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Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 23, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Just a particularly annoying version of Main Character Syndrome, right? The most likely outcome for anyone dropped into something like D-Day is that they'll behave approximately like the other people and only be remember in the sense that the performance of the aggregate group was remembered. Main characters though, they're valorous or cowardly or otherwise exceptional in a way that stands out.

When I read the D-day line, I assumed it meant “would catch a bullet” rather than “would freeze on the ramp.” Sort of an acknowledgment that he’s not the main character. “Oh, I’m definitely one of the extras.”

Oh, that would be a fair enough sentiment. I read it as not having the courage to get off the boat rather than, "yeah, I'd wind up being the poor sap that eats a bullet before I can even get to the damned beach". Might have been primed by how the post was written.

Yours was my intended meaning.