also, mistakenly, believes the world is (or should be) a logical and ordered place. And so he tries to impose his will on the world with his language. And that's where all his crazy voodoo spells come from.

I've been reading the Jackie emails we just dropped and old emails and stuff that hasn't been dropped and it's really reminding me of how frequently he tries to essentially cast spells on the world.

* he'll beat you up in soul calibur
* curse-ye-ha-me-ha - oh, and for curse-ye-ha-me-ha's, he got tiniest bits of evidence supporting that they actually worked and jumped on that theory
* torturing lego-god
* and yes, like you said, making the page listing him as the winner, not Adam Stackhouse
* how he got super mad at trolls saying Billy Mays was the mayor of cwcville. Chris really believed that that was a threat to his cwcville world and that he had to counter it
* he confuses the motivations of trolls saying he's gay. we all know we're just fucking with him, but he believes they're trying to somehow induce homosexuality in him, just by calling him gay.
* maybe drawing himself fisting Megan was an attempt to bring her to him? He did describe it as "wishful thinking" before.

I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples, but I can't think of them right now. Preindustrial societies might have a medicine man to pray for rain. Chris is praying for his enemies to be defeated in a very similar way.

I'm not overestimating him, I think that Chris understands what reality is, but that doesn't mean he won't try and change it. We all understand how reality works although we do have wishful thinking, things that we think about that would change reality in our favor once in awhile. We know that wishful thinking will only work if we act upon and work to make the wishful thinking a reality as long as we stay grounded in reality and know that its something that is possible to do.

Chris is the same way, he knows how reality works and also has wishful thinking, but he takes it to a very far extreme. He tries to change reality into his favor with his wishful thinking, that's where all his, as you put it, crazy voodoo spells, come from. It's Chris understanding reality, but rejecting it because it doesn't favor him and trying to substitute his own, regardless of how outlandish it is.

A preindustrial society is somewhat similar to how Chris thinks the world works but it's more trial and error and snake oil salesmen. Remember in those days where you'd have the traveling salesman that would sell a cures all what ails you wonder tonic? It didn't work and would probably kill you but that didn't stop people from trying. I think Chris's thinking understanding is more like faith healing, you know it doesn't work but you pray that it does.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Jimmy Jazz and myself were talking about this the other day, actually. Really, I wish I could remember exactly how Jimmy Jazz put it, because he described it perfectly. Chris' understanding of the world almost works like a preindustrial society. He knows that language is a useful tool to him. He also, mistakenly, believes the world is (or should be) a logical and ordered place. And so he tries to impose his will on the world with his language. And that's where all his crazy voodoo spells come from.

To further elaborate, Jimmy and I were saying how Chris is like an indigenous tribal person, but oddly juxtaposed into a 1st world technological society. He has no idea how reality works, so his mind defaults to looking for simple, orderly patterns in a world that is actually arbitrarily chaotic. Part of this pattern-seeking is the assumption that "magic" works - specifically, that he can decide things, and his will alone is (or should be) counted as a factor in how events come to pass. Now, because Chris grew up in a world that is utterly free of trouble or hard work compared to what primitive societies live like, he invents deific entities with entirely different priorities. As Jimmy said, tribal shamans invent patron gods of weather and fertility, and pray for relatively humble things like a good harvest or that the babies born this year don't succumb to disease. Chris has never had to worry about where his next meal is coming from, so he prays to Sonichu or God-chu to deliver him a pretty sweetheart to babysit him.

 

[Aiko Heiwa]

He's mentally a child that desperately wants to be seen as matoor and grown up, but still thinks the world should be handed to him on a silver platter, like it probably was in Borb babied him. I mean, they didn't want to deal with him, so when he whined about wanting that new toy or video game , they probably just bought it for him.

I think he still thinks life is like that, that he should get things that he wants because he wants them and he just doesn't understand that that's not how life works, you have to earn what you want.

 

[CatParty]

i forget which conversation i read it in, but chris doesn't believe in maturity.
and whenever i read in his dating profiles, he's looking for a lady who is "young at heart" i take that as him meaning he's looking for someone who is also still mentally a child.

 

[NobleGreyHorse]

i forget which conversation i read it in, but chris doesn't believe in maturity.
and whenever i read in his dating profiles, he's looking for a lady who is "young at heart" i take that as him meaning he's looking for someone who is also still mentally a child.

Yeah, except when he "gets" that, he hates it! In the 2011 Jackie emails that were just dumped, the Powers that Be have her mimicking his weirdnesses: she has a weakness for expensive chopsticks, and he lectures her about how she should care more about communicating with him! She creates two ponies, and he rejects them as not "canon" to CWCville, despite the old-style pony (with stickers, even) that is seen in the Wedding Comic carrying Chris and Ivy away in their carriage. She tells him she's been "grounded," and he begs her to find some way to work around that -- despite his own 100% dead certainty that if he left the house to go to DC for the fireworks (note: there are numerous parts of the city that are perfectly safe for lily-white tourists of all teenages, despite Barb's "crime rate" paranoia), he would be literally, physically locked out of the house. (And having seen the DC ones, no, Chris, I highly doubt McIntire Park has anything comparable.) Everything resembling his own mentality that Jackie mimicked, Chris firmly rejected.

So my interpretation is the prevailing one: He's looking for someone who is okay with his immaturity, but she can't have any herself or his fantasy of a new caretaker, with bonus sex, is ruined.

 

[Marvin]

I'm not overestimating him, I think that Chris understands what reality is, but that doesn't mean he won't try and change it. We all understand how reality works although we do have wishful thinking, things that we think about that would change reality in our favor once in awhile. We know that wishful thinking will only work if we act upon and work to make the wishful thinking a reality as long as we stay grounded in reality and know that its something that is possible to do.

Chris is the same way, he knows how reality works and also has wishful thinking, but he takes it to a very far extreme. He tries to change reality into his favor with his wishful thinking, that's where all his, as you put it, crazy voodoo spells, come from. It's Chris understanding reality, but rejecting it because it doesn't favor him and trying to substitute his own, regardless of how outlandish it is.

A preindustrial society is somewhat similar to how Chris thinks the world works but it's more trial and error and snake oil salesmen. Remember in those days where you'd have the traveling salesman that would sell a cures all what ails you wonder tonic? It didn't work and would probably kill you but that didn't stop people from trying. I think Chris's thinking understanding is more like faith healing, you know it doesn't work but you pray that it does.

But the whole idea of trying to change reality on the (relatively) huge levels that Chris tries to is contrary to the idea of reality. Some people have lucky charms or attend church and things like that, but in their normal, everyday lives, they still know they have to stick to trusting people like mechanics with their cars and doctors with their bodies and cooks with their food. Essentially, people don't bet the farm on shamanistic beliefs unless they're about to die from cancer or something like that.

Chris constantly relies on his crazy voodoo and believes he has an impact on the world around him. And I wouldn't call that understanding reality.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I'm as much of a "Golden Bough" fan as the next man, but I don't see Chris that way for the most part. Besides the times he actively invokes the supernatural, like his magical prayer amulet of hair regrowth, I don't think he's usually doing folk magic when he denies reality. I see him more as someone who's mentally "stuck" in a game of make-believe, like children sometimes get. I think in his heart of hearts he knows that his spells don't work, but for whatever reason, it's more mentally comfortable to keep engaging the world on a fictional level than to get real.