How did being "the first" become such an obsession?
"OMG guyz I'm the first black trans midget to fly across the Atlantic, I'm so stunning and brave! Call the media!"
Is this a strange offshoot of sports stats, where they have run out of interesting things to talk about because baseball is fucking stupid and boring, so they invent bizarre stats to talk about? "This is the first time a left handed pitcher named Jose has struck out a right handed batter named Javaunte on a Monday with an average windspeed higher than 5mph."
It's the obsession with records and being remembered combined with the participation trophy mentality. They forget that most of the time, the people we actually remember as "the first" actually did something genuinely impressive, like Neil Armstrong being the first man on the moon. By creating an infinite number of mundane "Firsts" to claim, the value of those records dissolves to sheer inflation.
How did being "the first" become such an obsession?
"OMG guyz I'm the first black trans midget to fly across the Atlantic, I'm so stunning and brave! Call the media!"
Is this a strange offshoot of sports stats, where they have run out of interesting things to talk about because baseball is fucking stupid and boring, so they invent bizarre stats to talk about? "This is the first time a left handed pitcher named Jose has struck out a right handed batter named Javaunte on a Monday with an average windspeed higher than 5mph."
It's the obsession with records and being remembered combined with the participation trophy mentality. They forget that most of the time, the people we actually remember as "the first" actually did something genuinely impressive, like Neil Armstrong being the first man on the moon. By creating an infinite number of mundane "Firsts" to claim, the value of those records dissolves to sheer inflation.
Great point, I hadn't considered the accomplishment inflation factor.
All the important milestone achievements were already done by whites and Asians